A "smack" in the wallet

BESITO
46 S. Main St. (Blue Back Square)
West Hartford

As an upscale Mexican franchise, Besito is a restaurant not entirely in keeping with the spirit of this blog. Our aim has been to discuss restaurants that are off the beaten path, and Besito, newish, trendy and almost always crowded at its West Hartford Center location, certainly isn't that. However, the opportunity arose for us to go, and we decided to appease our public's clamoring for a new post. (Wink, wink.)

The bar at Besito

Although neither of us had been very impressed by previous experiences at Besito, we tried to approach this most recent visit with an open mind. And walking in the front door is indeed pleasing: the simple white walls, heavy iron chandeliers, and flickering candlelight are classy. At around 8 pm on a Saturday night, both the bar and the restaurant were bustling with a well-dressed clientele whose ages appeared to range from mid-twenties to early sixties. Besito is easy on the eyes, for sure. However, we were then immediately put off by the service staff greeting us with "Hola" and heavily pronouncing the h. It's probably worth mentioning that one of us is fluent in Spanish and something of a professional appreciator of Hispanic cultures. We're trying hard not too be snobby about this, but we think we're justified in saying that this cutesy and phonetically dubious welcome didn't reflect the rustic elegance of the restaurant itself. The music--Caribbean salsa and bachata, not the classical guitar one might expect given the ambience or indeed Besito's website--also struck an off-note. Then, once we were seated at our table, our waiter continued the pseudo-Hispanic shtick, addressing one of our party as "señorita" and asking for her ID when she was obviously the most senior of all present. Nor did we appreciate his transparent attempts to upsell us by recommending the costlier items on the menu, before he asked us what we actually wanted. This superficially unctuous service grated on our nerves for most of the evening, particularly because we felt that more important details were overlooked. We were ready to order our dinner within five minutes of being seated, but we were made to wait twenty minutes to actually place the orders, trying to find space on the table to put our huge menus. The division of service among staff was also strangely rigid: the ingratiating waiter was apparently there to take our order (though not in a timely fashion) and annoy us, while a second, rather saturnine server made guacamole tableside, another brought us our drinks, still another brought out our dinners, yet another brought our second round of drinks (but did not clear the empty glasses), and a sixth person bussed our empty dishes. The result was many interruptions and odd lapses in service that could have been avoided with a smaller but better-trained service staff.

Blue corn and crab-crusted grouper

The food was good enough to prevent the mediocre service from infecting our otherwise enjoyable evening. Besito's menu is kind of nouveau Mexican: fresh guacamole made tableside, tamales, enchiladas and tacos are all given a makeover, and the ingredients, from what we could taste, are fresh and high-quality. We felt that the menu was superbly balanced; there was a variety of new and unusual (for Connecticut) dishes that would tempt adventurous eaters, but also enough familiar dishes on offer to make most diners feel comfortable. The guacamole was delicious (grumpy masher aside), and a tamale de elote (corn tamale with seared shrimp) was a mouth-watering combination of sweet, succulent shrimp and savory, creamy corn. The enormous house salad was surprisingly good--the blood orange vinaigrette and crunchy jicama saved it from being ordinary--and fed three of us. For dinner, we chose a lobster enchilada in a delicately sweet tomato cream sauce; tacos of beef short ribs; and the star of the three dishes, blue corn and crab-crusted grouper with both a corn sauce and a pumpkin seed sauce. The portions were generous and the flavor combinations were very good--creamy, savory, sweet and spicy were well-balanced in all of the dishes that we tried. Besito's drink menu is worthy of mention as well: standouts were a house Patron margarita with pomegranate and tangerine juice, a tequila mojito, and a lager cocktail with tabasco, worcestershire sauce and lime juice. We were too full to order dessert, but our cravings for sweet to end the meal were satisfied by churros (fried dough sticks with sugar and cinnamon) served with the check and on the house.

$12 guacamole

And about that check. This meal for three people, with three appetizers, two rounds of drinks and three entrees, came to $178 before tip, or about $60 per person. We at Hartfoodie don't balk at paying triple digits for an excellent meal; however, was Besito that meal? The guacamole was excellent, but was it $12 worth of excellent? We feel that, in the end, Besito doesn't offer good value. The food was very good--but if you have a craving for good Mexican food, you could head down Farmington Avenue to Monte Albán and spend a less than a third of what we spent at Besito. We feel that most people, when they spend nearly $200 on dinner, expect a near-transcendent culinary experience, with exceptional, professional service and outstanding food that should be remembered long after the evening is over. Our dinner, though enjoyable, was not that experience.