I've found myself craving Mexican food a lot lately. Since the rest of my family doesn't want…read moreMexican as often as I do, I have been taking different members with me to different restaurants. For my trip to Don Miguel, I took my oldest (14). She ordered a burrito with only chicken and cheese. I don't know what I ordered. Their menu board had a section called something like "chef's specialty." The menu board had a picture, the name of whatever the dish was, and the choices of meats. I ordered that chef's specialty with carne asada. The best way I can describe it is if you rolled out dough into incredibly thin ovals, then dropped them into a pan of something like Crisco for just long enough to get them to puff up a little, then put them on a plate with carne asada on top. A lot of times, when you're ordering something with steak cut into small pieces, you can get a lot of gristle, but I didn't notice that. It seemed like they either used better quality meat than a lot of places, or did a better job butchering it. I would highly recommend this meal. I'll try to remember to update this review with the actual name of the meal next time I go.
I'm not sure of the best way to tell you about my daughter's burrito, which I ended up finishing, because it was pretty massive. I guess I'll start by saying that my daughter said it was the best burrito she has ever had. In my opinion, asking for a burrito with only chicken and cheese is essentially asking for a bland burrito. So, I don't feel like I can give a great assessment of how good their burritos are, but the kid who likes chicken and cheese burritos really liked the chicken and cheese burrito at Don Miguel.
We went on a Saturday, and the restaurant was doing a very good business. There were a handful of open tables, but all of them except one were large tables. As a party of two, I didn't want to occupy a large table at a busy time. The one open smaller booth hadn't been bussed yet. I'm probably giving more detail than I need to, but I don't want to just say that my table hadn't been bussed before I sat down, and make it sound like the workers weren't doing their job. So, I want to make it clear that I chose an unbussed table when bussed tables were available. The reason it's relevant that I chose an unbussed table is that my table had a squeeze bottle of red salsa, and a squeeze bottle of green salsa. I did not notice squeeze bottles on any of the other tables, which makes me think these bottles are something that you ask for if you want them. The reasonI think that's worth mentioning is that the salsa verde was incredibly mild, but the regular salsa (is "red" in Spanish "roja"?) was spicier than any salsa I have ever had as the standard salsa at a restaurant. I've had spicier salsas when I specifically bought hot salsas in grocery stores. So, I'm not saying this salsa was unimaginably spicy. I'm just saying that I'd bet they have squeeze bottles of mild, medium, and spicy; and whoever sat at the table probably asked for spicy. If you ask for salsa and there's only one kind of red salsa though, I would be prepared for it to have a nice kick.
The staff seemed very nice, as far as I could tell. If the fact that I'm not sure how to say "red" in Spanish didn't already give this away, English is my only language, and I don't feel like I speak that language well enough to get cocky and try to learn a second language. It seemed like most of the staff at Don Miguel also spoke one language. It wasn't a problem, though. When I tried to give my daughter's special order, the woman just called over another guy who kindly took my order in English. (I've tried my best to learn a few words in Spanish for my next visit, and I understand that saying something like "Uno burrito solamente pollo y queso, por favor. No frijoles, no lechuga, por favor." should do the trick.)
I also had horchata. I actually hate horchata. I normally drink iced tea, but they didn't have iced tea. I try not to drink soda. So, I asked the gentleman if they had agua fresca. The gentleman who was taking my order said "horchata?" and seemed to read on my face that horchata wasn't what I wanted. (It's the only agua fresca I have had that I didn't like.) When he saw my face, he pivoted to asking if I wanted ice water. I was about to say yes when I realized that I'm pretty sure "agua fresca" translates to "fresh water," and that this guy may have been assuming I thought "agua fresca" was the way to ask for ice water. I may be stupid, but the Dunning-Kruger Effect is strong with me. So, I don't want people thinking I'm stupid. As a result, I proudly said "You know what? I think I will have a horchata." It was like a quart of horchata. So, if you like horchata, that would probably be a pleasant surprise for you.
By the way, the prices at Don Miguel were fantastic. Obviously inflation has had an effect on us all, but the folks at Don Miguel seem to be doing a good job of handling it.
I highly recommend!
