Hows The Mexican Restuarants Where you Live?

[Wyatt Burp]

I live in Sacramento. There's a Mexican restaurant on every corner almost. It's hard to find a bad one but we have our favorites that are almost as good as my wifes mexican food.
Since forum members are in every state, I was wondering. Is authentic mexican restaurants common in northern states far from the border states where the cultures tend to blend together? I mean, is good mexican food common and taken for granted in, say Maine?
I know it's a weird question but I was just wondering.

 

[Forester]

I don't know from authentic, but I do like to go to Margarita's when I get a chance. Yummy food, good portions.

Margaritas Mexican Restaurant

 

[Mickey D]

Wyatt, we have the same down our way. Many great little mom & pop resturants with authentic mexican food. Real soft 'corn tortilla' tacos.

 

[socal s&w]

Well, I'm not at the northeastern end of things, I'm in San Diego, at the extreme southwest end of things.

Mexican food here, as you can imagine, is incridible.

There are restaurants on most every corner and most times they are the best ones to enjoy, it seems the greasier, the better they taste.

Mexican food is in my diet at least four times a week and I'm a full-on gringo.

 

[Ron H.]

Sir, lots of good Mexican restaurants in Denver, though you can find bad ones if you try. If you don't see Latinos or hear Spanish being spoken among the employees or patrons, that's a bad sign.

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.

 

[feralmerril]

I used to live in southern california, now utah. They arent as good here as back in california, and they darn sure dont make a good margareta either!

 

[dennis40x]

Since we're the Northern most Provence of Mexico it's all fine and authentic.

 

[ladder13]

Good one in my neighborhood called Hacienda Tres Amigos, the real deal.

 

[gunsmith11]

have plenty of mexican restaurants, come to think of it have plenty of mexicans

 

[Wyatt Burp]

Years ago my wife and i went into a Mexican restaurant near the Oakland Coliseum. Chinese people ran it. I said to my wife, " This seems so weird the food has to be good!."
It was really bad. I mean no offence to Asian cooks in general, which would be nuts because there's tons of great Chinese places around here.

 

[armadillo]

San Antonio is home of thousands of Tex-Mex restaurants and a few that serve real-Mexico Mexican food.

I have also lived in El Paso and Houston and each is different. When I lived in VA the Hondurans owned the Mexican restaurants - not the same.

 

[sipowicz]

Plenty down here...

 

[BigRich315]

Muy bueno, delicioso! I'm going to Margarita's tomorrow night as a matter of fact, for a friend's birthday.

 

[gregintenn]

We have an abundance of Mexican restuarants around here. They rnage from good to very good. The best Mexican food I've eaten in a while, however, came from one of those little roadside taco stands. Are they all really good, or did I just hit it lucky?

 

[Firehouse]

Here in L.A. (Lower Alabama), there are two in the town I live in. One is Monarcas the other La Parota. Both owned by the same individual, pretty much the same menu options but a lightly different atmosphere between the two. They stay wrapped up. He also has another Monarcas in a neighboring town and it's very good too.

I ate at a Mexican restaurant called Acapulco's right on the port of L.A. once when I visited Los Angeles. It was great. I had a lot of fun partaking in the margaritas and some of the neighboring diners got a kick out of it and joined in. Good stuff.

 

[lcdrdanr]

After growing up in South Texas, living in New Mexico and then being transferred up to Indiana, I was a bit apprehensive about finding any good Mexican food. My realtor in Bedford, Indiana told me "Oh, you are so lucky because coming from Texas you will appreciate good mexican food. Here in Bedford, we have a ........................ TACO BELL !!!! And, they are just wonderful....................... !!"

Needless to say, we were underwhelmed. For those starving folks in that area, though, we did find a little restaurant attached to a Best Western motel in Jasper, Indiana that was run by half a dozen either green cards or illegals and they really were pretty good. "Course, by the time we found them we were pretty desperate for mexican food that wasn't cooked by ourselves.......!

Here in Lake Havasu City, we have a couple of places, as would be expected on the west coast of Arizona. Our favorite runs a half price on all specials and combinations every Wednesday. We eat there almost every week, bill seldom runs over $20 for the 3 of us.

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I retired here

Dan R

 

[sparky9]

The one we go to for lunch is great. I wouldn't know authentic if I tripped over it, but the service is fantastic, the food is consistently great (and hot) and the $$ are low.

