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Eats - Mexican
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Wes' Rules On Finding Good Mexican Food
Choose a place that doesn't advertise its "enormous margaritas"
If you're ordering carnitas or other
meat dish as a taco or burrito, see if you can look
at the meat before you order it. Then choose whatever
looks best, not what you had a hankering for.
Order something you
can't find on a Taco Bell menu
If the menu says a dish is "covered
with cheese," don't
order it.
If the menu isn't translated into English,
you'll probably eat well for very little.
If you can't find a restaurant, check to see if a Mexican grocery store also serves burritos or other fast food. In LA, we regularly had excellent food off the back of a "roach coach" food truck.
If the salsa is served in a molcajete, it probably came out of a jar |
Alberto's
956 Park Ave.
San Jose, CA 95126-3034
408/288-5928
Rating: **
I love this dive for some reason.
It might be because they serve sopes, which I haven't had since I left LA, or that the food appears to be cooked by someone's mom. It's not pretty, but these homey dishes are prepared the way I think they are at home (uncompromised). The tiny dining room was recently separated from the bar area, which cuts down on the ambience a bit, but you can still overhear the soccer match on the TV.The restaurant is conveniently located across the street from Leather Masters (a leather fetish and general gay sex supply store), so you can pick up some Eros and condoms, then cross the street for pozole.
06/05/01
Aqui Cal-Mex Grill - Willow Glen location
1145 Lincoln Ave.
San Jose, CA 95125
408/995-0381
Rating: ***
Surprisingly good micro-chain of Mexican-California fusion
foods. The specials are interesting and the ingredients are
top-notch. Unfortunately, this place suffers from the weird
American habit of making everything "healthy" so
the flavor isn't always there. Still, it's a decent place
to pick up a quick lunch or dinner, or have a casual bit
on the open air patio out back.
06/02/2002
BEST
MEXICAN DATE RESTAURANT |
Consuelo Mexican Bistro
377 Santana Row
San Jose, CA 95128
408/260-7082
Rating: ****
My friend Cevin took me here for the first time, and we've
been back many times since. Conseulo's does what I've always
wished a Mexican restaurant would do, and that's cook traditional
(or sort of traditional) dishes using top quality ingredients,
and having the smarts to charge people for it because it's
worth it.
NOTE: You order sides separately from
your entree. Everything
we've ever ordered has been very good (except for the small
tamale appetizers, which you can skip), service has been
good to excellent, and the we leave happy. We were just
there in early May 2006 for dinner, and everything (carnitas,
scallops, etc.) were very good. My only complaints are
with presentation (sloppy for these prices) and the noise
level within the restaurant. Dinner for two: $57 with tip.
Support this place! 05/11/2006
Update: Feb 21, 2007 We
return for a splurge dinner to celebrate my new job at
Saba at one of my favorite San Jose restaurants. We had
guacamole (I'm starting not to mind the show biz of the
tableside prep), ceviche (very nice), pollo rellena huiltacoche
(chicken with corn smut, which has an unusual flavor),
carnitas (my fave), arroz platanos, friejoles negros, and
nieve fruta and flan to finish it off. Did we actually
eat all of this? No. A lot of it came back with us in the
car. Service is considerate, although slow during busy
times. Before tip: $74.70.
El Grullense
2148 Story Rd.
San Jose, CA 95122
408/259-3814
Rating: ** (mostly because of their business hours)
I chanced on this place because the guy that I'm seeing was doing his laundry next door at the lavenderia, which interestingly uses the same chip-on-a-debit-card technology used by American Express Blue cards. Anyway, we were hungry so we wandered next door and found this place open (the hours on weekends are extraordinary—8 a.m. to 4 a.m. I had two al pastor sopes, which were okay. The shell was a little heavy and the meat wasn't very flavorful. My friend had the same sope and a taco. The menu is pretty extensive for a sobering up place, and included some Michoacana specialities, which we couldn't decipher. The staff was very friendly and very pretty. A special note: while we were ordering a transvestite in full drag walked in and ordered, and no one gawked, laughed, or raised a fuss, which I thought was a very, very good sign. There are three El Grullense locations, the other two being on 1175 E. Julian and 1696 Berryessa Rd. 01/26/03
La Michoacana
251 South B St.
San Mateo, CA
650/348-9610
Rating: ****
It's rare to find a restaurant that makes handmade tortillas, but this is basically the only reason I come to this small restaurant. The tortillas, which are served without fanfare, are thick and delicious. The room is split into two levels, with most of the tables being upstairs, directly above the kitchen.
The chile verde and colorado are good, as are the beef tacos.
08/02
El Mezquite Restaurant
2323 The Alameda
Santa Clara, CA 95050
408/243-1357
Rating: **
This is a small, mom-and-pop restaurant a few blocks from
my house, so I stop by regularly when I don't feel like cooking.
The stand out is the carne asada plate, topped with grilled
onions, guacamole, and salsa. I've been eating a lot of the
chile colorado lately, and it keeps well, preserved by the
pools chile oil. The homemade mole is good, although sometimes
a bit overcooked. The burritos are a bargain, and the meats
are usually juicy and flavorful. Homemade menudo is available
weekends, although I've lost my taste for this style of tripe.
