Have you ever been to a tortilla factory in Mexico? I have. It's an experience I believe everyone should do at least once in their life. When you enter a real Mexican tortilla factory you will smell the baking of fresh dough immediately. You will feel the immense heat from the tortilla machine as it cranks out fresh, hot tortillas on a conveyor belt. Your ears will be ringing from the loud noises from the machine and from the factory workers as they work feverishly to make hundreds of pounds of tortillas to sell to tourists, locals, and near by restaurants. Tasting a tortilla straight off the conveyor belt will make your mouth water from it's pure, unique flavor. Now that is authentic.
Rosa's Cafe: Tortilla Factory... Well... Isn't. Rosa's gives real tortilla factories a bad name and brings shame to real authentic tortillas everywhere.
How do I know this? I had the unfortunate pleasure of eating there.
I walk in to Rosa's and I was saddened because I was not overtaken with a multi-sensory overload of aromas or dramatic visuals of a tortilla machine about the size of a F-450 cranking out tortillas like there was no tomorrow with several factory workers mixing dough and packing tortillas while yelling at each other over the loud, mechanical noises.
Instead, I hear Folkloric acoustic music and I am blinded by the brightly lit menus surrounding the main entry way. Each menu highlighted different specials. Above the counter were five gigantic menus where you could order your food by number. Five menus! That's a lot of food.
Underneath one of the five menus was the restaurant's slogan. The slogan at Rosa's Cafe is "Authentic is our special ingredient." Leave it up to The American Beaner to see if the slogan is true. Well amigos... The slogan is false. Completely and utterly false. It is more false than George Washington's false teeth.
The appetizers I dared to try were the Combination Nachos and queso, which are pictured below. I did not alter the photo in any way.
Rosa's Cafe: Tortilla Factory... Well... Isn't. Rosa's gives real tortilla factories a bad name and brings shame to real authentic tortillas everywhere.
How do I know this? I had the unfortunate pleasure of eating there.
I walk in to Rosa's and I was saddened because I was not overtaken with a multi-sensory overload of aromas or dramatic visuals of a tortilla machine about the size of a F-450 cranking out tortillas like there was no tomorrow with several factory workers mixing dough and packing tortillas while yelling at each other over the loud, mechanical noises.
Instead, I hear Folkloric acoustic music and I am blinded by the brightly lit menus surrounding the main entry way. Each menu highlighted different specials. Above the counter were five gigantic menus where you could order your food by number. Five menus! That's a lot of food.
Underneath one of the five menus was the restaurant's slogan. The slogan at Rosa's Cafe is "Authentic is our special ingredient." Leave it up to The American Beaner to see if the slogan is true. Well amigos... The slogan is false. Completely and utterly false. It is more false than George Washington's false teeth.
The appetizers I dared to try were the Combination Nachos and queso, which are pictured below. I did not alter the photo in any way.
That's it. That's the food. Orange goop, commercial style tortilla chips with diced tomatoes, refried beans, and sour cream just thrown on top. Sure the jalapenos were fresh, but nothing else was. The salsa verde lacked kick and savoriness. All in all... We can sum up the appetizers with a groan.
For my main dish, I ordered the Tacos Carbon Plate with beef fajitas. It came with two fajita tacos with avocado wrapped in flour tortillas. The sides on the plate were Mexican rice and refried beans. Rosa's picture of this plate is below.
For my main dish, I ordered the Tacos Carbon Plate with beef fajitas. It came with two fajita tacos with avocado wrapped in flour tortillas. The sides on the plate were Mexican rice and refried beans. Rosa's picture of this plate is below.
My picture of how this dish actually looks...
The only alteration I did to this dish was unwrapping the tacos from the aluminum foil they were wrapped in. Hey! Rosa's! Wrapping tacos in foil is NOT AUTHENTIC! I did not order a massive burrito. I ordered a taco!
I could not stomach the refried beans. They had an overpowering lard taste and were too gooey. Plus the chips they threw on them to try to create some some of artistic plate presentation were stale. Every chef should know when something is on a plate for the sake of presentation, the consumer will automatically assume it is edible; therefore, anything placed on a plate must be edible and delectable.The chips on this dish were edible, not delectable.
The Mexican rice did not have much flavor to it. It was sad. I could not even describe it to since it lacked so much. I can say one thing about it: It had tomatoes.
