Tag Archives: Mexican Restaurant

Month of Mexican, Cuatro

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For my last MoM lunch I took a recommendation from a colleague who had the recommendation from a cousin by marriage who is from Mexico. The word was Taqueria El Taco was the closest thing to Mexican this person found in the area so it seemed like something worth trying.

It was in Anderson, so a 25 minute drive from home but I took the day off so there was no issue with time. The tiny little strip it is in is tucked out of the way off a main road behind a Best Buy and close to a Target. The interior is long and narrow with some booths and table to each side and one long bar height table running down the middle.

They take an interesting approach to service for a Mexican place but I think it helps them keep the personnel issues to a minimum. You go to the back and order at a counter and they give you a buzzer (placed in a cheap clear sandwich bag to keep the grubby hands of the last person from contaminating you) plus you get a bowl of chips, drink cup or drink if you ordered a bottled drink or horchata. Across from the order counter against the other wall is the Salsa Bar.

There were mild and hot red salsas, mild and hot verde salsas, black bean and corn salsa, limes, jalapenos and pico. I mixed some hot and mild tomato salsa and some mild salsa verde.


I grabbed a table and started my chip chow down. I’d chosen from the Antojitos section of the menu since that was billed a the “traditional dishes” section. Keeping it healthy-ish I went for the tequila lime chicken.

Another note here is the use of disposable containers and plasticware. If you are put off by that keep going but if it doesn’t bother you and you want some tasty food you’ll be ok. The tequila lime chicken is a grilled breast that has been butterflied so the chicken cooks faster and thoroughly. It was topped with a salsa of tomatoes, corn, pineapple, cilantro, onion and a tiny piece of grilled lime. Honestly the lime flavor was uneven and mostly subtle while the tequila was nowhere to be found. That last I count as a plus since I’m not a great fan of that particular drink.

The vegetables consisted of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, yellow squash and a lone piece of zucchini. They were seasoned ok and were cooked soft but no mushy. The rice was standard issue Mexican rice. It was a good meal, filling and reasonably flavorful but I think there were better options for a good flavor punch. I saw later that you could get the tacos with corn or flour tortilla OR a lettuce wrap ( I initially mistyped that as crap which I’m sure many would say was accurate). I would definitely come back here if I was in Anderson but I don’t think I’m going to make a 25 minute drive just for this food.

After trying 4 different Mexican restaurants in 3 towns I have to say I’d be happy to visit any of them again but if I made any of them a go to it would be California’s Mexican Grill because it feels like the kind of place you could become a regular they knew by name and treated you like a friend as well as patron. Coming in second would be El Jimador in Clemson because I liked the food but also really like the way they decorated their interior. Overall I feel like this was a good experiment finding some better for me menu options and discovering new places to grab a bite.

I think I may have to try a Month of Chinese in the near future and see what I can dig my chop sticks into.

Month of Mexican, Tres

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The MoM continued with a trip to El Jimador in Clemson, SC. Being a Sunday I wanted to get ahead of the after church crowd, if there was one and went early. There were a few people there when I arrived so I figured that spoke well for it. I was seated immediately and my first impression was, “this place is kind of dark”. And it was dim but furniture was all heavy, dark wood as well so that probably added to the feeling. However once I got a minute to look around I was kind of digging it. The walls were decorated like brick covered with stucco and Mexican scenes. The wood, including the backs of the chairs were also decorated in the same way. Kind of like embossed and painted, maybe the picture will show it better than I can describe it.

Anyway it was kind of neat. I got the expected chips and salsa. Both tasted fresh and they were not stingy with them. I don’t know if the salsa was made on site but they at the very least they did chop up some fresh cilantro and throw in so that got them some points. After perusing the menu I decided to go with the Authentic Mole Pablano dish.

Pretty simple looking dish but I figured if I’m looking for something authentic, it was right there in the name. The salad was basic, lettuce and tomatoes with a drizzle of sour cream. The Mexican rice was also fairly standard with a stray vegetable here and there. I thinking I counted less than 10 individual pieces of non-rice elements. In spite of that the rice went well with the main element. This was mole pablano sauce with shredded chicken. Initial impressions were that was a bit sweet with a mild peppery kick. I spent the rest of the enjoyable meal trying to tease out what made up the complex flavors of this sauce. There were times I thought I could taste some cocoa, maybe cinnamon, coriander and something fruity but my palate isn’t refined enough to pick out all the elements. All I can say for sure is it was good and I ate too much.

Will definitely try these folks again. Maybe for lunch one day since it’s only a couple of miles from the office.

A Month of Mexican, Dos

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I really wanted to type Equis after that dos. Too many commercials.

So for week 2 I modified my original plan which was to try a place recommended by a co-worker. Sadly that place was in Clemson, on a home game Saturday. No, just no. For a town of it’s size there aren’t all that many Mexican places in Seneca but I found California’s Mexican Grill.

It is located in a little shopping strip that is well past its prime but it’s also on two main roads making it convenient and easy to get to. I arrived fairly early for dinner or really late for lunch because I’d only eaten a snack while watching the Georgia game. I was the lone customer and I think I woke the guy up who waited on me. He waved me to a booth and grabbed a menu, cutlery, chips and dip.

