John Kessler Awards Escorpion One Star

John Kessler, the lead critic for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reviewed Riccardo Ullio's new Mexican concept, Escorpion, this week and awarded it one star. Kessler calls the restaurant, which recently hired Jose Rego to replace the opening chef, "a mixed bag." He also says that, while you can sometimes detect Rego's skilled hand in the cooking, that the "kitchen slogs through too much of the pro forma food that diners expect from Mexican restaurants." Service and timing is also a problem as Kessler notes:

I’m also perplexed by how long the kitchen can take preparing the food. After we waited nearly 30 minutes for lunchtime entrees, our server explained that the presence of a health inspector in the kitchen was slowing things down. That may be the case, but the fact that one of our entrees was lukewarm and the other hot from the oven makes me think the cooks have timing issues with this complex menu.