Basico Bistro Cafe

In the recent surge of trendy restaurant openings throughout El Paso, basico bistro + café may have had the quietest entry into the market. Their advertising is scant at best, their website does not function (all dead links) and their inconspicuous placement at the base of the Coronado Tower on North Mesa make it easy to miss, but basico's surprisingly sleek interior and bright, airy layout make it highly appealing, at least at first sight. basico suffers first and foremost with its less than ideal location tucked into the first floor of a tall building, difficult to notice when driving by and providing a less than desirable view of North Mesa's passing traffic and strip malls from its otherwise ideal outdoor patio. While the always open large glass doors out to restaurant's outdoor space allows a flow of refreshing air during an evening meal, they allow the unrelenting El Paso heat to turn lunch or as we experienced, brunch, into a sweat fest - pardon the crudity.

Even sans air conditioning, basico could redeem itself with an offering of well prepared, modern dishes to match its chic interior, but the kitchen's mediocre output is an added bullet to basico's list of shortcomings. The menu, strangely affixed to a ragged piece of cardboard and a crusty plastic sheath, is promising, albeit all over the map, offering a range of selections from mini corn dogs to burgers, pizzas, and a $26 Ahi Tuna steak. Unfortunately, I do not believe the kitchen has the knowledge or experience to turn out the quality dishes that the upscale interior and modern atmosphere suggest. The omelettes were bland, the pancakes forgettable and lacking the ricotta as promised by the description, and the overcooked shrimp and mushroom risotto enjoyable, but a far cry from the authentic creamy Arborio rice I love so dearly. I must admit, however, that our Sunday brunch could not be marred by the lackluster meal, for the muddled-at-your-table fruit sangria and delicious "Champagne Pick Me Up" saved the day. basico has the potential to be an upscale contemporary go to in El Paso's ever growing dining scene, but the quality and preparation of their output needs to match their impressive interior and enjoyable bar selections (and maybe throw in some AC!). basico, I really want to like you, I do, but let's just face it, as your name suggests, you are just too...basic.

FOR THE FULL REVIEW VISIT OUR BLOG POST AT:
<a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.goodbaduglyeats.com%2Fbasico-bistro-cafe-el-paso-texas%2F&s=a5b4b21ba721e6ea2108171c58d25b317170c241198e31a0de1dc506fd0c200b" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.goodbaduglyea…</a>

- Caroline
Good/Bad/Ugly Eats

Three Words: Bacon. Brie. Burger. That monster burger was phenomenal. Flavor mixture rocked my socks off. Physically the burger is huge (like your mouth struggles to fit around it) so maybe share that baby and enjoy the tastiness with another. Oh and another plus to sharing will be ordering the Tres Leches afterwards. Ya it's homemade and ya you're gonna love it. Live a little and have a completely unhealthy meal that will have you smiling afterwords. Your welcome.

My fiance and I went to Basico for the first and last time last night. Sadly, it was a birthday celebration gone bad. Let's break it down:

The good...
1. Our bottle of wine was good.
2. The spinach crab dip was delicious.
3. The server was friendly.

The bad...
1. They had a live jazz band which was great. But. they left the doors to the patio open on a nearly 100 degree day and didn't crank the ac. To say it was hot and extremely uncomfortable in the restaurant would be an understatement.
2. I ordered chicken paillard. What I received was a fraction of a chicken breast a top mixed greens.
3. My fiance ordered the ribeye, cooked medium rare. His steak came nearly raw. Strike 1. Worse yet, there was a bone chip in the steak that he bit in to. Strike 2. When moving the mushrooms from the top of the steak, he found that the kitchen had cut in to the steak to check it's temp. Rookie move. And the steak was still delivered grossly under cooked. Strike 3. He promptly had his food removed from the table.

The ugly...
My fiance requested a small bowl of the mushroom risotto after the steak debacle, hoping for the best. Since it's an open kitchen, you can see everything. The "cook" in the back proceeded to open a pouch of Uncle Ben's 90 second rice and cook the "risotto". By adding a little cream and much too much salt, somehow, a nasty package of rice you can purchase at the grocery store for $1 became risotto that was worthy of a bistro dish at $15. It was absolutely disgusting.

Do yourself a favor and save your time and money for a better experience. I feel as though McDonald's would have been a better choice...