GABBI'S MEXICAN KITCHEN

PICTURED (top to bottom): Restaurant, Chips and Salsa, Guacamole, Tacos de Arrachera y Tacos Puebla, Tacos de Carne Asada, Burrito Estilo Eduardo, Churros with Caramel and Chocolate Dipping Sauces, Mango Sorbet with Cilantro.

Saturday night is usually our "Taco Night", so we decided to head over to Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen in Old Town Orange. The menu is interesting, and it's a charming restaurant in a great part of town. Overall, the food was pretty good but the service was off the mark today.

We started off with the complimentary Chips and Salsa and a Guacamole appetizer. The guacamole was excellent; fresh, rich, and creamy with a great flavor. The salsa was also very good; but when we asked for extra salsa we were told we could not have any more until we finished what we had on the table. We felt like scolded children.

Our server was also the bartender, and probably would have been more attentive to our needs if he wasn't "multi-tasking". Sweetie Pie ordered the Tacos Puebla (with skirt steak, bacon, Portuguese Sausage, grilled onions and queso oaxaca); and her mother ordered the Tacos de Arrachera (with skirt steak, cilantro, onions, and avocado tomatillo salsa). They also each ordered Tacos de Carne Asada ( with cilantro, onions, avocado tomatillo salsa and pico de gallo. They mixed the order up, and both Carne Asada Tacos showed up on one plate. Also, the Tacos were cold and the tortilla edges hard. Seems they were sitting somewhere between the kitchen and our table for way too long. The ladies had ordered their tacos with corn tortillas, but Sweetie Pie's Puebla Taco came with a flour tortilla. The server told us she got "a deal" because it was a bigger taco. My Burrito Estilo Eduardo ( with Top Sirloin Steak, adobo guajillo marinade, beans de olla, queso, guacamole and mojado en salsa guajillo-jalapeno-crema) was very big and beautifully prepared. But I didn't really care for the flavor of the red sauce (sorry Gabbi).

For dessert  we decided to share the Churros with caramel and chocolate dipping sauces, and the Mango cilantro Sorbet. The Churros were fantastic, hot and fresh and the dipping sauces divine. The Mango cilantro Sorbet, however, was too weird for words.

Today's Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen dinner gets one and a half thumbs up from the 3 Tubby Tummys!