Rosa Mexicano (CLOSED)

Rosa Mexicano was once a lone paragon of fine Mexican dining. But with three restaurants in Manhattan and nine branches total, including one in Washington, DC, Atlanta and Miami, it has become an upscale chain. Rosa Mexicano’s guacamole, prepared tableside to your specifications, launched a pestle craze in New York; the stuff is still the chunky, spicy standard by which others are judged. The rest of the food, however, has lost some of its flair. Boneless short ribs can be stringy and overpowered by a stewed heap of tomatoes and peppers.