Was my 1st time at Carlos O'Brien's, it was a friends 40th birthday dinner and this is her favorite place to go. I went with high expectations because she has told me over and over the past few years how good this place is. I arrived couple minutes after everyone was there and saw that the party (there was about 25 of us) was broken sort of into you, half the party down one side and other wrapped around the middle and the birthday girl was kind of not at either tables, just in the middle of the 2, which made it difficult for conversations to flow, you could talk to your half of the table, but if you want to talk with those on the other side of the restaurant, get up and walk over their then, needless to say, I stayed where I was at and talked amongst my fellow friends on my side, kept giving the bday girl a shout out and drinks to let her know we are here to party! Let's start with the salsa, their where 2 types, a pico de gallo and a hotter blend, which reminded me more of a smoky chipotle sauce. Well the pico looked great, but had absolutely no flavor, no pepper ,no onion, no tomato flavor, not even the cilantro, which is my favorite ingredient to cook with, had flavor, even if you added salt and pepper to it, it didn't help. The hotter of the two did have a nice smoky chipotle taste to it, so that was the one I went with it. I went with the filet of Salmon with mango salsa with Spanish rice and black beans. The fish was perfectly cooked, and even though the top of the fish appeared to have some sort of rub on it, it too was lacking in flavor, I tossed on the mango salsa to see if that would help and sadly it did not, no flavor at all. I topped it with the smoky chipotle to give some sort of flavor and appearance that I'm not eating mush. The rice and beans were perfectly cooked, no issues there. Had this dish had flavor to it, it would have been amazing, but nope it did not. Now like I said we were spilt into 2 along one sided booth table things from one end of the room to the other, and there was apx 25 if not more of us. But by the time my end of the table had gotten their food, the other half was already paying and leaving. It was not because I was late; I got their in time for orders to be taken. This was poor planning on the server's behalf, half the party had ready left by the time we got our bills. I was bummed because I was wanting to catch up with a friend I hadn't seen in a while and poof she was gone . I wanted to like this place, but I'm afraid I am a onetime diner here.
Was this review given positively or negatively?
negative