| rev:text
| - 3 or 4... 3 or 4.. 3 or 4.. ARG! Darn this thing for not having fractions. I knew this would be tough the minute I left this place.
I find myself in food ruts very often. I know that if I want Mexican food I can go to "insert location here" and leave a happy. Lately my life runs in big giant loops. I do the same things at the same times on the same days. I've decided I need to branch somehow and food is what I landed on. Its a risky one because I don't get to indulge frequently. More often then not its a risk worth taking :)
I decided there had to be other really good old school Arizona Senoran Mexican food joints. This is phoenix, the birth place of the burning hot plate, molten cheese pooling, greasy FREAKING AWESOME! I stumbled upon la pinata.. "Home of the chimichanga since 1970" now that's old school. I did what I always do when I run into something that claims to have been around since the dawn of time in phoenix. I emailed my Dad and Uncle and asked them about it. The whole family loves Mexican and if its been around and was decent they had to have been here.
"Been around forever.. used to go there a few times a week.. don't make it to that area much anymore.."
This is a good sign. I gathered a small group and got it in my mind that I was going to try one of each of the staples:
cheese crisp, guacamole, taco, enchilada, relleno, tamale
We would go here and split this then head over to Los Compadres and do the same. Never made it to #2 as the cheese and grease (not complaining) won over my will to continue.
Food:
chips hot/mild salsa:
The chips were great! Nice and crispy.. no hint of stale or greasy. Really the perfect chip in my mind. The salsa was also delicious. Was very fresh and heavy on the cilantro. It actually had some kick/spice to it. I was actually surprised how much heat it had and that most of the gringo's weren't complaining about it. For me nothing is to hot. Also really liked their hot sauce which was the normal pureed red chili, garlic, Mexican oregano variety but had no bitterness. Good stuff!
cheese crisp:
Ahhhh the cheese crisp. A magical thing made or two ingredients that somehow can be worlds different everywhere you go. This one was great! The cheese blend was excellent. It was the right combination of crispy/fold-able. Some people like them super crunchy.. I'm not one of those people. I like it right in the middle. Fold-ability is important for mass salsa, guacamole storage :) If its to crispy it just crumbles and you have salsa and grease all over your hands, plate and face. It is kind of sexy for a foodie. But you don't want a date seeing you like this. Some places really mess these up.. or even worse! fold the damn things over and still call them cheese crisps.. This is a quesadilla! not the same thing. You serve me a quesadilla when I order a cheese crisp and there's gonna be trouble.
guacamole:
Another place in the valley that knows what guacamole should be. Avocado, Lime, Lemon, Garlic, Green Onion, and Salt. Maybe a little cilantro and some small amount of pepper(serrano) for heat. None of this giant pieces of tomato and white onion nonsense. Some people love it when they ruin guac like this "oh it tastes so fresh!" Bad news people it makes it taste like tomatoes and onions, nothing but a filer knocking down the production cost which I assure you is not passed down to you ;)
shredded beef taco:
I actually like this one better then carlos o'briens. The meat is still very tasty and I believe the shell is fried with the meat inside. It had zero "soggy effect," You know what I'm taking about, one or two bites before the bottom falls out and you finish it on your plate with a fork and knife. Its still tasty when this happens, its kind of like the cheese crisp mess, its not pretty. This was darn good but I still like the ones at Manuels better.
green corn tamale:
I can't judge this well as I don't eat these very often. It was nice and moist and had a good texture. It seemed like it might be a little overly sweet to me.
chile relleno:
Decent. I liked the batter but the chile was to mild and their green sauce is lacking. Best ones I've ever had were at a place called the friendly dolphin in rocky point Mexico.
cheese enchilada:
I really like their cheese blend so it was hard not to like the enchilada. The corn tortilla was good. Was not a fan of the red sauce.
Red/Green Sauce:
I wasn't in love with the red or the green sauce. It wasn't horrible but far far farrrr from the best in the valley. Since this covers 90% of all Mexican food this is why this place isn't getting a higher rating.
Cons:
Very pricey! a taco, tamale, enchilada, rice and beans combo is 12.95. Cheese crisp with a side of guacamole 7.50!
Service was 3 out of 5. Felt neglected at times.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)