Felipe’s Restaurant Fine Cuisine

The wait staff is top-​notch, and yes the mega-​margaritas are back. Felipe teels us he is starting a special promotion: Buy a Dinner, Get a Dollar. Each dinner guest at Felipe’s will receive a genuine United State Presidential $ 1 Coin as a token of appreciation.
I usually order the Chicken Fajitas, and it is just fine. I do miss the booths, but oh well.

My family came in for a Father’s Day dinner. My in-​laws had been to the original restaurant and loved it. We decided to give the face-​lift a try.
The restaurant was mostly empty, minus two small tables. We asked for some privacy and were taken to our own room upstairs. This was very nice. The staff was super friendly, accommodating, helpful and conversational. The music was also a plus.
We ordered margaritas right off the bat. My family loved their drinks but my Cadillac seemed way too weak for it’s size and price. I finished it in 5 minutes and ordered a second one which was VERY strong. It made up.
The menu is not very large. Our chips and salsa both needed a little salt but were decent. We ordered stuffed jalapenos and guacamole to start. The guacamole was awesome and made fresh for our table. The jalapenos, however, looked like they were picked up on special from Sam’s Club.
My wife had shrimp ceviche while I had carnitas. Her ceviche was not what we expected. We wanted fresh shrimp with lime; something tangy. What we got was ketchupy and more like a cocktail. Whatever. My carnitas were good. For the price, however, I would have liked a glop of guac though. My plate had two dry pieces of fried pork, a scoop of dried rice ad beans and a chip. I also only received two tortillas. Next time three or four would be nice.
I’ll follow up here with the fact that the staff went out of their way for us. I ordered chocolate cheesecake for my wife but they were out. So I ordered ice cream, they were out (never be out of ice cream!). After the bill was paid, they came with a piece of chocolate cake and whipped cream on the house. Very nice of them.
Honestly, we’ll be back. Let’s hope it gets better.

Well I never liked Villa Sombrero and when this place opened up I said it’s in MI BARRIO gotta try it well should have guessed from the name «FINE CUISINE»…Que a la Chingada Fine Cuisine… Well the Waiter was VERY friendly and excellent service, NOW the FOOD… had the Mole plate $ 14.95 a little high but not too bad price for a Mole plate, but the portion size was crazy, looked like a VERY SMALL Chicken Breast cut up the Mole sauce was too sweet could not taste any chili in it at all, the rice & beans were real good but they only give you a real small scoop of each. COME ON GUYS RICE & BEANS ARE CHEAP fill up the DAMN plate… SAME thing with the Enchalidas, Two Chicken Enchalidas Rice & Beans $ 14.95 SORRY Price is too high for that, taste OK same SMALL portion size… Chips & SALAS… WOW someone needs to teach these guys how to make salsa, they brought me 3 different kinds after I kept complaining and they ALL SUCKED… Bottom line they have a basic small menu and that the food is overpriced, will NOT go back. OH and my Wife and I were the ONLY people there at 8:00pm on a Saturday evening… don’t think they will be around long with these prices and quality of food, my opinion drop the name «fine cuisine» and get a cook that can cook real Mexican food good.

I can picture it now. The property owner/​developer goes into a popular Mexican restaurant at his building. He sees the dilapidated booths, dirty floors, and abysmal décor and says, «I can do this better!» So he creates a dispute with the current restaurant owner/​tenant, kicks them out, and makes the attempt, stubbornly, without any consultation with a true professional.
Well, that’ s the rumor, anyway… true or not, the result is the same: A very, very poor attempt at a Mexican restaurant, in an area already saturated with mediocre, Mexican restarants. Wow what a real chef could do in this town! But I digress…
I could start with the «rehab» on the décor, but my friends in other reviews listed below have successfully described the transition. I think the «upscale cafeteria in a nursing home» might have been the best. (Might not be an exact quote, but you get the gist.) It’s like someone came into Villa Sombrero and ripped out its soul – the whole point to that place was to cozy up in a broken down little booth and have some margarita and decent food fun before plotting your exit strategy past the LAPD checkpoints on York…
The food is horrible. I would be disappointed if I paid $ 7.95 for the $ 20.95 scallops in «garlic sauce» which used to be «al mojo de ajo» for $ 13.95. They were like chewing rubber. The diabla sauce was more ranchero style – had a bit more flavor, but over $ 20??? Here’s a tip: Try eating out at other successful restaurants in this price range before setting your standards here.
The margaritas are large, but you can almost taste the glowing anti-​freeze colored phony margarita mix from here. Right here. How about some fresh lime? How about some contreau? You are supposed to have poshed up the place.
No Negro Modelo? Tecate? Hmmm. (Buzzer sound) Thanks for playing!
Stale chips, ridiculously bad guacamole… Honestly, this place felt like being punk’d.
Would someone please, please, please come into this town and do it right? We owe it to the ‘hood! The point was missed here: SOUL.
PS-​As irony would have it the waiter was friendly and fantastic. Service was spectacular!

