Adventures at Patrón: HV's new Mexican restaurant

The new Patrón restaurant on 407 near Morriss is full of surprises, but not all of them were good on our family's first visit. The restaurant's been open about a month, and it appears they've still got some kinks to work out. But there's promise.

In short, the service was wildly inconsistent, and it started with a phone call. We were on Old Settlers Road, about 10-15 minutes away from the restaurant. We called to see if there was a wait. The gentleman who answered said the wait was 20 minutes. I asked if I could put my name on the list, but he said we had to be there in person to do that. OK, no big deal. We figured a Friday-night wait at our local favorite Christina's (1171/Shiloh) would be 30 at least.

When we got to the restaurant a few moments later, we found the place quite busy as expected, but we weren't expecting the news we got from the hostess: the wait was now 30-35 minutes. WHAT? We said we'd wait, partly because we're suckers for a new Mexican restaurant. (Note to restaurateurs: please adopt a call-ahead system. You'll be rewarded with happier, repeat customers. They are the lifeblood of your business.)

Thankfully the frustration was short-lived, because we were seated in 15 minutes - go figure. The restaurant is medium-sized, not too big, not too small. But with high ceilings and concrete floors, Patrón is very loud. Louder than Anamia's. Louder than Cicis when there's a baseball team party there. Loud loud.

Our waiter Julio was friendly, hard-working and earnest, but I think he must have been waiting on 1/2 the tables in the restaurant. Still, he got us our chips and salsa (a good mix) and our drinks and kept reasonably close by during our stay. We ordered a kid's taco and kid's quesadilla for the little ones (both fine), enchiladas verde and taco carne asada. The verde enchiladas were terrific, my wife reported, even though the cooks added sour cream, which had specifically axed by my wife when her order was taken. My soft tacos with steak were both simple and perfect. High marks for the food.

A nice touch by Julio. Even though we protested, he insisted on removing my wife's dinner from our tab. We added it back into the tip.

Patrón? Check it out, especially if you don't mind a loud place to eat. Be patient with the service. Perhaps they'll smooth things out over time.