Robin Garr Says Don't 'Go Hatin'' on El Camino

A colloquy between "Your Humble Critic" and "The Bar Belle" allows Robin Garr to use "yo," "peeps," "cred" and other words that should be forbidden for white Baby Boomers as he works his way through El Camino's menu for LEO Weekly. Seems "The Bar Belle" thinks El Camino is "too expensive," an opinion Garr both disagrees with and decides to devote column inches to. After "Harrumph"-ing his way through a few more paragraphs (Robin Garr is very, very street), he gets back to his old ways.

Garr notes the connections between The Silver Dollar and El Camino, saying "Chef Jonathan Schwartz brings another genre of blue-collar Anglo-Chicano fare here, this one loosely focused on the Surf Coast somewhere from Santa Cruz to Ensenada" and "El Camino certainly boasts a trendy noisy atmosphere, but it's decibels short of Silver Dollar's Bakersfield blast."

After a burst from his inner surfer dude ("Banzai pipe, yes!"), Garr gets down to the food. "Main courses (Estrellas) are upscale but worth it, from $17 (for mushroom enchiladas suizas) to $30 (for soft-shell crab). The rest of the menu comes at prices even a thrifty Bar Belle could embrace. Appetizers, soups and salads are mostly $5 to $10. Cal-Mex tacos on hand-made corn tortillas are $3 or $4, and hefty torta sandwiches on house-baked telera rolls are $8 to $12." [LEO Weekly]

"Dawn and Steve" ("who lived in Houston for some 20 years before returning to Louisville") may not know The Nickel or Mo City, but Marty Rosen believes they know Tex-Mex, saying they "sum the place up pretty well": "Hay!! Chi-Wa Waa is for real," they wrote in an email he included in his review. Rosen declares that salsa "served warm" and the menu's lack of the word "combo" gives Hay!! Chi-wa Waa some (as Robin Garr would say) serious street cred: "Those platters...include choices like the cowboy (enchilada, tamale, taco, guacamole, $10.75), flautas (deep-fried tortillas stuffed with beef or chicken, plus sides, $8.99), and one of the best quesadillas I've ever tasted: filled with assorted grilled vegetables and a vivid tangle of pine-green fresh spinach, plus a judicious touch of melted cheese..." [Metromix]
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