So I thought I had a great idea today. The Dodo, a restaurant the GPaK — pre-blog days — has visited a few times, seemed like a great spot to kick off the next 20 reviews. We departed the News building and utilized TRAX to get to The Gateway. I was looking forward to raving about the turkey sandwich The Dodo serves. Upon exiting at our TRAX stop, the excitement turned to disappointment as the building once occupied by The Dodo sat empty. So while trying to pay a visit to an extinct bird, we learned the restaurant, too, (at least this location) was flightless.
And while second choices often work out for the better, I'm not certain that this second choice conquered what would have been a great meal.
With several choices at our disposal, we opted for a knock-off of the previously reviewed Cafe Rio called Costa Vida. Upon entering, it was noted by GPaK that Costa Vida seemed to inherit the line that one expects at Cafe Rio. That said, the wait was fairly short and we made it to the front of the line within 5 minutes.
I opted for the sweet pork burrito for $6.49 and, as usual, I elected to skip the "smothered" option that every burrito maker loves to talk you into. I sense that it's almost a shock to their system when I tell them no, but this guy went with my answer and sent the burrito through the conveyor belt for a little extra heat. The burrito burst at the seams while taking on a few degrees of temperature, and to their credit Costa Vida was not happy with what happened to the burrito during its short life. They happily constructed me a new one, and the end result probably tasted the same but made for a better photograph (see above).
The burrito itself was a solid meal. The pork was sweet and full of flavor, but I felt the tortilla was a little on the dry side. I always opt to go without the smothered option because I feel the extra sauce and cheese overpowers the true flavor of the pork. This may be the only time I ever say this, but this was the one time where enchilada style might have been better. The tortilla just lacked enough moisture to let me enjoy the flavorful meat. It wasn't bad, just a little off and left me wishing for the manned-up version of this bad boy.
In typical SuperScrunch fashion, I opted for water to chase my meal. It was in a word, watery, and I went with a refill for our walk back to the TRAX station.
For a mid-October day, it was about as nice as one could imagine, so we opted for outdoor dining. I'm guessing my counterparts will expand upon what turned into a little cooker.
Man-up possibilities: 9
Food quality: 7
Service: 8 (friendly enough, and they remade my burrito)
Fizz-o-meter of Coke: 8 (via GPaK)
Water: watery
Overall: 7.5 (this went down an extra notch for a lack of post-meal mints — a favorite of some members of the Crew)
Quotes of the day...
"You could just log in as Ron Jeremy, and they're not going to know."
"You get to come down here to the mall and watch women in tall boots walk by."
"Is that like codpiece?"
"Greg, will you lean about 2 feet higher?"
"My head is boiling."
"Could you get me a parasol when you're in there?"
"Someone could interrogate me right now and they'd get pretty far."
"Do you want me to develop Mormonrank?"
"I think the child's body would cushion the blow."
A new feature this week is SuperScrunch's word of the week. This feature came about because I often found myself asking my elder statesmen (I am the youngest of the bunch) to define their 40-year-old vocabulary (I'm a mere 33 years old in one week). Today's word is:
Pejorative (pi-jawr-uh-tiv)
–adjective
–noun | 1. | having a disparaging, derogatory, or belittling effect or force: the pejorative affix -ling in princeling. |
| 2. | a pejorative form or word, as poetaster. |
The most important thing to know about today’s visit to Costa Vida is this: Brady is a one-man quote-making machine. Seriously. When you read the quotes from today’s lunch, you should know that the vast majority came from Brady. And all of the funniest ones certainly did. The man is hilarious.
ReplyDeleteThe second thing you should know is that it was a beautiful fall day. Until we sat down at a table right next to the building, and the heat started reflecting back at us. Then it was hot. Stinkin’ hot. My ever-growing bald spot took a bit of a burn, I’m afraid, and I really don’t know how Brady survived the meal without sunglasses. Had I been shades-less, I think my eyeballs would have been burned out of their sockets. As we commented on the way back, Brady and I are both pro-shade and anti-head boiling. I’m solid on that stand.
But I guess I should say something about the food, too, right? This place is pretty much exactly like Café Rio. In fact, I suggested to Brady that they should rename it Café de Janeiro. I went with the sweet pork burrito, just like I would have ordered at Rio. But I did NOT man up, as Scrunch suggested last time we went to Rio that I try the burrito without going enchilada style. Despite his comments today about his dry tortilla (not a euphemism, I think), I believe he may have converted me to the non-smothered cause. I did taste the meat better than I usually do in the Rio version of this, and it was quite good. The ingredients all seemed fresh, and the meal was good.
So, which is better, Rio or de Janeiro? I still lean toward Rio. I just like the atmosphere a little better, and I think the food is slightly superior. But I don’t dislike de Janeiro at all.
And Scrunch, you once again proved that you should always tell me what to order at restaurants. Your advice to go without the smothering was a good one, and I plan to “man down” again the next time we visit Rio.
(Finally, I should note that I bought a 55-inch TV last night, so no matter what I ate at lunch today, I AM A MAN!)
Man-up possibilities: 9
Food quality: 7.5
Service: 7.5
Fizz-o-meter of Coke: 8
Overall: 8
P.S. Check out the counter! We're over 1,000 hits!
ReplyDeleteI was actually okay with not going to the Dodo. That is the establishment, after all, that stole my knit cap this past winter. I will never forgive them. Ever.
ReplyDeleteI've been semi-regular patron of Costa Vida for a few years and yes, the similarity of the place to Cafe Rio borders on a Twilight Zone-ish level of freakiness. But that's fine, because I like Cafe Rio and all of its identical brethren. One can certainly appreciate the fact that "de Janeiro" undercuts its big brother by about a buck across the board. My lunch, including drink, came to $6.99.
Still not fully recovered from my pig-tail episode of a week ago, I decided to take it easy and order a single shredded beef enchilada with rice, black beans, lettuce and pico de gallo. The meal came close to being delicious, though I agree with Greg that Rio is still a bit superior.
With Wingnut using a banked comp day — which he will later write off and re-bank — the pressure was on to come up with some amusing, yet family-friendly quotes for the blog and I feel like I delivered. It's important to remember to take one GPak Friday Lunch at a time and not look forward to the bigger blog matchups against top quality opposition like the Fan Club and the burgeoning, but as-yet-unnamed rival women's lunch group.
Don't worry, though. Chuckles will return soon enough with his special brand of bawdy humor and excellent photography skills.
By the way, be sure check out the new Jonny Rahl Opt Counter. He opted at least five times in his review. Well done!
Man-up possibilities: 9
Food quality: 7.5
Service: 8
Overall: 7.5
Boys - wished I could have been there with you. But Moab rocked with warm weather, good food and four-year-old fun!
ReplyDeleteI like the new "word of the week" too!
See you this Friday
cw
costa vida? costa sucksa.
ReplyDeletei know, don't hold back. i won't. i went there once at their gateway location because we had some time to kill before a movie and thought: "we like cafe rio, this looks a lot like café rio, so why not?"
because they suck. that's why not.
i ordered fish tacos, they pulled them straight from the freezer, plopped them in the lard in front of me, it took 10 minutes to prepare them and they were still cold. now that is a feat. plus, they were tiny.
heidi's salad was not at all like cafe rio, in all the bad ways. very little meat, lettuce not fresh, everything else bland.
all that goodness for $16 and change.
but i'm sure the 400 south locale is better.
not.
costa vida? costa never again.
< / bitter, completely dissatisfied customer rant >