• 1/2 Broasted Chicken with beans and rice $8.99 (shared)

I can not remember how La Vina got in our basket, but it looks like at one time it was a really good restaurant and maybe it has hit some hard times or we were there on a bad night because our experience was not great.

My chicken was overcooked, the beans were weirdly runny and tasted more like chicken broth than beans and the rice was not good. It really was a bit sad and I hope that perhaps ours was an isolated incident, but I would not recommend La Vina.

• Carne Asada with beans and rice $10.99

It’s hard to beat up on La Vina, but they are a prime candidate for Kitchen Nightmares in my book. There were several service foibles that don’t deserve repeating. The food was off. The complimentary chips were greasy and undercooked. The avocado and side salad were nice, but pretty hard to screw up as long as they’re fresh. The carne asada was tough as shoe leather, but had a little flavor. The menu said it would be served with an egg but it wasn’t. The rice tasted like minute rice. The beans were runny and funny tasting. If you’re thinking about going to La Vina, you should think about going to one of the dozens of other very good Mexican/Latin American restaurants on Lake Street instead.