Barbakoa

Reviews 5

MA

Martyna Tabasso

Ive been to Barbakoa with my family a little over a year ago, so be assured, that I have plenty to compare to. Needless to say, this entire place went downhill so fast. Recently, I came to Barbakoa with some friends and I am extremely disappointed. First of all, The cheese was hard. I was very much craving Queso Fundido, as I remember how delicious and gooey it was the first time around. This time, it was a solid brick with grease and oil on top. Even the spices were flavorless. We couldnt even dip tortilla chips in the queso and actually had to cut the rock hard cheese with a knife to distribute it. Second of all, the server completely disregarded our table and after bringing appetizers (besides not even checking to see if they were satisfactory) forgot to come take our dinner order. Not to mention the fact that considering this was a week night the restaurant was pretty much empty. Just for the drinks we had to wait for 45 minutes. But then after the apps,we sat for a little bit after finishing the apps, waiting for our server. We actually had to have somebody request the server to come take our order(and even bring the bill when we were clearly done with our dinner and restaurant was closing) When dinner came out, it was the same situation, the food was terrible. Somebody at our table actually had tamale and it was much like the queso completely rock hard. Like saw at it with a knife rock hard. The steak entree was Terrible, rubbery, and just tasted completely off. Nobody has anything good to say about the food, or the service. It is disappointing because when I heard we were going to Barbakoa for dinner I was so excited, remembering how much I loved the place before. Needless to say I am disappointed. As a former server (and the table was essentially full of current or former servers), I understand that at times it may get busy or overwhelming and mistakes happen. But completely forgetting about your table on a very slow weeknight, not even asking about the quality of the food. But how can you expect a decent tip from a big table if you dont work to take care of them. Just having a table sat in your section doesnt entitle you to a high tip. We are so disappointed, and I recommend anybody considering this place to look elsewhere.

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Hector Teran

Barbakoa has Salsa dancing on Saturdays. I have been dancing for more than 10 years and I have danced in most of the Chicagoland salsa dance places. Definitely, Barbakoa dance floor yesterday (8/23/14) was the worse I have ever danced. The floor seams fine to dance but it was extremely dirty and sticky. Some dancers were putting powder on it and did not help. Some left because of the dirty greasy floor and others got in but did not dance. My partner and mine expensive leather sole shoes were completely ruined. I know too many dancers (most women) that spent $150 - $200 for dance shoes and bring them in shoe bags to be used on dance floor only. This is a note to Barbakoa manager to clean to floor before Salsa dance and for dancers to be aware of this dirty grease floor to ruin your shoes. I will check it out next Saturday (8/30/14) and will write a note about my finding. Another issue is the expensive alcohol leverages. I paid $12 for cheap vodka with cranberry. My experience tells me that if Barbakoa management do not clean the floor well and lower the alcohol prices, Barbakoa Salsa dance will die soon… Sincerely, Hector ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I returned last night (Sat. 8/30/14) Barbakoa selected a different floor this time. It was cleaned but hard to dance because it is made of small 4” x 4” not smooth tiles. There were no good dancers up to 11 pm. The music was extremely loud and while I was there Edgar only plaid cumbia, merengue and bachata. Not a single salsa up to 11 pm. I did not check on drink prices. I was there from 10:30 to 11. I will not come back to Barbakoa.

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DA

Dan Heinz

Came here a year ago and it was fantastic. I had told friends and coworkers to visit. I came here yesterday and noticed some minor menu changes. I ordered the ceviche to start and it wasnt bad but wasnt great... kind of soupy and very light on the shrimp. I then ordered the asada torta. Steak was was tender but bland. I substituted the side for rice and beans. The beans are fantastic but theyre $5 for a cup sized portion. My brother ordered the barbakoa torta and his pork was very dry and he barely touched the chimichurr fries. He said they were one note and want impressed. The service started great but got.progressively worse throughout the meal. Our waitress either.forgot to enter a side item.or the kitchen forgot.to.prepare it. She didnt come back to the table until we were.more than half way through our entrees. When they brought out the lobster taco we had already finished our entrees. My brother.instantly noticed that the lobster taco wasnt the same as last time. Last year it had large pieces of lobster meat that were fluffy in appearance. This time they were small crumbles of lobster meat that had the appearance.of a light colored crumbled chorizo. He picked off one piece and it was dry and extremely fishy. They need to look in to what changed. Many other reviews commented on a fantastic trip last year and a sub par experience recently. New cooks? New management? Apathy to standards?I wouldnt not recommend until they get it straightened out

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ST

Stuart Conover

So, Ive heard that Barbakoa was good and finally had a chance to stop in. Not sure if it was an off night or what but I was not overly impressed. From having to wait to be seated to a long delay on water being delivered to the table and an even longer delay on our drink order being taken it didnt start off that great. I will give the credit for the restaurant for being busy but it wasnt an all seats full with people out the door kind of busy. After our drink order came in the bar clearly had a line of drinks that they were in the weeds on. No real problem there, aside from the fact that our waitress didnt come back to take our dinner order until after delivering the drinks and even after delivering them we had to say we were ready to order as she was about to walk off and help other guests. Got our orders thankfully it wasnt a horribly long wait for the guac and salsa to come out. Both were good and the food came out soon after. My wife and I were splitting a salad and a couple of tacos. Needless to say the Ahi Tuna provided with the salad seemed a little on the light side. If it had been ordered as a meal for one, it would have been more than underwhelming and was instead just disappointing. The tacos were all great and we had no complaints on flavor but the overall experience was a bit of a let down after the high points we had heard.

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MA

Marco Salvatori

For the money you get mediocre food and service. I ordered the Pibil (a Yucatan-style pork stew) tacos, which were decent but the meat was somewhat dry, and the Pastor (also pork, but Mexico City-style), which were a total letdown. Ive been spoiled by having the real deal of both of these types of tacos in Mexico and there is just no comparison. Also ordered goat cheese-stuffed dates and again, underwhelming. Just not much of a contrast in flavors from the nice looking sauce they serve them with, so you essentially mostly taste the dates. The drinks were also a bit pricey and just not that "premium". I ordered a margarita (they only serve them on the rocks) and it was so so. Ive had much better at Adobo Grill. The service was okay initially, but then when the server came to ask how the pastor tacos were and I hinted that they werent all that good, he just kinda shrugged and walked away. That annoyed me a bit because if youre not going to try to make things better then why bother asking? Overall this is an okay place with a good atmosphere and decor, but the experience suffers somewhat from high prices and mediocre food and service, and I dont really see myself going out of my way to visit again. Id like to see them try harder first.

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