Cilantro

About a month ago I met friends for dinner at the west side location. They gave us plantains & chips as a munchie and brought our drinks out promptly. I had the special - a salad with spicy shrimp which had 8 good sized shrimp on it - well worth the $17 I spent on it. Drinks were good too.

flash forward to last night, this time at the 71st & 1st location.
My group received a tiny basket of stale chips, over which half of the salsa was spilled. Our waitress asked for our drink order about 2 minutes after we sat down and when we asked for more time she then proceeded to forget about us for close to 15 minutes. We finally got our drinks and ordered our food, which did come out promptly. I ordered a vegetable fajita which was supposed to have "grilled vegetables" in addition to the vegetables that are already served with it (peppers and onions). When I got it there were literally three 1" slices of zucchini which assume to be the "grilled vegetables". Granted, there were peppers and onions but honestly I can't believe that they'd give me so little else. On top of that, half of the peppers were very green and 'undercooked' and the other half were overcooked - did I get someone's letovers? Or do they think that 'double peppers' count as a medley of vegetables?

On the upside the margarita was knock-you-off-your-seat strong, so by drinking a ton of it I could ignore the meal.

The food (I got the chicken taco's) were burnt chicken chunks. I couldnt' finish it and I love any type of mexican. The basket you get prior to the food of plantano's and chips are the best and the salsa is good.

Margaritas are nothing but sugar water and booze, not much flavor. The mix they use is a little dirty off a old school salad dressing pourer. Who knows what's been in that thing.

This was by far the most disgusting vile dining experience I have ever had. I ordered a chopped salad for lunch and it arrives with a hair right on top - right on top!! no one even noticed it! I send it back as soon as the waiter places it down. The bring me another one (as I decide that i will be mature about it since it was literally right on top perhaps it just had fallen in and hopefully the next one i got would be fine) ... well of course with the second salad i was watching every single bite that entered my mouth - well my third forkful was an insect, legs head and all, a big insect!!! the size of a moth! GROSS!!!!!!!! i call the waiter over to show him and leave and he says "one minute", proceeds to leave my plate there and another man comes over, possibly a manager of sorts and picks up the bugh (which i had flung off my fork on to the table) with his fingers looks at it, picks up my plate with the other hand and without an apology or anything asks me "can i get you something else?"!!!! i got up and left right away - UNREAL!!!

I went there for lunch one day and the place seemed to being doing average business. The black bean soup i ordered ($8 dollar soup) came out looking like raw sewage. not very much taste to it and was unappetizing. The waitress was not friendly and kept playing with her hair at the bar then touching and playing with the straws at the bar while socializing with the bartender. This totally grossed me out. The restaurant seemed like it never had been cleaned and when my soup came out I asked for crackers or bread or something and waitress seemed to be annoyed by this request. When I looked around at everyone else in the restaurant i noticed that they were given the standard chips and salsa like any other mexican restaurant. I ordered 2 sangrias and when I asked the waitress what was in it - she didn't know and also didn't seem at all interested in finding out. All she had to do was ask the bartender. This place was a dissappointment. Like many other places on the Upper East Side, it appeals to the yuppie element with no regard to quality or integrity - just alot of FLUFF!

In a city where people pay 15 bucks for guacamole, it's hard to find quality food that will not cost half of your daily paycheck. Cilantro is a perfect place to meet up with friends. You'll get quality food (the steak fajita's are amazing) and you won't put a hole in your wallet. The drinks are strong but don't bother with the coconut margarita's because you'll usually wind up with clumps of the mix in in your straw (yuck). Check it out.