Last night, I finally got to catch up with some old friends. We couldn’t put our finger on who, but someone decided we should go to the Border Grill in downtown L.A. Another someone also touted this place as having some of the “best Mexican food!” I should have known, when that statement was thrown out it wouldn’t even come close.

The night started off fairly well, we were seated quickly and given menus to mull over. However, it all went downhill from there. The server took about 10 minutes just to come over, introduce herself and ask if we wanted something to drink. She took our drink order and then proceeded to ask if we were ready to order. We asked for a couple minutes and somehow that translated into 20 minutes. Finally, we place our order and, I can’t be sure but, it took about a million years to come out. Once it did, the server looked confused as to why he was carrying 4 plates and there were only 3 of us.

I ordered the Carnitas plate on a bed of buttery corn grits and black bean sauce. Can’t remember what that shredded red stuff on top was but it was pretty yummy. The whole thing was yummy, down to the guacamole and pico de gallo. But this is L.A. and I’m Mexican, so I’ve definitely had better.

The whole time I couldn’t help but get more and more upset over how small the serving was. Was it enough to satisfy me? Yes. Was it worth $21.50? Hell no. For that price I could’ve purchased as bag of carnitas from the local grocery store (already cooked) and eaten carnitas for about two weeks, easily. The presentation was beautiful but I was hoping I would have at least had leftovers to nom on at work today.

Let’s just say I won’t be visiting this place again. Our server kept disappearing for 30 minutes at a time. At one point she dropped off the check, which had errors on it that I found immediately. Only it took her 20-25 minutes just to come back and ask if we were done. I would understand if it had been a really busy night but it wasn’t. Not even close. I won’t get into how many times she had to come back with questions because splitting the check was apparently too tall a task for her. Horrible, horrible experience.