Padre's - Camelback & 10th St

Brien :

Every Thursday night, I go out with a big group of friends that I have met through work. Last Thursday, I invited Kristi out with us to go to a place called, "Padre's" on Camel back and 10Th st. The signage is hard to miss, and I'd been saying that I'd wanted to go there for a long time. From the sign, it looked sorta nouveau, but I couldn't tell until we actually got inside. One thing you'll learn about me quickly is that I definitely prefer little hole in the wall places over nouveau places - or "hip and trendy" places. This is because I'm a schlub and when I go into one of these hip and trendy places, I tend to feel out of place. Hole in the wall type places dont care what you look like - they just want to serve you good food!

So Kristi and I arrived there, and we were seated at a table for 8. The waiter, who was a little sassy man-clam, let me tell you, took our drink orders first. I got a "mojo martini", which consisted of Coconut & mango rums shaken with orange, pineapple and cranberry juice. After a short wait, a few of our friends arrived, and I got my drink. The drink was GREAT! Strong enough that it tasted good, but not overly alcoholic tasting. I was in heaven.

While we were waiting, Kristi got the chips and guacamole. Once it arrived, we all dived onto it like it was a life raft, and we were sinking fast. The guacamole had a great avacado flavor that wasn't overpowered by much else. There seemed to be a good substance to it.

We were still waiting for a few more friends so I decided to then order the Cilantro Mousse. Once that arrived, again, we all dived on it as if it were the last remaining food on earth, and WOW. I've never had anything so strongly cilantro, yet not slap me in the face and call me a bitch. It was wonderful! The mousse was a thick substance so it held up on the chip. When you took a bite of it, the cilantro really did a song and dance on your tongue, making sure to thrust its cane directly into the roof of your mouth before going down your throat! SO GOOD!

By this time, everyone had arrived, so we all ordered. My dinner order was yet another chip and (insert something here) dish... I got the Cazuela De Queso Fundido. When I ordered it, I didn't realize at the time that it was basically a spinach dip... When it arrived at the table, I was severely disappointed, to say the least. *PLEASE NOTE* The disappointment was *MY* fault for not asking the waiter. Here is what the description says - melted Oaxaca cheese, spinach, roasted garlic and poblano chiles, topped with spicy sausage. For some reason, all that translated in my head as basically a chori-queso dip with spinach. I should have asked. I took a few bites and by that time, I was almost full anyway. The few bites I took definitely had a lot of spinach, and I could taste the pablano, so it was all good, and definitely had what it said it had in it, but I just wish I'd gotten something different. Overall though, the experience at Padre's was very very good! And I highly recommend it to anyone looking for mexican thats a little "higher" class!

I give Padre's 3 1/2 chips topped with cilantro mousse out of 5!