Tacos Norteno in Winter Garden, FL

Tacos Norteno is a Mexican restaurant in Winter Garden which I've visited several times now. It just might even be one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in Orlando at the moment.

You order at a counter, then find a seat. While you're waiting, they have complementary chips to go with your meal. The best part about these chips is the salsa bar. This has all sorts of sauces along with other toppings to go with your food. I'm particularly fond of the creamy avocado sauce...

Chicken Salsa Verde Enchiladas were tasty. The chicken filled tortillas were topped with cheese and tomatillo sauce, served alongside rice and refried beans.

Chicken Big Floured Enchilada. This was my least favorite thing I've tried here. It was like a giant burrito topped with a queso sauce. The fillings in here were pretty monotonous and I wasn't a big fan of the queso. It got a bit of a slimy consistency as the enchilada cooled.

I've noticed that who takes your order determines how customizable they are willing to be here. I've tried the Three Taco Plate which comes with rice and beans a few times. Sometimes they will let you mix and match taco fillings. Other times they tell you all three tacos must contain the same meat. On one of the occasions where they wouldn't mix, I had three of their Al Pastor Tacos. The marinated roast pork was topped with cheese. I dressed the tacos up with toppings from the salsa bar.

On one of the visits when Tacos Norteno would customize, I had the three tacos filled with Asada y Chorizo, Pollo, and Al Pastor. They're pictured here after they were dressed up with cilantro, pickled onions, and sour cream from the Salsa Bar. I think the Al Pastor is my favorite of the types of tacos I've tried here. The pork was tender and has a nice, slightly sweet flavor. Chicken was pretty good, but the steak in the asada y chorizo was a little chewy. Otherwise, these were good tacos!

Tacos Norteno is one of those restaurants that I seem to return to whenever I'm in the west Orlando area. I mean to try new places out here, but the tacos and salsa bar here keep on calling my name...

 

Las Margaritas Mexican Restaurant in Gainesville, FL

I was driving through Gainesville and decided to stop to get dinner. Mexican food sounded good and after finding out the first restaurant choice right off the I-75 exit was closed on Sundays, we ended up at a restaurant called Las Margaritas. The restaurant name was ignored and I didn't have any of their margaritas. Instead, the meal began with chips and salsa.

I ordered the Enchiladas Mexicanas. This dish came with three enchiladas, each with a different filling and sauce. There was a cheese enchilada topped with tomatillo sauce. There was a chicken enchilada with cheese sauce, and a beef enchilada topped with a red sauce. My favorite of the three was the chicken in the cheese sauce. The sauce was almost like a creamy alfredo sauce (but not quite), rather than the typical melted cheese that I've encountered more often in Mexican restaurants. My second favorite was the cheese enchilada with the tomatillo sauce. I do enjoy a tasty tomatillo sauce, and this was indeed tasty. My least favorite was the beef enchilada. This seemed the most boring of the three. Not much was going on when it came to flavor with the ground beef or the red sauce. A salad made from lettuce, pico de gallo, sour cream, and guacamole accompanied the enchiladas. 

I enjoyed my meal at Las Margaritas. After a day of driving, eating here was a nice break before the final stretch home. The food was tasty and the prices were affordable. If I lived closer to Gainesville, I'd return to this restaurant!

Sombrero in Midtown Manhattan, NY

Late one evening while wandering around New York, I had dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Sombrero in Midtown Manhattan.

The meal started with some chips and salsa. Sombrero was a bit stingy with these. The basket of chips was pretty small for two people and there was no offer of refills.

I ordered the Enchilada De Mole. This consisted of braised garlic pork enchiladas topped with mole sauce and toasted sesame seeds. The two enchiladas were pretty tasty. The shredded pork stuffed inside the tortillas was nice and tender and had plenty of flavor. The mole sauce was slightly spicy and the squirted sour cream sauce zig-zagged over the enchiladas made for a nice presentation.

Rice and refried beans accompanied the enchiladas. Both were perfectly acceptable, but nothing to write home about.

I enjoyed my meal at Sombrero. It was sort of overpriced for what Mexican food normally goes for with my enchiladas costing $17. Then again, Sombrero was located only a few blocks away from Times Square so maybe they have the high prices for the tourists (and they apparently got the tourist money from us).

