El Mexiquense Grill opens new digs in Saratoga Springs
The Chile Verde Burrito (foreground) and Chicken Enchilda Plate at El Mexiquense in Saratoga Springs.
The Carne Asada Chimichanga at El Mexiquense in Saratoga Springs.
The Chicken Nachos at El Mexiquense in Saratoga Springs.
The Al Pastor Taco at El Mexiquense in Saratoga Springs.
The Fried Ice Cream at El Mexiquense makes for a nice dessert.
Our family is always up for some Mexican food, and so we ventured over to the new El Mexiquense Grill in Saratoga Springs on a recent Friday night.
The new location, as it turns out, is in a strip mall where another Mexican restaurant once resided — the longstanding Cafe El Lago. Swapping one Mexican restaurant for another would seem like an even trade after all, maintaining the ethnic dining balance in the area. (Or something like that!)
Where Cafe El Lago was a more formal restaurant experience, however, El Mexiquense is more along the lines of the quicker-dining grills — where you place your order at the front counter and the food is brought to your table shortly thereafter. We aren’t kidding about that last part. We’d only been at our table a couple minutes before all our plates began arriving in rapid succession.
The restaurant, which we were told has been open for around a month, was painted in hues of red and orange, with seating in various table sizes for around 85 people. Four flat-screen TVs adorned the walls, on this night offering some Spanish-language programming while festive Mexican music played over the in-house speaker system.
The menu is basically separated into five main categories: burritos, tacos, tortas, quesadillas and appetizers. There are some specialty combinations in the various categories, but the ingredients commonly revolve around the carne asada, chicken or pork options for meat. (For example, the Fortachon burrito features carne asada, chicken, chorizo, beans and jalapenos, and the Ya Bass Burrito includes chicken, sour cream, beans and rice.)
The taco offerings delve off into a bit more exotic meat fare, including lengua (tongue) and cabeza (head) as well as shredded pork, carne asada, chicken, shredded beef and pastor (marinated pork).
Of the various dishes we sampled, my favorite was the Pastor tacos. They featured marinated pork combined with onion, tomato, cilantro and a pineapple slice surrounded by two small corn tortillas. I also squeezed some lime juice (lime slices are in plentiful supply at the salsa bar near the front) and the whole combination really popped with a lot of different flavors. I would definitely be up for some more experimentation on the numerous taco options.
One of my other favorite dishes was the carne asada chimichanga. It was fried to perfection and included rice and beans along with the grilled steak, and came topped with lettuce, cheese and dollops of sour cream and guacamole.
Other dishes sampled included the Chile Verde Burrito (which was quite large), the Chicken Enchilada Plate, and Nachos (both chicken and carne asada) off an appetizer section. These dishes seemed more average, without really standing out on their own.
There are several bottled Mexican drinks to choose from, but I was intrigued with something called the Pina/Mango-Cantaloupe under the Mexiquense Drinks portion of the menu. However, when I ordered it, the server said they didn’t have anything with Pina/Mango. So I just ordered a cantaloupe drink instead, which was quite good in its own right.
We topped our meal off with some Fried Ice Cream, which was another highlight. It’s hard to go wrong with fried ice cream, topped with whipped cream and drizzled in caramel.
EL MEXIQUENSE GRILL
Where: 262 E Crossroads Blvd., Saratoga Springs
Prices: $1.89-$9.50
Info: (801) 331-8654, elmexiquensegrill.com