Selva Rosa, Maitland

I had occasion to try this MexicAsian spot Monday at lunch. A rose by another other name would not mean pink jungle. I found it to have aspirations that weren't realized in this meal. I'm not sure how much can be attributed to growing pains (open for two weeks). I guess if you have hired the wrong people then you will have those. But, then I guess the blame should be with you (management) if your vision isn't realized. I tried a lunch special. I'll state here that their pricing is a selling point. I had the Surf n Turf Bento Box for $18. It was a choice of fajita (chicken) and a roll (salmon avocado) with black beans and white rice and a salad. The eight piece roll was fat. Lots of salmon and fresh avocado. However, the salmon seemed salted. I wonder if this was a flourish that landed flat or a dirty mis en place. Not a selling point. The rice was good enough. I had to ask for tortillas for the fajita. Not sure if they are to be included or they just placated me because they are still in the customer acquisition stage. Not grilled. The chicken was pretty good. Not a ton of flavor. You really missed the usual condiments (sour cream, guac, etc). The salad was old and poor. A kind of take on the Japanese salad with orange dressing. Avocado and lime. This had been mixed well before. All the components were wilted/mushy. With the lack of condiments, I employed the salad and black beans as adjuncts. The beans were tasteless and surrounded by mud water. The rice was very good. Basmati, I believe. Chips and salsa were included. The chips could have been a bit fresher. The salsa tasted fishy. No heat. I did ask for hot sauce in a bottle (in case salsa number one had jizz in it) with the box and they came back with a better hot version and a dish of habenero sauce that I didn't try. So, we almost had the makings of a Favorite. But, these basic failures made this all the more infuriating. It was like like seeing a musical at the Wayne Densch Theater. You're left lamenting what it was not rather than what it was. Hopefully, they can clean these things up because it could be very good. The menu is full of fusion. And while I found fault with a similarly inspired mash up at Nikitta, the main difference is the value they assess themselves. This is not MORE expensive than traditional (properly executed) Japanese. It is less. Probably half as dear as these Peruvian enterprises. I did have some consternation over the descriptors. A quick perusal was not enough to conclude whether their dishes were novel or just a play on words. Obviously, if it is the former then I would be more impressed. They offer up a bit of sushi and sashimi. Empanadas, all the forms of tortilla based dishes, ceviche, edamame, guisada, pork chop, pollo asada, etc. A rib eye at $30 was the top end. I didn't love that the apps had main prices. A few desserts. Cocktails, basic beer and wine selection and hard stuff. The place is huge with high ceilings. L shaped bar in the far corner. A few booths and high tops in that area. A main room with around fifteen tables and four booths. A section with the sushi bar that had four tables and seats at the bar. And a large patio area. Seats were wicker and wood. Black ceiling, gray, wood, bamboo. Green leaf accents. Many jaguar paintings. A horde of employees. Three hosts. Around twenty wait staff. Their presence was a bit distracting. As was the music of tone deaf, whisper singing female pop tarts. The ac was also way too high. They had some parking. It is in the old Rusteak location on South Orlando. The mis-steps should be easy to correct. Then again, if they were allowed to take places to begin with, should we expect the people that allowed them to be able to cure them? Here's hoping. O E O E O.