What A Great Place!
As were driving down the street towards…read morethe Naples Botanical Garden, we passed a brewery and next to it was this small Mexican restaurant. How perfect. After our nature visit, we could stop for a beverage, then get a late lunch next door. Well let me tell you, this is legit authentic Mexican. We walked over from the brewery next door. There's a patio out front with tables and umbrellas, but it was scorchingly hot and we wanted to sit inside. Not too many tables as it's small, but one opened up for the three of us. A very polite server provided menus and took our drink orders. My daughter and I both had Micheladas. You can select what beer you want in the mix. I had Modelo Negro, my daughter selected Modelo Especial. My wife had a bottle of water. No tap water here, you need to buy the bottle. We studied the menu trying to decide what to get. Everything we could see others eating looked great and tacos seemed to be the popular meal. Our Micheladas came out and these were festive. Large mugs, rimmed with a pretty zippy tahin and pepper blend, filled with the beer and a slightly spicy tomato juice mix. Very flavorful. A something new for us was the addition of a tamarind straw. It's a plastic straw, covered with a sweet spicy tamarind blend. They actually call it candy. You use it to stir your drink and then nibble on the candy. What a great fun thing to add to a drink. By the way, the Michelada was excellent. I enjoyed licking the tajin seasoned rim with each sip, just like a salted rim on a margarita. Still studying the menu, we ordered the Choriqueso appetizer. The basket came out with fresh fried corn tortilla chips and a bowl of queso cheese with chorizo sausage crumbled into it. Runnier than most cheese dips we're used to, but enjoyable nonetheless. Finally we ordered our meals.
Al Pastor Tacos for my wife, Chorizo and Steak Tacos and Quesabirria Quesadilla for my daughter and Caldo de Camaron for myself. In just a few minutes, our delights were delivered and the feast began. All of the meats in the tacos and quesadilla were excellent. Great flavors and no skimping on the meats. Onions, cilantro and self squeezed lime punched up the flavors. The quesabirria come with an au jus style dipping sauce that was perfect. My shrimp soup was spectacular. Easily shareable, but I accepted the challenge to eat this myself. Served with numerous warm tortillas, chopped onions, cilantro and lime, I put it all in. A very light yet flavorful broth and as the pic shows, loaded with flavorful shrimp. I enjoyed every spoonful. A wonderful soup. As with most authentic Mexican restaurants, you are made to feel that \you are their guest. They will never make you feel that you've overstayed and if you want your check, you just go to the register at the counter. Looking forward to our next trip there.