This is a follow up to my January 3 review…
Hey…the strong ass margartias are back and they’re re-​adjusting the prices on their menu! Seems like they may be listening to the empty tables. The margaritas are about as good as the old Villa Sombreros, and SAME price, $ 8 for a nicely sized one, $ 4 for a wine glass sized one. They have Fajitas for Two at $ 26.95, a comparable price and also $ 10.95 enchilada dinners now… the prices have come back down, the good margaritas are back, I’d say give it a try. They have a little more than 8 itmes on the menu now, The Fajitas were damn good and plentiful. Can’t say the same for the enchiladas though.
If you miss Villa Sombrero and want to give this place a chance, I’d say revisit. Their margaritas kick the hell out of El Arco Iris.

When I heard that the owner had previously operated Villa Sombrero I was relieved, and then I went inside. I felt like I was in a wannabe french bistro. Come on Felipe, you could have gone down to the Highland Park Swap Mall and found some better décor. On the bright side the margaritas were good and strong.

Well, it has been several months now and I understand they finally got their liquor license, but by the look of things, a shot glass late, a dollar short. Even the one time best margareta in town can’t bring in the business. I have never seen more that two tables at any given time. Sunday night they close their doors early. How sad that folks don’t understand the business they are in and what they did to kill the reputation. «If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.»

Yeah… the food is better than the old place. But damn. pricy! It’s just that there are only 8 items on the menu, and they don’t offer any smaller ticket items. Not drinks, bummer. Not a good sales pitch for a sit down place. 3 stars for the waiter who was a total sweetheart, but sadly I don’t think this place will last. My husband liked the estetics of it, and the clean fealing, but he also said it reminded him of the cafeteria of an upscale nursing home. That can’t be good. I hope it does well, I always want new places to do well, and I don’t want to give it a bad review. Just get a booze license, some lower priced items, and I will come back.

Gone are the days of procuring volumes of good tequila on this corner.
When will you ever get you liquor license???
Boo-​hoo

«Modern and upscale»??? I THINK NOT.
they guy who wrote that review must have already had margaritas before showing up to Felipe’s «fine» cuisine. Or, he is the guy who did the decorating…
which, by the way, is AWFUL. sterile, cold, white tile, bleak beige walls with stock posters of wine bottles in shoddy frames. the chairs are metal church chairs, which scrape noisily in this refrigerated echo chamber.
oh, and NO MARGARITAS??? how DARE you open a new restaurant where Villa Sombrero used to be and not have your liquor license yet? not even beer??? when i heard this i had to take a deeeep breath, tell myself to stay calm, and then began to check out the menu…
which was CRAZY EXPENSIVE! they offer all the same mexican fare as Tacos Michoacano one block away (on York and Aldama) but 5 times as expensive! no WAY am i gonna pay 13 $ for tacos!
i wanted to leave SO badly at this point, but was determined to show my husband that i could remain calm in the face of a margarita-​drought, so i ordered the caldo de pollo off the specials menu, and he ordered the carnitas.
and then we waited… and waited… and waited… for probably about 25 minutes, which is when i noticed that the waiters were JUST beginning to serve a party of 15 upstairs… and then i noticed that NONE of the 4 tables, that were already seated downstairs when we showed up, had ANY OF THEIR FOOD! we were going to have to wait for them to serve a party of 15, 2 tables of 6, and another two tables of 2 their food before they even got around to making ours.
i couldnt take it anymore at this point, NEEDED a margarita and the comfort of my own non-​sterile home, so we asked for the food to go, stopped at von’s and bought margarita fixins, and went home to eat our food.
actually, i didnt even eat mine. i made a margarita and ate a xanax instead, thats how crazy Felipe’s made me.
the positive was that the waiters were VERY nice the whole time. but they were VERY VERY frazzled and running around, so hopefully they can work out their kitchen and serving systems a little better, because i dont want to harsh on them for bad service.
and in the end, my caldo de pollo (reheated the next day for lunch) was pretty good (tons of chicken in it! like half a chicken!), it just had to be removed from the premises.
i have no idea if this place is ever going to be worthwhile, but i know that 3 things need to happen if it is:
1. MARGARITAS!!!
2. the décor needs to be warmed up and made inviting and comfy.
3. they had better make sure that their $$ 13.00 tacos are made out of MAGIC.

My husband has a theory. Any restaurant that calls itself «fine» probably isn’t…In this case, he is right on… Or maybe they meant «fine» as in when asked «how was your dinner?» you reply «fine…not great, but okay». The menu is sparce, they could add a few simple appetizers like nachos or even queso. Everything I ate was dry. The beans were dry, the rice was dry, the chicken in my taco was dry (I *think* it was chicken, I had ordered a chicken and a beef taco, and frankly I couldn’t tell the difference.) AND they didn’t even have margaritas to wash it down! Apparently the liqour license is pending, maybe they will have killer margaritas to save their ass. The waiters were nice enough but WAY over-​attentive. I was trying to have a conversation, but was repeatedly interupted by the waiters. One after another. I may be back after the liquor license comes through, but I probably won’t eat anything but chips and salsa, which were «fine».

I’d also call my review «preliminary» because once they get their liquor license in order and figure out the décor, it could again be a nice dinner/​drink option in the area. My attempts to give it a chance are over though.
There’s little reason to go here. Basic tables and chairs (booths are gone, as are all the paintings of Popocatepetl), overpriced food, and the guacamole’s not as good as it was.
Sucks, and I genuinely hope it comes into it’s own, but overpricing the old Villa Sombrero menu with less décor and no drinks ain’t gonna cut it.