I was surprised it was bean dip instead of the traditional salsa but it told me they weren’t afraid to be different. It was a tad bland but a little salt buffed it up enough to be enjoyable. While I was moderately chipping and dipping I honed in on the Platillos Mexicanos.

I figured if you were going to call it Mexican plates then maybe something authenticish might be an option. I read them all and settled on the first one, Platillo de Chile Verde. Pork in green sauce with rice, beans and a sort of salad thing with some tortillas thrown in for good measure. Yes please.

That pork isn’t particularly attractive but man was it good. The tomatillos, peppers and spices made a really piquant sauce and the pork was fork tender. The sides were all straight out of the Mexican restaurant handbook but I didn’t care because that pork was really nice. In fact as I was talking to the waiter he said when he brought mine it looked so good he went and got some for himself and thanked me for ordering it.

They had the standard fare but there were enough other options that felt more authentically Mexican and enough you could find that would be on the healthier side I’d say California’s Mexican Grill is worth keeping in mind when I have a taste for Mexican.

A Month of Mexican, Part Uno

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In the years I’ve been doing the blog I haven’t done too many entries on Mexican or Chinese. Mainly because they are both so easy to find and mostly Americanized. I can’t blame them since they are in business to make money so they sell what people eat. I’m trying to make changes in my eating habits and decided to make the multitude of Mexican menus work for me.

The quest here is to find a healthier, hopefully at least semi-authentic meal to replace my previous criteria. That criteria, sadly for my waistline, was a calculation of just which special or combo gave me the greatest ratio of meat and cheese to other ingredients. My new criteria is the inverse without going vegetarian because I do love me some meat and cheese.

My first visit was to Alazan Mexican Grill in Seneca on N. Radio Station Rd. I’d had some tacos from their food truck at work one Tuesday and really enjoyed them so I felt good about this choice. When I got to the restaurant there was exactly one other vehicle in the parking lot. It was in front of the pizza place next door. The Open sign was flashing though so in I went.

Unsurprisingly I was seated quickly. Actually I was told to pick my own spot in a particular section and I picked one out quickly so I’m counting it that way. They have a good menu part of which looks exactly like every other Mexican restaurant in the US. Part of it included Chef Specialties that showed some non-standard items. I opted to try the Pollo Alazan. I mean it had the name of the restaurant in it so they had to have some pride in it.

My Pollo Alazan was a chicken breast pounded down to about 1/4″ thickness and grilled with mushrooms and topped with just enough queso to be saucy not sodden. That worked out pretty well too because the vegetables needed a little something to punch them up. The veggies were supposed to be broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. The first 2 were plentiful but there was only 1 tiny little slice of carrot hiding under the pile. The meal was simple but tasty and quite filling. Aside from the queso and rice there wasn’t much to make it feel like a Mexican entrée though. I managed to walk away without unwrapping the tortillas or finishing the rice.

Overall I’d say this was a better choice than past selections but I think I can do better next week.

South of the Border

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Mexico

I kept the passport close to home both figuratively and literally by choosing Mexico as the country and El Molcajete in Rock Hill as the restaurant.  This is a relatively new Mexican place that is just a couple of miles from me and web research pointed to them having some dishes more authentic than a lot of the standard tex-mex joints that all have the same basic menu.  You know, where you can just give them the number of your favorite combo and it’s the same from place to place.

I was excited to try them out and hoped they might have at least a couple of different items and they did.  First let me say they didn’t totally forgo the old standbys everybody knows and they have the lunch menu dutifully numbered so those more comfortable with consistency are covered.  For my purposes though they did have a few less common items and I indulged in three of them.  I got the lengua taco (that would be beef tongue), the carne con platano frito (grilled steak, eggs, plantains and beans) and some horchata (rice milk with cinnamon) to wash it down.

El_Moljecate-001El_Moljecate-005

I’ll be honest, having never had beef tongue before I expected it to be a little chewy but this was some tender tongue.  As you can see in the picture they keep it simple and have just onions, cilantro and a side of grilled onions on soft tortillas.  I squirted a little salsa verde on part of it after I tasted it as presented and that was tasty too.  The carne con plantano frito is just more proof that steak and eggs are good for any meal no matter your nationality.  The steak was a thin cut and cooked well but not too the point of being shoe leather.  It was lightly seasoned so the steak flavor came out.  It didn’t strike me as I was wolfing it down but I’d have to say this meal, as a whole, was very light on any flavors other than those of the food.  It wasn’t bland but more like the food stood on it’s own and if you wanted to spice it up with a condiment you could without fighting a ton of other flavors.  I don’t know that horchata is all that rare on Mexican menus because I don’t look for it that often but it caught my eye today and if you haven’t had it you should give it a try.  It is a sweet, cold, refresher that goes well with spicy foods and even non-spicy meals.

I believe this is a family place and they seem to have pride in the restaurant.  The service was good and the place was very clean and bright and still had that new booth smell.  If you live in the area you should give them a shot.

They didn’t have a web page that I could find but they do have a Facebook page, El Molcajete.

Look for a horchata recipe on the Tell Me More page and because it’s almost Easter as this gets posted you can find a bunny there as well.