White Center Eats: Mi Bohio
April 16, 2007 – 8:38 am | by nerd's eye viewThere’s a bright green building near the corner of Delridge and 16th. We sat in a booth inside pondering the remains of our meal. “You know, this wasn’t a waste of time,” we all agreed.”We would have had to do this sooner or later. We’d have seen this bright green place and said - we have to go eat THERE.”
It’s not the slow service, though the service is kind of a disaster. The food arrived in its own good time and was oddly combined across the plates. K’s tamale was on N’s plate, I got the maduras with my fish. N’s dish came from the kitchen well after everything else had arrived on the table and one of the tamales never came at all.
Okay, okay, I felt a little indulgent towards the service because the people that run the place seem like real sweethearts. You want them to do well - they’re friendly and rather charming. But when your food takes forever to get to the table, it has to be really spectacular to make up for it. My fish was big mass of bones and skin, fried whole. J’s chicken was unexceptional. The stuffed potato looked impressive but it was cold when it got to us. Everything left us non-plussed and feeling a bit doped up from too many carbs.
The owner told us that he has to rework the menu. Some of the dishes on there take too long to make, he says, and they’ve been pinched by large parties ordering complex dishes. They seemed pinched by our visit and there were only two other tables occupied when we were there.
All in all, a disappointing turn out. We have advice for the folks at Mi Bohio. Strip the menu way down. Make a few simple things and amp up the cooking to make them spectacular. Because there’s loads more to try in White Center, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll be back to Mi Bohio. Research completed. Mi Bohio? Meh.