Baja Burrito Kitchen in Orlando, FL

Baja Burrito Kitchen was once a local chain of fast food Mexican restaurants with several locations around Central Florida. I always enjoyed the food at the various Baja Kitchens, but for whatever reasons, all but one of the restaurants closed. The only remaining Baja Kitchen is in a shopping center on Colonial Drive in Orlando. It had been years since I had last dined at a Baja Kitchen, but I recently stopped in for dinner. The meal started with some tortilla chips and various salsas. Their salsa bar was always a highlight of a visit to Baja Kitchen. Their fire roasted chipotle, salsa verde, and habanero salsa were my favorites.

I had the Baja Enchiladas for my main course. This came with three cheese filled tortillas, topped with a red enchilada sauce, cheese, and chicken. Black beans, rice, and sour cream were served on the side. There was probably far too much cheese on my plate than I should have eaten in once sitting, but the meal did give me a warm, fuzzy feeling from food memories associated with this dish. This plate of Baja Enchiladas brought back memories attached to when I used to frequent the Baja Kitchens that were once located closer to where I live. It was definitely strange having many memories of various meals with various people from years ago come rushing back, just because I had a particular version of a particular food.

The enchiladas were good, but the rice and beans could have used some improvement. Both were relatively cold and seemed like they were the bottom of the barrel as far as sides go. It was pretty close to Baja Kitchen's closing time when I ate there, but that's no excuse for crunchy rice. Putting aside the mediocre rice and beans, I did enjoy my meal at Baja Kitchen. The meal was somewhat of an unexpected and unscientific exploration into the power of food memories and the result was me being glad that there is still one last Baja Kitchen left in Orlando...

Rocco's Tacos in West Palm Beach, FL

I was in West Palm Beach and had dinner at a restaurant called Rocco's Tacos. I didn't realize this was a chain before eating there, but they have several locations throughout Florida with one opening soon on Sand Lake Road in Orlando. The inside of this Mexican restaurant looked pretty nifty with all sorts of cool metal lights and old brick walls. It was also very loud and very cramped, with hardly any room between tables.

We started with chips and salsa. It sort of rubs me the wrong way when Mexican restaurants charge extra for chips and salsa when so many other restaurants include them in the price. Rocco's had higher prices than most other Mexican restaurants and they still charged extra for the chips. That being said, the chips were pretty tasty. They were topped with some sort of seasoning that made them really flavorful, even without the salsa. Dipped in the salsa, they were only made better.

I had the Enchiladas Rojos for my dinner. This consisted of two corn tortillas filled with pulled pork and topped with cheese and a guajillo chile sauce. Refried beans and rice were served on the side. I found the enchiladas to be very average. The pork was a little dry and tasted very bland. The sauce seemed to provide all the flavor in the enchiladas. They tasted okay, but weren't anything worth going out of my way to return for. At $13, they were also kind of pricey for very typical enchiladas.

Rocco's Tacos seemed to be an upscale Mexican restaurant that served basically the same food that you could get at any other dumpy Mexican restaurant. The only big differences seemed to be higher prices and fancy lighting fixtures. Based on the amount of people in Rocco's though, it seems like people really like them. I hope it isn't just because of those lights...

Habaneros Mexican Grill in Winter Park, FL

My dinner goal was to get some chicken from La Granja, but they had closed for the night. That meant my hunger drifted next door to the Habaneros Mexican Grill near the intersection of Semoran and Aloma in Winter Park. This restaurant was an Amigos the last time I was here, but I had been to some of Habaneros other locations and liked them. Turned out this place was better when it was Amigos and the food was subpar compared to the other Habaneros a few miles up the road in Casselberry.

I had one of their dinner combinations which came with a chicken burrito, a chicken enchilada, and a chili relleno. It should have been good, but everything on the plate was flavorless. The burrito and enchilada were both filled with dry, bland chicken. The sauces on top tasted like tomato paste and not much else. The chili (which the waitress warned was really spicy) was like a soggy cheese covered bell pepper.

The other two people that I ate here with both had similar sentiments about their food as well. I don't think I'd go back to this Habaneros when the one in Casselberry serves food that actually has some flavor to it...

La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant in Longwood, FL

I recently tried La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant in Longwood. I had been to the Chinese buffet that was in this location formerly, but for some reason I never got to La Fiesta until recently.

I ordered the Traditional Combination #1, served with a taco, enchilada, refried beans, and rice. The taco came in a crispy corn tortilla filled with chicken, lettuce, and cheese. The enchilada was stuffed with chicken and was topped with melted cheese and a somewhat spicy red sauce.

