Personal Review - 01/17/03:
Chevy's now has a new location in the Arundel Mills Mall just off Route 100
at Arundel Mills Blvd. I was in need of a good Mexican food 'fix', but this
Chevy's missed the mark by a longshot. As always, the Chevy's I've been too have all
been very noisy with crammed quarters, loud music, open areas and
concrete floors for the sound to bounce around. I would never recommend
going to Chevy's if you actually want to have a decent conversation or
romantic evening...nobody will hear you unless you shout. The food was
nothing to write home about. I had the Laredo combination including a
chicken enchilada, ground beef enchilada, chicken tamale, chicken taco, rice
and beans. The enchiladas tasted like something pre-prepared and just
thrown on the stove, or in a microwave, to warm. The tamale was way too
heavy on the cornmeal, the taco, rice and beans were ok. The salsa was
about as wimpy as you can get. I had to ask for hotter from the back.
That helped a bit, though still not the best. The best part of the whole
meal was the dessert. Chevy's has Sopapillas on the menu. These are
traditionally puffy 'pillows' pastries deep fried with a dusting of cinnamon and/or
powdered sugar with hot honey drizzled over the them. Chevy's offers
their sopapillas in a chocolate variety. Being a purist at heart, I asked for the traditional style.
Chevy's serves their sopapillas with a large scoop of ice cream in the
middle. Like a said, the best part of the meal. If I ever went back to
Chevy's again, which isn't likely considering the inconsistency of quality
food and annoying noise levels, I would likely stop in only for the
dessert. You can get better Mexican food elsewhere. The total bill, with
one drink and tip (the service was very good), came to about $25 for one.
Personal Review - 12/01/00:
Although Chevys is well outside the normal area for reviews on this web
site, a friend of ours (also a native of California) has been recommending the
restaurant for some time. So, when I found myself in Greenbelt while
attending a conference at Goddard Space Flight Center in November, I
decided to stop in with a friend and give it a try.
Generally speaking, the food was quite good, though I did have some bones
to pick with certain items. The chile relleno, in particular, was not
well prepared. The chile was not completely cooked making it very crunchy
(and cool) and the stem was left attached, something many people find
very unappetizing. The enchilada combo was very good, as were the rice
and black beans. My friend had the grande chimichanga and seemed to enjoy
it thoroughly. The salsa was ok, but not perky enough for my taste. The
meal was filling enough that neither of us had dessert. We might have
considered stuffing ourselves a bit more, but the overridding issue was
just getting out of the restaurant where our ears could recover.
Chevys seems to be following the trend of many of the newer cramped open room-style
restaurants in which the noise level is so incredibly high that it becomes
uncomfortable and very difficult to have a conversation or an otherwise
enjoyable dining experience. Our ears were literally ringing when we
stepped outside only to be assaulted yet again with music over the outside
speakers. What a relief to get in the silence of the car. Although the
food, in general, was good enough to warrant a return, I doubt we would
knowing what the inside environment would be like.
Chevys has three locations from which to chose including Greenbelt, Gaithersburg
and Annapolis. Prices were quite reasonable with Entrees around $7.00-$10.00.
Personal Review (03/27/01): We visited Chevy's again over the weekend and found the quality to be slightly less than the 1st visit. The salsa was especially wimpy/watery. We asked for hotter and got something that was barely better; both were oily as well. A 3rd request resulted in the waiter bringing a bottle of Cholula...at least that was an improvement. Clearly, their own 'home grown' variety just doesn't cut it. The enchilada my wife had was somewhat tasteless and the chile relleno had to be the worst we've ever had. On top of all that, the bar area where one MUST pass through to get to the bathroom was overwhelmingly smokey and unbearable for an asthmatic [the women had a 2nd bathroom in the non-smoking section]. Noise level, again, was very high making it difficult to visit with our friends. While in general the quality of the food was pretty good by comparison to most in the area, the overall experience was tempered by the noise, smoke, guttless salsa and poor selected dishes.