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Mexican hacienda-style chain serves up Tex-Mex with Mex-Mex accent..
In Short
Yellow stuccoed walls, iron-gated archways and Mexican pottery conspire to make diners feel transported to old Mexico. Although the menu is primarily standard Tex-Mex fare
(enchiladas, flautas, etc.) a few surprise entrees differentiate it from comparable menus. The Pollo Cristina is a tender chicken breast lightly smothered in a creamy poblano sauce. Queso flameado is a spicy, festive appetizer served tableside. For dessert, order the sugary sopapillas, honey-drenched fried dough.
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More Hits than Misses - Beware the Fajitas!.
We have been here many times. Usually the food is good & the service friendly. However, a recent visit proved the opposite. First, although the service is usually attentive & friendly, I?ve noticed
on previous visits that it tends to suffer somewhat when busy. This is to some extent understandable, but a good wait staff will support each other. This time, our waiter was not attentive & was downright surly. He walked around with a frown, & usually frowned most when attending a table. I?ll give him the benefit of the doubt, & assume he had a bad headache, because although as I said the service suffers when busy, I?ve never had one of the wait staff be unfriendly. He must have just felt bad.
Now the food. Usually very good, the enchiladas are almost always great. Once before, the food didn't taste bad, it just didn't taste "fresh". No worries, as any restaurant can have an off day.
I am currently trying to eat low-carb, so on this visit I had the Fajitas (no tortillas). They were absolutely Gah-Awful. Since there are very few things one can eat here that are low-carb, I choked them down anyway which was a mistake. To be clear, I LOVE Fajitas & frequently get them other places without the tortillas. Fajitas & Beef Enchiladas are my two favorites. But these were terrible, had a "funky" flavor that I could not determine the origin of. My wife had the Fajita Nachos, & oddly enough the meat on those tasted just fine. Possibly mine was a spoiled piece of meat? I don't know. But I'll never order them again at Cristina's. BTW, this was the first time I had the Fajitas there because usually their enchiladas are so good I get those instead.
To their credit, the manager at Cristina's took off not only the cost of my Fajitas, but my wife's nachos as well, leaving us to only pay for our two kids. This insures that we will be back. I just won't be ordering the Fajitas again.
Everyone should give them a try as the food is generally great. And the margaritas are heavenly.…