 

[Cyrano]

El Paso claims to be the Mexican food capital of the world, and I believe it. Lots of Mexican restaurants from little holes in the wall (Linda's jet, for example) to really high end places. Most are excellent. If I get too far from home I get withdrawal symptoms in a few days.

Was confined to Houston for a few months some years back: their Mexican food stinks. I heard there were a few good places, but never found them. For sopapillas they served a donut; for chile rellenos, a common green pepper filled with some sort of hamburger mixture.

 

[Wyatt Burp]

El Paso claims to be the Mexican food capital of the world, and I believe it. Lots of Mexican restaurants from little holes in the wall (Linda's jet, for example) to really high end places. Most are excellent. If I get too far from home I get withdrawal symptoms in a few days.

Was confined to Houston for a few months some years back: their Mexican food stinks. I heard there were a few good places, but never found them. For sopapillas they served a donut; for chile rellenos, a common green pepper filled with some sort of hamburger mixture.

I don't go for the "white tablecloth" places so much but prefer litt'e places that aren't fancy. There's some good surprises there.
Off subject, but in El Paso can you still go to the places where Stoudenmire, Wes Hardin, John Selman, and G. Scarboruogh shot each other up? Are those areas common knowledge now?

 

[Indiana George]

~~Deep Sigh~~ I miss the little family owned shops in South Tucson.

 

[Beaver]

In Madras, Oregon try Pepe's, Mexico City, and Mazatlan. All are beyond excellent.

 

[DCWilson]

Another report from the most populous state: as you might imagine here in Orange County there are great Mexican restaurants that cover the entire spectrum. Two of my favorites are single-owner shops with plastic molded booths and formica tabletops only a couple of miles from my house. Great food! Just five more miles up the coast is a Mexican restaurant for the Rolex and Porsche crowd. Their food is great too, but pricier than it needs to be. But let's face it -- when $1.50 out of every margarita and $4 out of every plate of fajitas goes to the landlord, you're paying for the zip code where you are permitted to enjoy the food.

Several years ago a friend who had been working in Southern California was looking for a new job when the old one evaporated, and one interview took him to Detroit. At the airport bar he thought he'd buoy his spirits with a familiar drink and orderd a Margarita. The server asked him, "Straight up or on the rocks?" My friend settled for a bottled beer. But I understand there is good Mexican food in Michigan now, too.

 

[mwtdvm]

In east Urbana IL, there is a mex place that shall remain nameless, that has a certificate next to the register that the manager has participated in a Continuing Education course in foodborne disease. Unfortunately, it seems that it was not a "prevention" course. Every time I ate there, bad things happened over the next couple of days. I mentioned this to the guy that "introduced" me to the place.. He said you know now that you mention it the same thing happened to me... We ate elsewhere ..

 

[jag312]

I ate in a Mexican restaurant in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. I looked like a Mexican restaurant, they were playing Mexican music, but I'll be damned if I know what kind of food it was. One thing I do know, it weren't Mexican food.

 

[ElToro]

i work in SF a few blocks from Mission St. some dang good taquerias.

i live in livermore, and in the tri valley we have some decent independent stores.

i grew up in east san jose and went to college in downtown SJ. aye aye aye !!! muy bueno !

now, my FIL lives close to McMinnville TN. we were back there on Cinco De Mayo, so we went to the 1 mexican restarount he knew of. all white people working there. no so much. same with the chinese buffet. one asian dude and the rest white folks ordering him around. now the BBQ places back there are to die for !

 

[srgvaz]

My city borders Mexico so the food is as good as it gets this side of the border...

 

[gr8AmericanBash]

There are some real good ones here in town, but I have no idea if they are authentic, since I have never been to Mexico.

But they are all ran by authentic folks, either legal or illegal.

Which brings up a question - if the place is run by Hondurans or Guatemalans, is the food still Mexican?

 

[scoutsdad]

Yea, we have them 4 miles from New Mexico, 35 miles from Old Mexico. There is an old family in Rodeo, the closest town to me that makes homemade tortillas and tamales for some of the get togethers we have. I do my best with Tex-Mex, at my own hacienda.

 

[BarbC]

We don't even have a Taco Bell.

You have to drive 45 minutes to find a Mexican restaurant near the malls.

 

[JcMack]

Lots n lots of them around here. Besides the free standing places, most mex grocery stores have at least a couple tables with the usual fare available. I used to eat mex all the time, now I avoid them now since calories are high and so is the chance of getting sick.