A few weeks ago a friend of mine wrote about Papagayo on her blog. Since then I've been hearing about it constantly. As such, I was thrilled when my deskmate at my new job invited me to her birthday celebration at Papagayo last night.
We left work at 5:30pm and walked from State Street, up Atlantic Ave and took a left onto Summer Street where Papagayo was just across the bridge.
We had a reservation for ten and the host walked us to our table which was beautiful and right in the front window looking out on to the street.
I was immediately struck by how colorful everything is in the restaurant. The menus feature two large, multi-colored parrots, the paint on the walls is yellow, orange, green, blue, and red and the one exposed brick wall features a row of brightly colored paintings.
Since we were celebrating, we didn't waste a moment of time ordering drinks. The birthday girl ordered something called a RonaRita which is a margarita with a Corona swimming in it:
The coworker sitting next to me ordered a pomegranate margarita on the rocks and I ordered a frozen strawberry margarita. The drinks are absolutely enormous and you'll start to feel a buzz about half way through your first glass. You've been warned.
Having worked up an appetite on the walk over, we couldn't wait to place an order for guacamole. At Papagayo they make the guacamole tableside. You watch the avocados get sliced open, mashed, and seasoned with tomatoes, cilantro and jalapenos if you like spicy.
The birthday girl was particularly thrilled when the guacamole cart arrived staffed by a gorgeous, young man. He was positively delicious and couldn't wait to flirt with the birthday girl. She turned all kinds of red when he smiled and winked at her. Over the course of the night we placed orders for four bowls of guacamole just to ensure he'd keep coming back.
After several rounds of drinks we decided to order some dinner. The birthday girl went with the tostada grande, which is salad served in a taco shell.
Next to me a coworker ordered the shrimp and avocado salad:
I ordered the veggie fajitas which came in an enormous portion which included all the fajita fixings, mexican rice and black beans. I barely made a dent.
One of our coworkers skipped dinner and went right for dessert. She ordered the sopapillas, which is like fried dough and comes topped with fresh berries and whipped cream. She loved it.
Toward the end of the meal a few of us excused ourselves to find the ladies room and at that point I realized how huge the restaurant is. In addition to the front room we were sitting in, there is a long bar along the right side of the restaurant that leads to another dining room in the back! The bar scene around 9:00pm was hopping!
When we were ready to leave - full, happy and buzzing - our guacamole boy made a point to say "happy birthday" and to hug the birthday girl before she walked out the door. Needless to say, we'll be back.
