Emiliano's
7 Southeast 1st Avenue
No thumbs up
Price Range: 15-20 dollars per meal
Emilianos is about as authentic a Latin restaurant as Olive Garden is fine Italian Bistro. It is locally owned and run and not a chain, but still, it's not very good. The first time I ever ate there, the waitress actually said "arroz con poLLo" with a L instead of a Y sound.
I think I will use Emiliano's to embark on a greater trend in Gainesville Restaurants. I call it "Gainesville Gourmet." My brother calls it "Faux Fancy." And future contributor to this site, Danny, simply calls it "Mediocre."
I think Danny really nailed it with his one word description, but I'd like to elaborate. This town abounds with restaurants that operate under the guise of being gourmet. They appear to be fancy. But when it comes down to it, they've got nothing to back it up in terms of quality. They're big budget movies with no script. Emiliano's is "Last Action Hero," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I've eaten here as a carnivore and a vegetarian and can say that their meat dishes are no better than Flaco's and surely aren't worth the extra cost. Furthermore, their tapas are boring and uninspired.
The meal pictured above is the corn cake napoleon. It's described as "venezuelan style corn griddle cakes layered with roasted marinated portobello mushroom, manchego cheese, roasted tomatoes, caramelized onions, black bean-corn salsa, topped with corn tortilla straws, garnished with roasted red pepper coulis and parsley-garlic coulis." Overall, it's not that good. Which brings me to the next important aspect of Gainesville Gourmet: nothing is simple. It's all overly complex. Read the ingredients of the dish above again. Do you think you'd get that kind of fluff if you actually ordered this in Venezuela? Would you be presented with two coulis-es? Absolutely not!
Rather than go for authenticity, Emiliano's (like so many other places in town) goes for a fusion. They call themselves pan-latin cuisine, which means the chef doesn't know how to do any single style good enough to pull it off. He therefore must disguise and bastardize the flavors into a hodgepodge of conflicting spices and flavors.
Maybe it's because I grew up in Miami that I feel this place is so inadequate. When you eat Latin food cooked by real Latins, tradition and simplicity reign supreme. Don't mess with perfection and you'll be sure to produce tasty food.
I don't know. It's just plain mediocre.
I've sent food back there. That's saying something. There are a few things I've had that were okay, but you can do way better for way less money.
ReplyDeleteI agree! I ate there a few years ago with my cuban father in law. He hated it. That was the last time I ate there...
ReplyDeleteI actually liked Emiliano's, but maybe its gone downhill in the past few years. Since none of their mains were vegan I'd usually get a few smaller things, and I remember liking the marinated mushrooms a lot.
ReplyDeleteI did return years after this review to terrible service and still mediocre food. Our friend actually had moldy tomatoes in her salad. That's inexcusable.
ReplyDelete