Because
of the Restaurant Impossible show we made a point of visiting Poco's yesterday.
It’s just a couple of miles from Bartle
Hall, this year’s location of the Heart of America Dog Shows. In an area filled with crowded Mexican
restaurants, Poco's parking lot was empty. Not a good sign at 4:30 in the afternoon, the
restaurants that we passed to get there were already filling up with early
diners and after work, basketball, and dog show diners. The inside is filled with signs about 'Top 12
in 12' and all of the good reviews, that I am sure came shortly after Mr.
Irvine re-made the restaurant.
Yesterday
was an extreme disappointment. I called
for directions from Bartle Hall, a major Kansas City landmark, telling her that
we would be coming from the North on Broadway.
If I had not had a pretty good idea where it was, I wouldn’t have found
it. On the way home, I realized that she
had given me directions from another street about a mile farther east.
Our visit
started with no greeting by the only visible person in the restaurant, a tall
slender woman, dressed in black, with long straight black hair. We were not sure if we were supposed to wait
to be seated, since no one came to the hostess stand when we arrived and waited
for a couple of minutes, so our party of 4 sat at a table in the center of the
dining area.
The woman
in black plunked the water glasses down, at which time I asked if they had Coke
or Pepsi. She replied "Coke' then
walked away. That was her clue to take
the drink orders, as there were only two other people in the restaurant and
they were leaving. She headed for the
bar/counter and poured a Coke from the fountain. My husband thought, that maybe she thought I
ordered a Coke. About that time, she
started to drink the beverage and waited 3 to 4 minutes before coming back for
drink orders. In the subsequent 8 minutes that it took for her to bring the
soft drinks, we had made our meal decisions. Two in our party ordered their
Grande Burrito, one chicken and one ground beef. The other two orders were one
Lamb Shank dinner, and one Pork Tenderloin with Cherry Sauce (ordered sauce on
the side). After the woman ordered the
chicken burrito, the waitress commented on "how big it is, you won't be
able to eat it all” so we expected to see something that covered the plate (it
didn't). I went to the ladies room to
wash up before our meal was served and the floor was horribly sticky. Before and during our meal the waitress
returned to behind the counter and took chips from the baskets on the
pass-through from the kitchen, dipped them into jars on the counter and ate. Not once washing her hands, and was there
double-dipping going on? Who knows? So I guess I am glad that there were no
complimentary chips and salsa offered. But in an area
surrounded by dozens and dozens of Mexican restaurants, charging for chips,
REALLY? Three of the four meals were finally delivered
to the table. Are there no trays, so
that they can serve an entire party at once? It was only 4 dishes.
As our companions cut into their NOT SO GRAND
burritos, the waitress came over, swapped their plates, telling our female
companion "I think I gave him your Chicken" AFTER THEY CUT INTO THEM!!! The burritos had a
little sauce on top of them, which had already started to dry out. The Lamb Shank dinner was good, the corn
(canned) mixed with the black beans (also canned) wasn't bad. The presentation was terrible, a lamb shank
stuck on top of a plate of beans and pork.
The pork loin came sliced into medallions, and was the best presentation
of all, but since I had ordered their cherry sauce on the side, it didn't come
until they brought the last dinner out. The
broth that the pork was cooked in was good since the cherry sauce was so sweet
it was almost inedible, but there was only about 1 tablespoon of the broth, so
the first couple of pieces were good, and the rest was dry, and I gave it to
another member of the party who like the cherry sauce, and ate the rest of my
meal. I would have eaten more if they
had even drizzled a bit more of the cooking juices over it. Back to the burritos: The chicken one was so
dry, you could see the 'dryness' from the other end of the table, and had no
flavor. That comment came from a woman
who thinks that Pace Mild Picante is too hot. The ground beef was so greasy it just ran all
over the plate, but again, very little flavor. The gentleman with the ground
beef burrito asked for hot sauce, 'the hottest you have.' The waitress brought out about 2 tablespoons
of their not-so-hot hot sauce. He
spooned it over the burrito hoping for some moisture, other than grease, and
some flavor. The waitress did not offer
dessert until we asked about it, but she did make a comment that we must have
like the food since the burritos were gone. No we didn’t really like the food, but we had
one really hungry person with us that just needed to be filled up, so he
finished off his meals and two others. Did he enjoy it, no, was he full, yes,
and that was his goal. After being told
that 3 of the 6 items offered for dessert (at $6 each - even flan which is
typically $2.50 to $3 at KC metro area Mexican restaurants) were no longer
being served, we took her suggestion for the Margarita cake. Which is not at all what one might think. It is chocolate cake covered with a layer of
flan, made in a bundt pan. Perhaps
another name or a description on the menu might have been helpful. It also came in vanilla but the waitress told
us that it wasn't very good. The poorly
named Margarita Cake was very good. This
restaurant, on the west side of Kansas City, is surrounded by many restaurants.
Ones that I now know are much better. As we were driving out, all of them were
packed, and only one person was driving into Poco's lot, and I think they
worked there.
I cannot
recommend this restaurant for food or service, and we won't even go into the
'refrigerator repairman mode" of the waitresses black pants every time she
bent over.
OK, I do
have to go back to her snacking, then putting the straws in our glasses, and
when I asked for another, she brought it out in her bare hand, and laid it on
the table. POCO'S on the Boulevard -
DIDN'T LIKE IT, WON'T GO BACK.
Goes to
show that Robert Irvine can do wonders with remodeling, and knowing what needs
to be done, but once he leaves it takes a strong team to stick with his sound
advice.
Read more
at:
http://blog.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/2012/11/restaurant-revisited-pocos-on-the-boulevard/#idc-cover?oc=linkback
