Rosa Mexicano

Rosa Mexicano was once a lone paragon of fine Mexican dining. But with three restaurants in Manhattan, one in Washington, DC, and two more on the way (in 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. And yet, despite the middling food and high prices, crowds still can’t get enough of the place—must be the addictive pomegranate margaritas.