To start off, our choriqueso was soup. With perhaps 20 small chunks of chorizo in it. Texture…read moreaside, the taste was even more watered down.
Me being the Karen I am asked if I could get some shredded cheese melted in it, and that actually took it from a 5 to an 8 out of 10. Although she did charge us $1.50 for that.
The chips were nothing to write home, or to Yelp, about, but the salsa was surprisingly flavorful and not 70% water!
However, we continue along our theme of watered down textures and tastes in the next chapter.
Chapter 2: Chilaquiles and Birria Ramen
I hesitated to order any chilaquiles after the appetizer experience. And so I asked to try the chilaquiles salsas before committing to the dish.
And can I just say, thank the heavens I did. The salsa roja tasted like tomato water, legit, unfortunately. And the salsa verde was warm pepper water. Hydrating, if anything, but lacking in flavor entirely.
And so I went with the birria ramen, thinking, you know, as an Asian man who loves Mexican food, this should be perfect, right?
Uhhhh, wrong. Very wrong. And I feel like at this point you could guess what I'm gonna say. The birria ramen looks beautiful, honestly. But the consommé, you guessed it, tastes like WATER. There have been some Mexican restaurants with sides of consommé that I have unabashedly slurped out of the sauce container. But for the one that's SUPPOSED to be slurped, I couldn't bring myself to do it.
And you would hope the actual meat in the ramen would make up for the lack of flavor in its broth. And yes, on first bite the birria gives you an addicting burst of flavor. But the birria itself is surprisingly dry, considering it's quite literally suspended in liquid. So following that first bite is 30 seconds of chewing and grinding down this dry, tasteless chunk of birria. So by the end of the meal, you might have lost more calories chewing than you gained from eating it.
The noodles were thick and had an odd starchy flavor to them - I had hoped they would have at least absorbed some notes of birria, but they instead brought a unique and undesirable taste to my mouth. And unfortunately, about 90% of this dish is these noodles, so if you're not a fan of their flavor, you're in for a long haul.
With all the cilantro and onions in the bowl it honestly tasted more like a birria pho, with subtle herby notes rather than a punch of birria flavor. So if you frame it that way, it at least doesn't fall short of ALL expectations.
My ex's chicken and rice was good, I think. Kinda hard to mess that up. Not like I can reach out now and ask her how it was, lol. Service was alright, drinks were.... well you could probably guess how the drinks were. Whole experience was awfully watered down, if that ain't obvious by now. Two stars.
