I've just never gotten the love for this place.
Every time we've gone (the first time over 10 years ago), wife and I have both just thought it was really meh. And every time, we've gone with people who love it and can't wait to show us how great it is...because, obviously we "must have ordered wrong" or "didn't go with the right people" or something.
And every single time, it is meh.
Went about 2 months ago, just the wife and I (hoping maybe our company just sucked all the other times) with the hookup of a mutual friend of Javier's. Mutual friend eats there all the time (and is very close with Javier), and just like all the others, swears to me that we must just not be doing it right. Mutual friend tells us exactly what to order, made sure Javier knew we were coming so he could take extra special care of us..."you're going to love it doing it the way we do it, blah, blah, blah."
Food was very meh (maybe even more-so than the previous times), decor was really really dated and tired. Place needs a remodel badly. Service was just okay, nothing special, and certainly nothing that felt any part of "hookup from some of his best friends" level. Javier was nice enough, but his interaction with us amounted to not much more than maybe getting us seated a little quicker than normal. Mutual friend said, "Be sure to have Javier get you one of his special margaritas that his (Javier's) wife always drinks." Javier said he had no clue what our mutual friend was talking about, but that he'd try to get us something special. It showed up and it was just a margarita.
The place was packed every time though, and without fail, I'm sure I'll get plenty of people telling me how great it is and how we're just not doing it right, etc.
I don't get it.