Critic's Review
In January, The Westin Beach Resort opened a "high end" Mexican restaurant in the space previously occupied by Shula's Steakhouse. Three weeks ago, the W opened their version of "high end" Mexican with El Vez.
It's been raining for 10 days, so the break into sunshine this morning was an unexpected opportunity. I decided on a late breakfast.
You'd hardly know it was here. There's no sign for the restaurant. From the street, it just looks like a bunch of tables on a patio. I went up the stairs between Steak 954 and this restaurant, but there was no hostess stand there. I went all the way around to the other side, but there's no entrance there either. The hostess stand is apparently inside the hotel and there is no-one to seat you outside.
While it's the case that if you go to a hotel restaurant and you're not a guest of the hotel, you'll be treated as a second class citizen even though you may pay $25 for eggs. But this is the first restaurant where virtually everyone was sitting outside that they didn't bother the have anyone outside to seat people off the street.
A server offered to get me a menu if I seated myself; what choice did I have? I grabbed a table with a view of the beach.
There are water glasses on the table, but water isn't offered. They do the hard sell on the Pellegrino; I know that game, they bring you a big bottle and probably charge $8. I ordered an iced tea, which came out quickly.
I'd decided to go out too late for actual breakfast, but they have huevos rancheros on the lunch menu here. At 11:45 the place was still empty; just a dude with his luggage grabbing a bite before he leaves town.
Music here is the same garbage they play at the pool; Madcon and Alex Rose is not Mexican music.
The food came out in 11 minutes.
A very well organized dish. Ridiculous cilantro as a garnish; isn't it interesting how everything about food presentation has changed in the last 20 years but they still think they need a sprig of parsley or cilantro on the plate? In the old days they just put it on the plate; now they put it on the food. I shouldn't have to pick stuff out of my food.
No condiments on the table nor were any offered. This may be the first time I ordered eggs in South Florida and wasn't offered hot sauce. I asked for salt and pepper before I knew if I needed it; salt and pepper and condiments should always be offered when food is delivered if it isn't on the table.
I never order Huevos Rancheros because I don't want the fried tortilla, and there are too many bad variations of this dish to take a chance that I might get a ladle of tomato sauce over tortillas. I scraped the stuff off the tortillas and was left with a pretty interesting looking dish.
It was actually quite good, in fact, if they didn't burn the egg it would have been a really winner. Not spicy; the chorizo didn't taste like chorizo, but a very pleasant tomato (aka ranchero) sauce. Nothing burger guacamole; I was expecting a bit more of it than the sample on top.
A burned egg means leathery whites and not enough flowing yolk; this could have been really good with a properly cooked eggs.
I was offered a refill on my ice tea which I accepted even though I was just about done eating and my parking was about up. The GM came by to ask how everything was; I get more personalized service when I'm sporting the big camera. It's kind of funny; you can take 200 pictures with your phone and nobody will say a word; you take 1 shot with an SLR and everyone wants to know what you're doing. Strange times we live in.
$15.90 plus tip for eggs and tea.
Conclusion
This place is much more appealing than the joke venue they slapped up at the Westin, but it doesn't feel like a Mexican restaurant in any way. Caucasian Millenial servers and cactus do not a Mexican restaurant make. It's not a very interesting menu either; I can get Tacos and enchiladas anywhere. Add in bad house music and you have a nice spot on the beach were you can get some decent, overpriced Mexican food on a sunny South Florida day.