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February 24, 2001 VILLA KATRINA'S
Food *** Pricing: dinner for two, not including tax & tip: about $65 Atmosphere The entrance to Villa Katrina’s, located smack in the middle of downtown Myrtle Beach, is easy to miss. Its door is at the very corner of one of those funky old buildings on Main Street. As you descend the steep staircase into this delightfully bizarre little restaurant, you’ll notice Christmas tree lights wound round the railing; photos and old newspaper articles adorning one wall; and an old floor lamp lighting the area at the foot of the stairs. This place has more character than a weekend in Guadalajara. There are crooked Corona umbrellas, rickety old tables, damp plaster walls, more Christmas tree lights, and dozens of knick-knacks. Some of the low ceiling is covered with corrugated steel, and some is covered with cloth, tacked precariously; the floor is old concrete. A few folding screens draped with pareaus have been used to fashion an entrance. Several refrigerators and beverage coolers, and a few cardboard boxes, are lined up against the peeling stucco walls on both sides of the dining room. A bar with nine stools takes up a good portion of the room. An odd little area in one of the corners contains a few romantic tables; it’s separated from the rest of the place by an arbor draped with faux ivy. The tablecloths, on the tables that have ‘em, don’t match. For that matter, the chairs and tables and china and silverware don’t match, either. Wooden lamp bases serve as giant candlesticks on each table, and wax flows like molten lava over layers of old wax beneath. The smell of that wax is heavy in the air. Ambient music is a mixture of wonderful old Mexican classics and mediocre Latino pop. The bathrooms have peeling walls and – you guessed it – plenty of character. Food A round of the house sangria made a festive start to our meal at Villa Katrina’s. It was served with a complimentary order of chips and two salsas - one red and pleasantly tangy with just a bit of fresh cilantro, the other green and from the cry-sweat-and-sniffle school of salsa (reorders, .50). Both salsas were excellent on the warm corn chips. The tender-tongued members of our party pronounced the mild sauce good, and one intrepid diner consumed the hot salsa exclusively over the course of our meal. Both sauces can be purchased by the jar at Villa Katrina’s. We hoped to try the gazpacho, but it was unavailable on the night of our visit, so we tried the black bean soup (3.95/cup, 4.95/bowl) instead. This satisfyingly hearty soup, with plenty of garlic, was surprisingly complex and rich. We also sampled the quesadilla (9.95), generous enough to serve as a main course and stuffed with plenty of creamy white cheese. The fresh spinach was a highlight of our dinner and would make any vegetarian or veggie-loving diner ecstatically happy. Everything served hot at Villa Katrina’s is served piping hot, brought to the table directly from the oven by a server with a potholder. Each dish receives personal attention, as we saw from our table near the kitchen door. For dinner we tried the Aztec (16.95), one of the house specials. The beef taco was brought immediately as an appetizer; it was fresh, piping hot, and quite good. The chicken enchilada and chili relleno followed as the dinner course; the chicken was falling off the bone tender. The chili relleno was the American version: pepper stuffed with cheese, dipped in egg, and fried; it was a good effort, but not treated with the delicacy necessary to lift it to its true potential. The black beans served as a side dish were delicious, but the rice was overcooked and watery. We also tried the El Gallo (11.95), made with flour tortillas, chicken, and refried beans. It was very mild and subtle, with more of that superbly creamy white cheese. The El Zapata (10.75) consists of two spinach enchiladas topped with red sauce and sour cream. The dish was simply outstanding. The enchiladas were overstuffed with such rich, creamy spinach that we couldn’t believe our luck. Spirits We tried the sangria at Villa Katrina’s, and liked it a lot. It’s a little tart, with plenty of lime, and it was the perfect accompaniment for our meal. Several Mexican beers are also available – Tecate, Corona, Pacifico, and a few more – and we hear that the margaritas are outstanding. Service On the night of our visit, the staff of Villa Katrina’s consisted of a bartender, a chef, and a single server; all three of them were a constant blur of activity. Our server had no time to be unfriendly – but that also meant that she had no time to be friendly, either. A large party of golfers demanded much of her attention, and her comments to us were curt and almost perfunctory. To our server’s credit, each entrée we ordered was brought to our table piping hot – from oven to table in 15 seconds. But we were barely finished with those entrées when she placed our ticket on the table. We asked for coffee and dessert, but her response was rather discouraging. "Are you sure?" she said. "We only have one, bananas Foster. And the only coffee we have is Mexican and very strong, and there isn’t any milk." The flaming bananas Foster was missing both flames and liqueur. Desserts We’re glad we tried the Mexican coffee; it was actually pretty good, with an interesting earthy flavor. The bananas Foster costs $8.50, but it will satisfy a party of three quite sufficiently, and consists of a trio of vanilla ice cream scoops, big chunks of banana sautéed with vanilla, cinnamon, and brown sugar. A simple, messy treat, and quite good. We were disappointed that the liquor-and-flames treatment was not offered when we visited, and the "flaming coffee and desserts menu" mentioned on the dinner menu was unavailable. As we discovered in a later conversation with Katrina herself, the staff member who serves those flaming specialties is a musician who travels frequently to out-of-town gigs, and apparently he was traveling on the night of our visit. Summary This is one of the funkiest little restaurants we have ever seen, and we like it a great deal, though the service was a bit off on the night of our visit. The food – and particularly those spinach dishes – is authentic and interesting, some of the best Mexican cuisine we’ve sampled in this area. The atmosphere is authentic and interesting, as well; the dining area and bar have obviously been decorated with haphazard love and a gentle sense of humor. There’s nothing phony or pretentious here at all! But this place isn’t for the fastidious. A patina of dust covers everything; the ceilings are low and the place is rather dark; and the romantic little corner behind the ivy-draped arbor is a little musty. We concluded that Villa Katrina’s is a terrific place to take a date, or a party, but neat freaks, claustrophobes, and asthmatics might not be happy here. Please note that credit cards aren’t accepted at Villa Katrina’s, but the restaurant has an arrangement with a bar upstairs, and they also take checks from local folks with proper identification.
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