Don't let the name food you. On a search for some 'real' mexican food, Yelp led me to La Mexicana Grocery. First thoughts of this were that we would be eating at a divey, some kind of converted back closet of a Grocery store (totally fine with for me- being that the best mexican food in Queens are off the street carts or from the tiny kitchens of hidden bodegas). I was surprised to find that La Mexicana is larger than what I thought, a separate Grocery Store (with fresh Mexican pastries, veggies, sodas, chorizo, in addition to home goods, spices, dry and canned goods) and a Restaurant side. It was very clean, had a full bar,10-12 tables, colorful walls, and intricately painted jaguar and iguana decorations. I was even more surprised that on a Saturday night, the place had more gringos.. than latin customers. I was worried... LOL (Actually, there was a nice mix of middle-aged couples on a dinner date, young professionals, college students, and families(Central & South American, Indian, White))
I happily ate my way through a delicious meal. For 2 people, the meal cost about $33 (including a steak burrito to go). We shared 1 hibiscus tea, 2 tacos (lengua and chorizo), 1 chicken tamale, 1 steak platter (comes with refried beans, yellow rice, salad, guac, & side of tortilla). By 6:30 pm on a Saturday, they said that they had run out of horchata and the dominica steak platter due to the busy lunch hour.The hibiscus tea was Awesome- a cross between cranberry and grape with more depth, a little sweet. The tacos were tasty as well- the tortillas fluffy and SO fresh, the lengua (beef tongue) was the better one- trust me- like the softest beef you will ever have. The chorizo was okay, a little like finely ground taco meat. The tamale was soft and filled with dark meat chicken, it was fairly mild but comforting in texture. The steak platter was good, but the steak a little tough although flavorful, next time I'd like to try the Dominica Steak Platter. The mexican rice was delicious and so were the beans and guac.
For some reason our waitress forgot to put in our order of Shrimp on Tostada, I'd like to try that next time in addition to their "pizza." Which apparently is huge. Saw one table order large cups of what looked like Shrimp Ceviche in tomato sauce? Not sure if it's on the menu, will have to investigate..
Our waitress seemed to be related to the Host/Owner? All the girls looked like they were working hard all day. Service was very friendly, the platters came out a bit slower than the rest of the food. Thank you La Mexicana!
PS. They do close VERY early, 8pm. By 7:30pm, all the tables were filled. read more