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| - In the US, It's pretty tough to find good Mexican food outside of the Southwest. We live in New York City now, but my wife is originally from California and I lived out there for 11 years, so our palate for Mexican cuisine is pretty refined. We still travel at least once a year to both San Francisco and San Diego (where her family still lives and where my friends live, respectively). Both of us can tell the difference between Oaxacan & Baja Mexican for example...two VERY distinctively different styles of food.
With our credentials on the line, I think we have a right to have our opinions considered :)
I was visiting my family this past Summer in Cleveland (my hometown) and heard about Momocho's. The location is great; a real up & coming neighborhood. The decor is bold...lots of Dio de los muertos artwork all over from what I remember. Very fitting for this restaurant. They had a back patio that was very nicely set up and clean. Staff was friendly and responsive. We actually met the owner and I shook hands with him, telling him how I saw the episode of Diners, Drive-In's & Dives, in which Momocho was featured. The owner seemed like a very nice person who cared a lot about his restaurant and the food he was putting out.
I know it's not a huge deal, but we both drank Pacifico beer. Love it, but it's not easy to find, especially in a restaurant on the eastern part of the US. Easily one of my favorite imports. If you're drinking anything other that Pacifico when it comes to Mexican cerveza, you're doing it wrong.
Anyway, we started out with both the Chorizo Sausage and the Sofrito Green Beans. I inhaled the Queso Fundido Chorizo. Very balanced flavors that packed quite a punch. And I'm not a fan of green beans at all, but my wife convinced me to try and I learned that I had been eating green beans wrong my ENTIRE LIFE! These were amazing and exactly the flavors that you should get from such an otherwise disgusting veggie!
On to the next course, where I ordered the Tinga and she ordered the Chicharones. This is where I abandoned my plate and began to divulge in the chicharones, which when cooked properly are out of this world. Allegedly, Momocho's has some of the best and these were cooked to near perfection. The Tinga on the other hand, left a lot to be desired. This is where the last star fell from my rating. What was brought to the table were large chunks of fairly dry chicken breast on skewers that were roasted with some spice. My wife and I were shocked because if you've ever been out West, you would never EVER see this. It seemed like a pretty big flaw, especially for someone who is trying to represent such world-class flavors and plates. In Mexico (and Cali for that matter), chicken is pulled or shredded, never cubed. And it's usually dark meat to give most flavor. AND it's left to stew and marinate for a long time. Sure, it's my fault for not realizing that when I ordered 'skewers', but to even have it as an option is a bit strange and far reaching for Mexican cuisine. In my defense, there were many different plays on traditional Mexican food on the menu and this could have been one of them. Not sure how you would skewer pulled chicken, but that's what an excellent chef is for!
Overall, we had a very pleasant experience there and we both vowed to go back for round two...next time I'll just have to put more thought into it.
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