Restaurant Review: Guacamole Mexican Cuisine, Winter Garden, FL

Recently, we tried the new Guacamole Mexican restaurant that is located on West Colonial Drive in Winter Garden in the Beall's/Appliance Direct shopping center. This had most recently been another Mexican restaurant - Chimi's - that I never got to try as it went out of business so quickly. Guacamole is located next to the empty building that used to be a Publix. I have to tell you that because there was no real signage outside of the restaurant so it is hard to spot. The boys and I were meeting Grandma and Grandpa there and luckily we were able to find it. When we walked in, Grandma and Grandpa were already at a table, eating chips and salsa and drinking margaritas. Guacamole offers a full-bar as well as margaritas and domestic/imported beers. Grandma declared the margarita really "weak" so probably going with a beer is a good idea. As we perused the menu and started eating the chips, Grandpa warned us that our first basket of chips and salsa is free but additional baskets are $1.50 according to the menu. Okay, that immediately put me in a not-so-favorable mood towards Guacamole which, unfortunately, did not improve throughout the meal. When the server came to take our drink orders, I ordered iced tea and asked for lemonade for the boys. It turns out that they only have sodas or iced tea for drinks, nothing else non-carbonated for the little ones. BB asked for a sweet iced tea but I was stuck for LB. He won't drink sodas and he doesn't like iced tea. Luckily, I noticed that Guacamole also offers agua de melon or "melon water" which I was sure LB would like. He's tried watermelon juice before and liked it and this turned out to be cantaloupe juice which he also liked. Whew, disaster averted... for now. I noticed that all of the kids' meals were $5 and included a side item (beans and rice for the Mexican offerings and fries for the rest) as well as a small drink. Since LB's drink wasn't going to be included anyways since it was a specialty drink, I just got side orders of quesadillas for each of the boys. That would only run me $2.75 a piece, much better than the $5 as they probably weren't going to eat the rice and beans anyways. Grandma ordered one of the combination platters with a cheese enchilada, a chicken tostada, and rice and beans for $5.25. Grandpa got adventurous and ordered the Nopales con Carnitas or cactus with pork. Apparently, he used to eat cactus occasionally when living in Texas. I had never tried cactus so I was eager to sample his dish. I ordered the 3 tamales plate for $7 which comes with rice and beans as well as sour cream, salsa, and guacamole. A short while later, the food arrived... but only the adults' food. The kids quesadillas were "coming" we were told. Not good - kids' meals should be served first if anything but never after the adults. Immediately, both kids starting whining and wondering where their food was. Secondly, my tamales were cold. Not slightly warm, but cold. Also, the condiments (sour cream, salsa, and guacamole) were served in tiny cups about the size of a shot glass. Five minutes later when the kids' food arrived, I asked the server to take back the tamales and have them heated up. Grandma's food was okay and Grandpa's cactus dish was as well. Cactus, it turns out, resembles green peppers when cooked and tastes a little bit the same as well, although maybe a bit blander. The pork was a bit spicy but was a good accompaniment to the cactus. Finally, my hot tamales arrived. We all agreed that the food was okay but not much better than that. As Grandpa said, there was nothing really spectacular about Guacamole that would make you want to return. So, we will probably not be back.