On a return visit with a coupon from La Fiesta's Facebook page, I tried the Enchiladas de Mole. While there are many different types of mole, the standard mole served in Mexican restaurants in the United States is specifically called Mole Poblano. This mole is made with chocolate, chilies, and other good stuff. The Enchiladas de Mole consisted of three chicken enchiladas topped with this awesome sauce. It's spicy, smoky, and chocolately all at the same time. My tongue couldn't decide whether I was eating dinner or dessert with the great mix of flavors in the sauce!
I liked La Fiesta's food! Everything I tried had nice flavors, and I'd gladly return. They also offer a lunch buffet. I've never been to a Mexican buffet before, so I'm going to check it out next time I'm in the area for lunch. One word of warning though: Karaoke night happens every Tuesday. Reminded me of this, whether that's a good or bad thing...

Tijuana Flats in Longwood, FL

It's been a long time since I've visited a Tijuana Flats. I had a bad experience at one of their stores that turned me off to the chain, but I recently gave them another try. For this meal, I visited the Tijuana Flats in Longwood in a Publix shopping center.

I ordered the Dos Enchiladas. These enchiladas consisted of corn tortillas filled with chicken and lettuce, topped with cheese, chipotle sauce, sour cream, jalapenos, black olives, green onions, and chopped tomatoes.

These were actually really tasty. I really liked all of the toppings on the enchiladas, compared to the normal cheese and sauce toppings that you get elsewhere. I didn't go in with Tijuana Flats with high hopes after my last experience with the chain, but I think they won me over again as an option for fast food faux-Mexican food.

La Fuente in Brunswick, GA

In order to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, I'm pulling an unpublished meal from a Mexican Restaurant out of the Watch Me Eat archives:

During a trip along I-95 a few years ago, I stopped in Brunswick, GA for a late dinner. A Mexican restaurant called La Fuente was very crowded, so it appeared that this was potentially a good choice. The building appeared to be a former Applebees.

The meal started out with tortilla chips and salsa. The salsa was nice and smooth with a nice amount of spice.

For the meal, I ordered an enchilada dinner. It came with four enchiladas, two with green sauce, and two with red sauce. I had two filled with cheese, one with beans, and one with chicken. The cheese was a bit too chewy once it started to coagulate. The refried beans were better, and the chicken stuffed enchilada was the best out of the meal. Lettuce, tomato, and sour cream were included on the side.

I enjoyed my food, but not everyone I ate at La Fuente with was happy. A shrimp dish was ordered and although I didn't try any, it was reported that the shrimp were so rubbery that they were almost inedible.

On my last drive through Georgia on I-95, I stopped for gas in Brunswick and noticed that La Fuente was closed. Were they closed for the day, or are they out of business? I'm not sure...

Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy in Lakeland, FL

I had lunch at Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy in Lakeland. The interior of the restaurant was set up to look like an outdoor courtyard.

I had the Enchilada and Taco combination from the lunch menu. I had my choice of fillings in each and picked an avocado enchilada and chicken taco. The avocado in the enchilada was actually a really smooth guacamole. Sort of reminded me of the guacamole from Taco Bell, but it was still tasty. No complaints about the taco. The combination also came served with refried beans and rice.

Abuelo's was pretty good for a chain Mexican restaurant. I'd place them above other chains like Chevy's or Don Pablos.

Habanero's Mexican Grill

I ate at Habanero's Mexican Grill in Casselberry, FL. The meal started with chips and salsa. I liked how they gave everyone their own individual bowl of salsa with a pitcher of salsa on the table for refills. This way, each person at the table could double dip to their hearts content.

For my dinner, I ordered the Enchiladas Supreme. This included four enchiladas, each with a different filling. One was filled with refried beans, another was cheese, the third was beef, and the final enchilada was filled with shredded chicken and peppers. The four enchiladas were topped with sauce, lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. I could have done without the beef enchilada, but I liked the other three.

My only complaint was that it would have been nice if they served the enchiladas with a side of rice or beans like other Mexican restaurants often do.

Garibaldi Mexican Restaurant

I had dinner at Garibaldi Mexican Restaurant in Apopka, Florida. They are the best Mexican Restaurant that I have eaten at in the Central Florida area.

My meal started with some chips and salsa...


And for the main course I had Enchiladas Verdes. It was chicken enchiladas topped with Salsa Verde. It came with rice, guacamole, lettuce, and some other good stuff.


It was very tasty!