Update 2024: This place has unfortunately closed their doors. đą
Welcome back to another installment of: Reading about what and where I eat. This time I went to a “traditional” mexican food place.
About the place
The restaurant is located in UsaquĂ©n. A bit off the beaten path, but not that far off. A short-ish walk uphill from 7th avenue, and you’re there. They have a very pink mural outside, so you can’t miss it:
It is small, with some tables outside, and some inside. I guesstimate that it could sit at most 20 people. I say this as this time I went with a large group. 9 people counting myself. We had to wait a bit for the staff to accommodate us, but it was just a bit.
Everytime I’ve been there a table was available. It was never empty though.
Speaking about the staff, they were friendly, and I believe some of them were actually from Mexico. This makes me believe that the place is owned by actual Mexican people. This is just conjecture though.
Inside, the place is decorated as clichĂ© Mexican: colorful walls, pictures of the virgin, some traditional decorations which I assume to be from Jalisco, you know, the usual. It’s not overbearingly clichĂ©, just enough to constantly remind you that you are eating at a Mexican restaurant while not in Mexico.
What about the food?
I have already been in the place before, but it was before I created this blog. The previous times the quality of the food has been exceptional, this time was no exception.
I ordered the tacos al pastor I was craving, with a coconut lemonade to drink:
We didn’t have to wait too long for our food, even though we were a large group. About half an hour or so. Pretty good compared to some other places I’ve been alone.
The tacos arrived accompanied by guacamole and some chopped onions. The onions weren’t too sharp, so I assume they were put in water to remove the “spiciness”.
The plate comes with three tacos, that, I’m not going to lie, left me a bit hungry. This is not a critique of the serving size, but bad planning on my part. I wanted tacos, but I needed a bit more food in me. Don’t make the same mistake and order the tacos without something else if you are hungry.
They tasted great, not the best ones I’ve had in my life, but still pretty good. It wasn’t spicy at all, but I could still taste the flavor of the different chiles that make up the traditional al pastor sauce. They didn’t have too much pineapple, so they weren’t too sweet. Personally I think they could have a bit more sweetness to contrast with the natural, acidic taste of the chiles.
The restaurant serves the hot sauce separately. This means you can put whatever level of spice you can manage into your dish. This is a good thing if you have any sensitivity to capsaicin. You can still taste the authentic mexican flavor without the pain.
The hot sauces are served in three distinct “strengths”: a green chilli sauce that is not really spicy, a maroon sauce that is spicy enough for me, and a bright red sauce that was spicy enough to make me tear up a bit. I consider my tolerance as medium, but gauge the level by yourself first.
The lemonade was not that good to be honest. It had too much ice, not enough coconut milk, and it needed more time in the blender. This made it too watery and too cold to really enjoy. The cardboard straw broke when I stirred the drink as it started to separate, because it had large pieces of ice still in it. I had to finish it “au-natural”.
I hadn’t ordered the coconut lemonade before, but I like to try it whenever a restaurant has it on the menu. this time it was a miss.
Thoughts?
I really like this place. The food is great and the staff is friendly and very eager to please. This time I didn’t have much luck with my drink, but it doesn’t discredit the rest of the menu.
The wait time is consistent. Everytime I waited about the same amount. This can change if the restaurant gets full.
The tacos al pastor are good to try, but there are more filling dishes if you wish to eat your fill. In my limited experience, any plate you order will be good.