06/20/2002
La Milpa
107 N. Milpitas Blvd.
Milpitas, CA 95035-4404
Phone: 408/945-6540
Rating: ***
A very good family restaurant, especially for lunch. Whenver
I go here I typically order the chicken mole enchiladas,
which are dark, sweet, and topped with raw onion for balance.
The other items on the menu are good Mexican-American food.
Very reasonable prices, but it can get busy evenings, even
during the week. 06/20/2002
La Paloma
2280 El Camino Real
Santa Clara CA
408/247-0990
Rating: *
I'm not sure why this restaurant is so highly regarded. It
must be because it's easy to find and everything is covered
with cheese. This is straight ahead Mexican-American food—cheese-laden,
sour cream covered, on the bland side—which is why I usually
have a difficult time finding something I want to eat. If you
want something safe for your cousins from North Dakota to go
to then go here, but beware: it's popular with screaming babies. 02/2002
Left At Albuquerque
1100 Burlingame Ave.
Burlingame, CA
650/401-5700
Rating: *
A chain, and not a particularly good one. They get one point
for having spotless bathrooms. 06/2002
Lucy's Tamale Factory
974 Story Road
San Jose, CA 95122
6 a.m.—10 p.m. daily
408/275-8262
Rating: ****
We stumbled on this place when buying baguettes and paté at Lee's, whose
Story Road location is in the same shopping center. This is mostly a takeout
joint, with a counter, two small tables, and a refrigerator with Mexican sodas.
The pork and chicken tamales are very good, the best I've had in San Jose. Admittedly
I haven't had a craving for Mexican food in a year or so, but we bought these
at 2 p.m., which means they were probably put into the steamer much earlier and
the masa was still fairly light. The pulled pork filling was a bit dry, but the
pulled chicken was still moist and nicely spicy. They sell the tamales—pork,
chicken, corn, sweet (with raisins, etc.), jalepeno and cheese—either individually
or in batches of 15, so it's an easy way to feed a horde. 05/25/2003
Los Mexicanos
Restaurant y Taqueria
2651 Senter Road
San Jose CA 95111
408/280-5534
We stopped here because it's on the way to my uncle's house.
There's also a really interesting Vietnamese bakery at the
other end of the strip mall. They have some really unusual
meats here, including something I can't really identify but
is similar to tripas. This is the main reason we
go back. The key here is that the tacos are regular size
(not Taco Bell size) so you can try a lot of them. The other
dishes that use the same meat are very good and are served
in big portions, e.g., the burritos, although they add everything
for you if you don't speak Spanish. They advertise their
one-pound burritos, but I don't know how anyone could actually
eat something like that. Fixings are on a small counter on
the far wall from the ordering counter. Order, sit, enjoy.
It's cheap, quick, and very good. Feb,
2007
Pancho's Mexican Grill
3440 Geary Blvd
San Francisco, CA
415/387-8226
Rating: **
We went here because it's across the street from Pier One,
and I wanted to go look at what they had on sale. This is a
tiny mom-and-pop joint, but the food is quite good. It's not
up to San Jose standards, but the meat was tasty in our carnitas
tacos (not dry) and the salsa was pretty good. Cute cook. Two
carnitas burritos were $10.61. 08/27/2006
Plaza Garibaldi -
NEW
1170 East Santa Clara St
San Jose, CA 95112
408/298-0121
Rating: ***
My friend Cevin took me here for dinner on a weeknight. First
thing: don't order the guacamole, which was probably the worst
I've ever had. Second: do try some of the odder items on the
menu. I had a an interesting Michoacan dish with chicken
and a layered tortilla "lasagna" covered with a delicious queso
seco which I really enjoyed and haven't stopped thinking about.
NOTE: I'm lactose intolerant and the cheese didn't bother me
one bit. My friend's chili rellenos was also quite good, although
I only had a bite. I would actually just skip the appetizers
and order an extra entree if you're really, really hungry.
Portions are generous and prices aren't outrageous. 09/16/2006
Victor’s Mexican
Food
210 Townsend St
San Francisco, CA
(415) 495-7018
Rating: **
Stopped here because the place that replaces my car windows
(one of the dangers of having an obviously gay license plate
cover) is two doors down. Small carnitas burrito was okay
on meat but rice and beans are de facto rather than an option.
I think the server gave me the less fatty pieces, which of
course meant that they were a bit on the dry side. The most
interesting thing was the fruity salsa which is available
at each table. It was a lot like a faintly spicy, faintly
sweet, faintly fruity apricot jam. Oct 18, 2006
Zazil Coastal Mexican Cuisine - NEW!
845 Market St. Ste 400
San Francisco, CA 94102
Rating: ****
We stopped here because we were looking for the new Harry
Potter. We had guacamole (prepared tableside which seems
to be the unfortunate trend), callos de hacina (recommended),
and arroz a la tumbada (also recommended). We finished off
with arroz con leche and budin. The latter is a corn pudding,
not always sweet, but it was here and it was delicious. Two
coffees rounded out dinner. The set up of the restaurant
is sort of odd because it tries to recreate patio dining
in a mall, which unfortunately gives it the feeling of a
really nice food court stall. Service was first-rate. The
pricetag was high: $80.29 before tip so we won't be going
here much. July
21, 2007
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