I had been looking forward to trying this place because I have seen many reviews that proclaim "authentic Mexican". I've been disappointed before but not this time, they are the REAL deal. I've spent a lot of time in Mexico, and not just tourist towns, from Cancun & Cozumel or Tijuana & Juarez but in cities in central Mexico & many towns up & down Baja from fine dining to roadside stands & everything in-between. Me encanta la buena comida mexicana!
Funny story: On our young daughter's first trip to Mexico we stopped in a small roadside cafe for lunch and when her tacos arrived she looked a bit confused. The soft corn tortillas with sliced flank steak (Asada) topped with fresh cilantro and finely diced white onions indeed looked foreign to her. After she discovered these were actually tacos she asked if we could find the nearest Taco Bell :-) I've told that story many times but honestly & unfortunately that's not an uncommon response when lots of folks experience their first time having authentic Mexican meals. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy many Tex-Mex dishes but it's different & it's unfortunate to see bad reviews that rant about no cheese, no crunchy tortilla's or queso dip, etc. c'mon people! If you put "Mi Tierra" in a translator it may say "My Earth" but when Gloria Estafan sings the song "Mi Tierra" it means "My Homeland" & that nuance is important because this restaurant serves the food of the Mexican Homeland... but I digress.
Let's talk about this place. It's off the main drag tucked away in a small strip shopping and it's not fancy or decorated with piñatas and sombreros but it's clean & comfortable with friendly people. The owner/manager speaks fluent English but the servers I encountered weren't conversationally adept but handled my orders and other requests just fine. Some of the brutal comments I've read about language are totally unnecessary until you've travelled to countries or places where you don't speak the language or struggle with the basic lingo, you quickly appreciate patient people. There's 2 big screen TV's on either side of the place, there are no margaritas or other alcohol but I love me some Jarritos tamarind so I'm good, and they've got several soda coolers and make some inhouse juices as well.
Onto the food, first of all, they bring out four different squeeze bottles of homemade sauces & two different bottled hot sauces already at the table give you nice choices to augment your different dishes. There are fresh tortilla chips out first with an inhouse fresh salsa, it's pretty mild but lots of options to spice it up in front of me. Speaking of choices, the menu offers beef, shrimp, chicken, pork and goat with all those options offered in tacos, burritos, fajitas and soups. For the authentic lovers, there's Menudo, which is hard to find around here. OI would be remiss if I didn't mention their excellent fresh-made tortillas, they are great and you receive 6 of them with your meal. The soups look amazing and there's a big selection so on my next trip I will seriously try one or more of those.
For our choices this fine evening, my sweetheart went with the shrimp fajitas which came out fresh & hot. The shrimp were nicely cooked and seasoned with red & green peppers & onions with a side of good rice and refried beans. There's no cheese, guac, lettuce or tomato served with their fajitas but then again that's what I would expect in Mexico. I had the HUGE beef burrito that wasn't hamburger, it was a finely chopped beef that was once again nicely prepared & seasoned and filled with veggies & rice, it was one of the best burritos I've ever had, enough said.
Bottom line: The food is authentic and delicious and the folks are professional, friendly and take pride in what that put out. This gringo really enjoys the "real deal" freshly prepared food here and I highly recommend it, period. read more