Notice the lettuce and diced tomatoes on the left? Yeah. Pretend you didn't see them.
The tacos are the main focus simply because of the tortillas they are wrapped in so we will save the tortilla critique for last.
The fajitas were a little chewy and had a hint of mesquite. As for the marinade, it needed more. So I made my way over to the salsa bar, loaded up on a variety of salsas and added them all to each taco to at least give it some flavor because the avocado wasn't sealing the deal.
Rosa's prides themselves on their tortillas. According to their website, this is what they have have to say about them:
I could not stomach the refried beans. They had an overpowering lard taste and were too gooey. Plus the chips they threw on them to try to create some some of artistic plate presentation were stale. Every chef should know when something is on a plate for the sake of presentation, the consumer will automatically assume it is edible; therefore, anything placed on a plate must be edible and delectable.The chips on this dish were edible, not delectable.
The Mexican rice did not have much flavor to it. It was sad. I could not even describe it to since it lacked so much. I can say one thing about it: It had tomatoes.
Notice the lettuce and diced tomatoes on the left? Yeah. Pretend you didn't see them.
The tacos are the main focus simply because of the tortillas they are wrapped in so we will save the tortilla critique for last.
The fajitas were a little chewy and had a hint of mesquite. As for the marinade, it needed more. So I made my way over to the salsa bar, loaded up on a variety of salsas and added them all to each taco to at least give it some flavor because the avocado wasn't sealing the deal.
Rosa's prides themselves on their tortillas. According to their website, this is what they have have to say about them:
"Customers love our flour tortillas! Mixed, rolled and dropped fresh before your eyes throughout the day, painstaking efforts are taken to ensure that every tortilla is flavorful, fluffy, warm, and perfectly baked before it hits your plate. Evidently, the quality is creating a stir. Company wide, we produce about 9,800 dozen tortillas per day. Now, that's a factory my friends!"
First off, they need to check their grammar before publishing that on the Internet.
Secondly, they say the "quality is creating a stir". Finally! Some truth! The tortillas did cause a stir... In my stomach!
Híjole. Good grief, man! The tortillas were still doughy and had a texture similar to play-dough.
If you look closely at my picture of the tortillas, you can tell how soggy they were. Not fluffy. Soggy.
The description for their tortillas should read...
"Customers hate our flour tortillas! Mixed, rolled, and dropped like we just don't care right before your eyes. We do not put any efforts to ensure every tortilla is flavorful. Instead, every tortilla is doughy, warm because we wrap them in aluminum foil where it becomes soggy before it hits your plate. Evidently, the lack of quality is creating a stir. Company wide, we sadly produce about 9,800 depressing tortillas per day. This is not a factory. In fact, this is far from it."
The tortillas from Rosa's Cafe are an insult to me, to my abuelita, and to the Mexican tortilla factory workers back in Mexico.
I had better tortillas at Kroger! Cold and straight out of the package!
Rosa's Cafe = No es bueno!
This place fails on authenticity and fails on tortillas.
The lesson for Rosa's is this:
If "authentic" is your special ingredient, learn what "authentic" really is before you bring shame to true authenticity.
Secondly, they say the "quality is creating a stir". Finally! Some truth! The tortillas did cause a stir... In my stomach!
Híjole. Good grief, man! The tortillas were still doughy and had a texture similar to play-dough.
If you look closely at my picture of the tortillas, you can tell how soggy they were. Not fluffy. Soggy.
The description for their tortillas should read...
"Customers hate our flour tortillas! Mixed, rolled, and dropped like we just don't care right before your eyes. We do not put any efforts to ensure every tortilla is flavorful. Instead, every tortilla is doughy, warm because we wrap them in aluminum foil where it becomes soggy before it hits your plate. Evidently, the lack of quality is creating a stir. Company wide, we sadly produce about 9,800 depressing tortillas per day. This is not a factory. In fact, this is far from it."
The tortillas from Rosa's Cafe are an insult to me, to my abuelita, and to the Mexican tortilla factory workers back in Mexico.
I had better tortillas at Kroger! Cold and straight out of the package!
Rosa's Cafe = No es bueno!
This place fails on authenticity and fails on tortillas.
The lesson for Rosa's is this:
If "authentic" is your special ingredient, learn what "authentic" really is before you bring shame to true authenticity.
