I was out in the northeast Indianapolis suburb of Fishers last fall working an event for one of my new dealers. As the event ran down, I asked a couple of guys who worked there if they wanted to go out to dinner. Both declined citing some work they had to do after the event finished up. One of the guys asked me what I was hungry for as there have been a number of restaurants that have popped up in the immediate area around their Fishers location over the past few months. I mentioned that Mexican sounded good and he directed me to a place not far from their location called Verde.
Verde is actually an off-shoot of a small chain of family-owned Mexican restaurants mainly in the western suburbs of Chicago, Salsa Verde. The Arechiga family moved to the United States from the Mexican state of Jalisco in 2003 bringing many family recipes from that region. Initially, brothers Carlos and Abel Arechiga opened a small chain of Mexican restaurants called Friaco's. (Friaco was the nickname of their father.) There were a couple locations in the western suburbs of Chicago and one in Indianapolis.
In 2012, other family members opened the Salsa Verde restaurants - now with four locations in the Chicago suburbs and one in Indianapolis. The Indianapolis Friaco's location was in Fishers and it was run by Paul Arechiga. Other Friaco's locations were closing and Paul Arechiga wanted to rebrand his location into a new concept offering a selection of foods from around Mexico. He closed Friaco's in the spring of 2016 and reopened it as Verde - Flavors of Mexico later that summer.
Verde is located along Commercial Drive in Fishers, just north of 116th St. (see map) It's located on the end of a strip mall with a large semi-circular tower for the entrance and there was plenty of parking out front. I walked in around 8:30 that evening and I was met by a hostess at the stand up front. There weren't a lot of people in the place when I got in there and she took me to a table in the dining area. There was a dining area along a long wall toward the rear of the place, too.
I was looking through the menu when my server for the evening came by to greet me. I ordered up a Mojito margarita that consisted of Patron Silver, triple sec, lime juice, a touch of sugar and fresh mint. The margarita was actually pretty good - a spot hitter after a long day of travel and then working a dealer event that evening. Even with the triple sec and sugar, it wasn't like drinking syrup like other margaritas you'd find at many Mexican restaurants and had an adequate amount of tequila. A basket of chips and salsa came out before the margarita. The chips were fresh and the salsa had a fresh taste of garlic, cilantro, onions and sweet tomatoes.
The menu was something more than what I've also found at other Mexican restaurants. There were the staples - fajitas, enchiladas, burritos, quesadillas, chimichangas - but they also had white fish or shrimp ceviche as an appetizer or entree, something that I don't always see at Mexican restaurants. They had grilled tilapia fish tacos with a chipotle sauce that caught my eye, as well as an entree that included steak, shrimp, chicken, chorizo all mixed together in a molcajete bowl along with Cotija cheese, cilantro and a red sauce.
I thought momentarily about the carnitas dinner - seasoned pork tips that were deep fried. But the deep fried part turned me off. I ended up getting three of the street tacos they had on the menu. I got a pastor (marinated pork) taco, a carnitas (shredded pork) taco, and a fish taco they called Pescado a la Parilla - basically translated into grilled fish. Turns out it was the same thing as the grilled tilapia tacos, only I could get just one. While the two pork tacos were topped with chopped cilantro, onions, a radish slice and lime and served in corn tortillas, the grilled fish taco was topped with shredded cabbage, an avocado slice, pico de gallo and a chipotle sauce on a flour taco. It also came with a couple of different types of salsa - one was sort of a spicy and fruity salsa - actually a thicker sauce, the other was a tomatillo salsa.
I was needing another margarita, but my server was nowhere to be found. I found her in a booth with a couple of other servers in a corner just sitting and talking. It wasn't busy in the place at that point, but I had to get her attention to have her come over and take my order for another margarita. Then the margarita took a long time to get back out to me. So much so, that I was just getting ready to finish my final taco when she brought it to the table. I almost told her to take it away.
The tacos were all right. Not great, but not bad. The fish taco was a little fishy in taste, but I did like the chipotle sauce and avocado on it. The pastor taco was tasty, but the shredded carnitas taco was a little dried out. Like I said, not great, but not bad.
But the service was starting to piss me off. My server and the others had all disappeared and I was ready for my check. It was a good five minutes before someone came out and I got their attention to let my server know that I was ready for my check. That person disappeared and it was another five minutes of total inactivity in the dining area before another young lady showed up with my check. I cut my losses at the spot and handed her my credit card without looking over the bill. I didn't want her to run away and not show up for another five or ten minutes. I'm getting to the point where I cannot tolerate service like that in any restaurant. (Ask my wife about that.)
I'm very mixed about my visit to Verde. It was a nice setting and the margarita was good, as were the chips and salsa. The street tacos I had weren't bad, but not great. But the service was pretty slow and when I start to have a slow burn regarding slow service in a restaurant that really puts a bad taste in my mouth. All I ask is for someone to check on me in a timely fashion and to get my requests to me in a prompt manner. If it's the fault of the restaurant, then that's a problem that needs to be rectified. But if it's the fault of the server, maybe they need a change in vocation. And, unfortunately, that's how I felt about my visit to Verde.
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