El Barrio

Rating: 2

We ate dinner here in April 2024.

Chicken wings
Chipas
Loaded fries
Calamari
Cheese quesdeillas
Corn chips with corn and cheese dip
Ham and cheese empanada
Jalapeno bites
Flan with burnt caramel sauce
Churros with chocolate sauce

If we were just rating service, El Barrio would be a 4. Our waitress was a true delight. Friendly, attentive without being overbearing, alerting us to pertinent cocktail specials, we were big fans. Unfortunately, she was let down by the kitchen. We ordered a sharing platter, which was very hit and miss. The jalapeno bites were good, spicy but not too hot, fresh and flavourful. The flan was well executed, however the ‘burnt caramel’ sauce was more like ‘watered down golden syrup’ which was overpowering in flavour compared to the flan. The calamari was also pretty reasonable - often on a sharing platter you’re in for some chewy squid, but that wasn’t the case here.

The highlight was the churros, which were a true victory. Business Andy is quite the churros fan, despite them regularly proving to be disappointing. El Barrio’s churros were fluffy and light, unlike the chewy offerings usually available. The chocolate sauce was good and plentiful, although the menu also mentioned a caramel sauce which was absent.

Speaking of absent, where were the “marinated green olives” promised in the serving platter. There were a few green mush sauces, perhaps one of these was squished olives, although it didn’t seem like it. The loaded fries and quesedilla were also let downs, and the rest of the offerings were middling. We also tried several of their cocktails. If you’ve got a sweet tooth, try the passionfruit daiquiri.

As a final note, while we didn’t participate, we did enjoy being offered a free salsa dance class at the end of our meal. El Barrio seemed like they genuinely wanted us to have a good time.