Olamendi's Zona Rosa

Friday, February 20, 2009 was the last Friday before Lent.  It was also 2-1/2 years to the day that we moved to our current home in Azusa near Covina.  Our goal is to live here for five years, longer if possible.  We had reached the halfway point and, to celebrate, we decided to try the new restaurant in downtown Covina.  It had just opened within the past couple of weeks in the same building and the Covina Center for the Performing Arts theater.  They ran ads for Olamendi’s Zona Rosa on the theater’s marquee.  Driving by it, we also noticed a sign outside the restaurant stated it had a recording studio.  This sounded interesting.

On the Friday we went there we parked in the parking garage in downtown Covina that was constructed sometime during the past couple of years.  It’s a fairly small garage that has rather narrow turns.  It’s free, though different levels allow for different amounts of time in parking spots, the higher the level, the longer time allowed.  I believe we entered the parking garage from College Street.  From there, it was just a short walk to Citrus Street and the restaurant.

Olamendi’s is a small restaurant with high ceilings.  It has just a few tables, a couple of them elevated.  There’s also a long bar with stools for customers to sit.  The restaurant has many festive decorations such as loteria card posters on the far wall along with a picture of Frida Kahlo.  Marionettes hang from the ceiling above the bar.  High shelves also hold various colorful knickknacks.  The walls are painted a shiny purple.  When we got there most of the tables were taken so we sat down at the bar.  On the wall behind the bar they had mounted a medium-sized flatscreen TV.  It looked like it was showing the menu screen for a DVD.  It showed a picture of a newspaper with the headline “Sigue Jurado el Tomo Asesino”.  It looked like the title of the DVD was “Cantifla” and it also said, “Ahi es el Detalle” on the screen.

We sat down at the far end of the bar and they gave us menus that were only a couple of pages long.  They had sections for appetizers, specialties, steaks, seafood, build-your-own tacos, and bowls that were similar to burrito bowls.  Under beverages they had several specialty sodas.  The choices seem a bit more elegant and specialized that what’s found at a regular Mexican restaurant, though the prices are also higher.  It’s similar to Adoro Mexican Restaurant, though much less fancy.  They brought us chips to snack on while we waited.  We placed our orders and had to wait a while.  Still, the chips were good; they tasted homemade and the salsa was also good.  They refilled them after we finished the basket.  It seemed like they were either understaffed or the staff they had wasn’t very experienced.  They reassured us that our food was coming soon.

The menu said they had been around since 1973.  They’re a chain and their first location opened in San Clemente.

Eventually they brought us our orders.  My carne asada steak was smaller and thinner than I expected for a steak.  But with the rice and grilled green peppers and onions it was an adequate amount of food and everything tasted good.  The steak was cooked but not overcooked, juicy and not greasy.  My wife enjoyed her build-your-own bowl with carnitas, lettuce, tomatoes, beans and cheese.

Most tables were full the entire time were there.  At the beginning people were there on their way to the theater but the place stayed busy.  Perhaps this is another reason service was slow.  On our way out we saw that they sold their chips pre-packaged along with their salsa and enchilada sauce.  Overall, it was a good 30-month commemoration that will hopefully be at least halfway through our goal of living in the area for five or more years.  We can’t remember where we went to dinner back on August 20, 2006.  But if/when we reach five years, we’ll remember where we were at the midpoint.