Very Disappointing Birthday Dinner

For my birthday dinner last night I went to what was my absolutely best favorite restaurant, ROBERTO'S, West of Ajijic. I have always loved the food, the Friday 2 for 1 an the ambience.

Roberto had talked w/me about wanting to sell the place and to travel. He did sell it.

My first disappointment was when the French Onion soup lost the melted cheese topping what always covered the soup. a few weeks ago, the full cover cheese topping was replaced by a few "puddles" of cheese, not much at all. So I compensated by bringing my own crated cheese and putting it into the soup and made my own full cover cheese topping.

I had previously tried the Beef Stroganoff, one of my favorites, and it didn't appeal to me.

My all time favorite at ROBERTO'S was the Spaghetti Bolognese which I have ordered as a matter of course. What I was served was nothing like what it was before; it was a night and say different. The problem was that Bolognese uses a meat based sauce, and there was no meat to be found. The usual meat in ROBERTO'S Bolognese was beef; if there was any meat of any kind, it sure wasn't beef.

I spoke with the new owner and asked if they had changed Chefs and he said no. He also said the recipe had not been changed, and that was not accurate.

I know prices have done up for everything, including food ingredients, however in this instance, I would have preferred to pay a higher price to keep the quality of the food I enjoyed.

The place was packed, as it always is on 2 for 1 night. I hope this was a one-time experience and I will return and order the Spaghetti Bolognese again, however if it hasn't gone back to the original style, I'll send it back and try something else.

We were thinking of going to Roberto's last evening since we hadn't been there for dinner for a long time and had read good reviews on TOB, but fortunately, we decided on Yves instead.  The one time we had gone for the Friday night special was long ago and we were disappointed in the food. Maybe the problem is that the quality drops along with the twofer price.
Or, maybe the general quality is dropping.  The chef is the old chef, so instructions on quality could be coming from the new owner.

Nostalgia:  Remembering the old Roberto's on the lake when Bobby was cooking.  Wonderful food.

The change was literally "overnight."

I'll give it one more try; maybe go on a non-twofer night and see how it's done then.

Too bad, I really loved the place. I think if enough people "mention" the change, the good stuff may come back.

Just had the Spaghetti Bolognese last weekend. Same as always and plenty of ground beef. In fact we have been there several times recently and everything we have had has been as good as always.

Sorry you didn't have the same positive experience.

As said, will try again. Maybe a different spice mixture or meat more finely ground.

I hope this was a singular instance since I really liked the dish.

Our experience with the "new" Roberto's has been very good. In the old Roberto's last year, I ordered a chicken dish, and it came with 3 mini-bite-sized bits of chicken. When I complained, they brought me a new dish, which again had 3 mini-bite-sized pieces of chicken! Bobby is a great guy, we have known him for 10 years or more, but one couldn't really confront him on this kind of thing. And, he seemed to have trouble (I am putting this nicely!) getting along with his staff. The new owners are obviously trying hard, and we find things have improved. But they have not been on hand long, so possibly things will work out. Do tell the new owners if you have had a bad experience--otherwise, they are unlikely to know.