Q: You are given a review about a place. You need to provide a rating from "1 star" to "5 stars" for this place.
Now open Saturday. They cater too. Arizona home-style Mexican food. I know, not like YOUR Momma's home style.

I too came in on a Wednesday lunch, about 12:45, with barely an empty table to be found. Charming Andrea mentioned it was slow. It didn't seem slow to me. KVIB 95.1 Latino Vibe spun its English and Spanish world-ish kind of music over the air, and the Women's World Cup soccer game was on the TV.

By the time I finished my green burrito combination, the attractive, clean and neat La Paloma was nearly empty. That's fine. I insist on packing and using a digital camera instead of phone or blackberry. Some people get very nervous around cameras. Others jump in front to smile and wave. I don't want to make people any more nervous than already happens. That's why the pics show a nearly empty restaurant.

My words for the food is "home cooked." The beans are just about like the first home-cooked refried beans I ate at Luis' grandparents, the rice home style rice. My $6 green beef burrito would put the fear of the Cow God into any bovine finding out that much of them was going to be cooked in verde sauce and rolled into a giant flour tortilla. The meat pretty tender, sauce mild. I can't roll my eyes, smile broadly and exclaim loudly how great it was. It was just fine.

You fetch your own chips at La Paloma. Next to them are hot and mild salsas and mostly-onion plus tomato and cilantro pico de gallo. Both salsas had lots of oregano. That's just fine, because some kinds of oregano are a natural anti-bacterial. The also both had red chile and some tomato sauce. I'm thinking the heat in the hot sauce is jalapeno. Hot is on the left, pico in the middle.

A different feature is the horchata and jamaica fountain - drink all you want for 30 cents more than soft drinks and ice tea. My family likes horchata so I think that's a pretty good deal. Jamica and horchata will be sugar loaded at La Paloma. There is a full range of the usual (Coca Cola ?) sugar loaded and diet soft drinks too.

The "Everybody's" restroom was also clean and neat, but some guy didn't put up the seat. Eeew. We never lift it up or leave it down at the right times guys. If you had scars like mine, you'd know when those times are. Otherwise, neat clean, lots of scented soft soap, paper towels and other products.

As mentioned, parking is limited in front, the rear lot's football field size, and has parking. La Paloma has a rear entrance.

My main problem after lunch was staying awake. Would I convince my running mates to eat lunch at La Paloma, spend about $7.00 for lunch and mingle with the St. Joe's lunch crowd? Yes.
A:
4 stars