We had a coupon and were curious. We walked in last night and we were the only people in the joint. My husband gave me one of his looks but did not bolt.
We sat on an odd wooden platform at the center of the restaurant. It has rope laden wooden posts so it has the feel of a dock. Hmmmm. I know they have recently added seafood buckets to the menu but I still find it jarring to be frank. The walls are also nautical, with decorative fish, well all the walls but the back wall, which is covered in plastic as they apparently are still renovating.
The menu is pretty Ameri-Mex with odd items here or there to make you consider it a step above. Not wanting to dive into a 19-40 dollar bucket of seafood on an untried establishment I went with a more reasonable combo meal and my husband decided to order the steak and chicken fajitas. Safe.
The chips are cold and standard but the salsa is really delightful. Garlic, onion, cilantro and fresh tasting tomato. It is gringo done very well indeed, it tastes housemade. Want hotter? Ummm yeah that will take a minute. With a waitress running around like a chicken with their head cut off asking all and sundry on staff if they even have any.
My meal started with tortilla soup, full of nice chicken, cooked veggies, strips of tortilla, trace amounts of cheese and a delightful slice of fresh creamy avocado. I liked that it was a brothy version but I wish the broth was more flavorful. Overall it was fresh but bland.
It was followed by two small sized fish tacos, each with two itty baby sized pieces of fried fish. They were on cold tortillas and way oversauced but featured nice crunchy cabbage. The beans were typical refrieds but I liked them anyway. The rice is decent. There also is a little corncake that I really enjoyed a lot, just happy. Oh and did I mention that my meal came out in stages as did my husbands? Just odd overall.
My husband got no soup with his fajitas but he got a boatload of grilled meat and nicely cooked onions and peppers. His tortillas were also cold despite being carted out in one of those plastic warmers. There was a standard plate of fixings (including bagged type shedded mexi cheese) and he also got refried beans and rice. No corncake which made him sad. The chicken and steak were both seasoned a little bit and very tender. Nice enough but nothing that has you moaning in delight by any stretch. Plenty to take home though, we could have easily split his meal with an app or dessert and been full.
I spent my time musing about where they want to take this place. El Fuego doesn't scream seafood but the decor does. It is definitely a casual vibe but they are trying to sell 20 dollar plus seafood buckets, which is a spendy item to be carrying if they do not sell. I am just puzzled.
Service was fine, pricing ran odd but there are good values to be had. The 20% off coupons can be found in Thursday's Play and Go inserts in the local paper if you still have them around.
I will be back at some point because they have a shrimp cocktail concoction I want to sample but I was not in love here or anything. It was decent, not a chain and not a bad option for the area but overall it was just so very bland.
They are new yet though, I am hoping they get into a groove and find their niche. Mexican style seafood sounds promising but will people want to spend to get it? Will they realize they need to kick the flavors up a notch for their customers? We will see. It's Canton yes but even in Canton you need something more zippy than this.
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