by Steven Doyle
Ricardo Avila is calling it quits at his wonderful restaurant on lowest Greenville Avenue. The man has endured plenty from the city with construction and other nuisances abound. Businesses around him folded all Summer long while Ricardo kept the home fires burning.
He sent word this morning that he would shutter his Mexican restaurant which was famous at craveDFW for his bacon happy hours each Thursday evening. We will certainly miss that along with many of his fine dishes including his tamales that made it to the Food Network.
Ricardo passes on his regards and says that he will be back soon with a collaborative effort. We will enjoy whatever this soft-spoken and talented man has to offer.
The very worst dining experience I’ve ever experienced happened there. I think out of a table of 8, there was one order that wasn’t messed up. There were missing dishes, wrong dishes, cooking screw ups (big hunks of bone, raw meat, you name it), and to top it all off, there was a mistake on nearly everyone’s bill. Plus, the service was horrendously slow. All in all, there really wasn’t a single aspect of the meal done correctly.
The other patrons there at the same time had just a bad an experience. Two people were on a date at a nearby table. The waiter only gave them one of the two entrees they ordered, then ignored them, taking forever to notice that the one with no food had been trying for 10 minutes to get his attention. She ordered again and waited. After another 10 minutes of waiting she gave the go-ahead for her date to start eating. He was done before her dish came out. When it did, the order was wrong. They sent it back, said forget it, and the guy took his girlfriend down the street to get a quick bite somewhere else. I didn’t blame him for not giving the place a third try to get his date’s order right.
Later, we had drinks next door and we talked to every patron that came out of the place. Each had a story worse than the previous.
Given how crucial word of mouth is in the restaurant game, even if nights like that were uncommon, that’ll kill your business.
I can’t say I’m sorry to see the place go.
So sad!
Ricardo does a great job and I love their food. He’s a real class act….working the front of the house and greeting the customers like they’re old friends. Regarding the food, there is something so special about the type of creative Mexican cusine he does (including the TM standards in addition to the finest posole stew and mole sauce in Dallas).
Our neighborhood is losing a real gem of a place.
I can’t wait to see what his next move will be. Looking forward to it…..
JB
I’m not.
I think Ricardo needs to work on his bad Karma and reavaluate what got him to this point? No?
Passive aggressive much?