Last Night's Dinner: Maria's, I mean Press 195

You've probably caught on by now that we don't cook much at home. Occasionally, I'll try to make something on the weekend where there will be enough leftovers for Listmaker's lunch for a couple days. Last night I planned on picking up Mexican from Maria's on the way home from work. Most of the Mexican places in our neighborhood serve what I refer to as Mall Mexican. You know, lots of shredded lettuce and bad refried beans from a can. Maria's is actually really good, but when they are on top of their game. Unfortunately the service is most always sloppy and the food sometimes is lazy. When I got to Maria's, I said hi to no less than 4 people who worked there. All but 1 ignored me and walked practically through me. Finally after what seemed like 10 minutes, the one woman who acknowledged my presence came over and I let her know I was picking up an order. Only then does the sour owner of the place who was serving as bartender pipe in with "take out is running 30 minutes." Oh. Thanks for letting me know after only standing around for ten. I reach for my phone and there are two messages from the husband letting me know what I had just found out at the restaurant and that he had ordered instead from Press 195 up the block.

It's a shame Maria's has to suck more often then not. When on, their plaintains are the best in the area, but it's always a crapshoot. There could be no one else in the restaurant and your food is still going to take nearly an hour to be served. What is up with this place? And now they've expanded and the atmosphere is frantic. There are a handful of people at Maria's who are pleasant, sure, but overall, this place needs to get its act together.

So yeah, we got take out from Press, a pressed sandwich shop, and it was an off night for them too. The normally tasty #9 (homemade roast pork, jack cheese, pickled jalapenos, cilantro, onions and roasted garlic spread) didn't do it for me. The pork was dried out and assembly of rest of the fillings was uneven. We also got a citrus chicken salad (mixed greens with grilled lemon chicken, goat cheese, fresh orange supremes, caramelized walnuts, cranberry citrus dressing). Again, the meat was super dried out. We decided that it would be a great salad, if it was just a Citrus salad, no chicken.