It was a hot and steamy night in Port Orchard. The kind of sultry summer night that lends itself to romance and intrigue in this deceptively sleepy waterfront town.
Perusing the shop windows and looking for a little mischief, I saw him...sauntering down the street as if he owned the world. He had the certain something you see in IT men. That knowing glance that says "I can crash your network before I've even finished my morning coffee, and you'll never know what happened".
Khaki pants, comfortable shoes, a card key and cell phone strapped to his belt like Batman.
Oh yes, he would be mine.
Wait, he is mine, that's my husband.
We decided to try La Palapa (which, by the way is conveniently located next to our favorite martini bar). We'd seen it open and the Yelp reviews looked good, so OLE!
Walking in the decor is spartan (and that's being generous) Cement floors, wood tables and chair and almost nothing on the walls. This lends itself to being REALLY REALLY LOUD. Especially when an unsupervised toddler is running screaming through the restaurant. This was a rather significant snap back from my earlier view of said sultry eve.
Seriously, it was like a daycare but without the glamour.
We were adventurous! We were committed! We were going to sit in the bar where the screaming toddler couldn't reach us (not that the sound didn't carry, but it would keep him from drooling on my Kate Spade bag).
We were approached quickly by a delightfully cheery server. Cocktails? Yes please!
Beloved order a Cadillac Margarita, I ordered a large Pacifico.
The beer? HOLY CRAP! It was bigger than my head, and I have a big head. That's fine for a martini, but in a beer, it just makes me burp all through dinner. All pretenses to being a seductive siren this evening are dashed. Likely, he knows me well enough that this isn't a huge surprise.
Seriously though, I could have taken a bath in this beer. I needed two hands to hoist it.
His margarita was, in his words "meh". He swears there was no Grand Marnier in it.
I decided to order a couple of tacos ala carte. Fish taco (grilled) and shrimp taco. Both were good, would have been GREAT if they would have seasoned the seafood a little bit. Once I added a touch of salt, they came alive. Really really good. I didn't have any rice/beans nonsense. I like that you can economically piece together what you want for your plate. That's a fantastic option.
He order the Ceviche Tostada. It was, in a word, perfect. Fresh, crisp, and generally awesome. I ate more than my fair share of his dinner. I would order this again and again.
He also has the tortilla soup. It's not my favorite, but he really liked it. Had grilled chicken but ws made with beef stock. I thought it was weird, and wouldn't recommend it.
No room for dessert, but they had the usual, fried ice cream, flan, yadda yadda yadda.
Overall:
I'd rate it a solid B. The food was good and fresh, albeit they could use a slightly heavier hand with the salt. Prices were very reasonable as well. Not somewhere I would go for a snack and a drink (the drinks just weren't that good) but for dinner, we'll go again. If they do something to make it feel less like a loud cavern, I could see this becoming a regular haunt for us.
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