Since I was in for a long day on Saturday, I decided we’d break up the day with a trip out to Bridge Street for a nice lunch and a ride on the carousel. Unfortunately, we don’t know a lot of restaurants out there and settled on the first one we saw since we were all starving. We had seen the billboards describing it as Gourmet Mexican food.
Now, in our defense, this did strike a red flag for all of us. Now, don’t get me wrong, we love Mexican food. I spent the entire last trimester of my pregnancy with LilZ eating nothing but Bean Dip from a Mexican dive in the town I lived in. We have about 5 places we eat out regularly at in town now. Three of them serve Mexican food. And we’ll discuss the pros and cons of each of the three places like we’re analyzing global politics.
And we never describe ANY of it as “gourmet.”
But, we were hungry and at least it was a type of food we all like. Which is hard to find with a family of four.
First off? The prices were pretty high. $13 dollars minimum for most entrees. Some were priced as high as $25. Considering the entire family eats at my favorite Mexican place for under $20, that’s pretty drastic. We all ordered different items and I settled for just some Tortilla Soup. (A bowl of that cost $8.) Everyone ordered something different but we all walked out with the same opinion. NOT THAT GREAT. And also? WAAAAY over priced. My soup was bland, LilZ’s chicken was dry, and MrZ’s plate was just not at all worth the $13 it cost. Overall? Total disappointment.
And then? Where did I find myself an hour later? Puking it all up at home.
AWESOME.
I spent about 2 hours sick in ways I’d be happy to never repeat. Severe stomach cramping and vomiting. It was the ideal way to spend a Saturday, in my opinion. Especially considering I was lucky enough to have paid for the illness. That’s always the best. When food that tasted crappy and cost too much ends up poisoning you. BAH.
Like with most mild food-poisoning episodes, once the food was out of my system where it belongs, I felt fine. And was able to make it to the airport that night for the Welcome Home celebration for the vets. I felt a bit shaky at times, but overall I was fine.
But that will teach me. I need to stick to the Mexican food places that have rubber tablecloths and plastic deck furniture.
We love Mexican food at this house too and usually, the plastic deck furniture/hose down the tablecloth variety is the BEST. Unless you’re in Chicago and can make it to Rick Bayless’ place ~ Frontera Grill or his even more upscale Topolobampo. Wheeeeeeee, that’s the best EVER.
Sorry you were sick Zoot (and paid money for it too!).
I’m with you; we frequent Pepitos on the Parkway because it scared me before we went in there. I think you should feel slight trepidation at the door of any QUALITY Mexican food.
My mother, father, and sister visited that “Cantina” you guys paid a visit to this weekend.. my mother and father also got food poisoning. Hmm.
Wait, you like your men cheap?
That absolutely sucks that it made you sick. Go figure, eh? I need to cook some Mexican food sometime soon. Maybe enchiladas. Mmmm.
Am always searching for a *good* mexican place. And you’re right — the most authentic places are almost always dives. Sorry that your experience was a bit worse than just “not very good food.” Did you call them to tell them you got food poisoning? I always hope that they’ll pull whatever food item I ordered (esp soup where it’s a huge pot they’re serving everyone from) so that nobody else has to suffer. Though I’m sure they never actually pull any of it.
Thanks for the heads-up! I don’t know which place this is, but I will be sure to stay away from anything labeled ‘gourmet Mexican’ here in town.
oh no…that isn’t a good way to spend a Saturday at all!! I don’t get places that charge alot for food. I paid that much a plate ($13) for Indian food on Saturday it you don’t get a whole lot….
I don’t know if you’ve already thought to do this or not, but I would give the restaurant a call to let them know what happened. Especially call if anyone else in your family was sick.
Sorry that happened - that’s why I’m reluctant to try ‘new’ places.
Definitely call them. They should know, even if they choose not to do anything about it. They should really offer you your money back.
Ew. That’s bad enough that you paid through the nose for food that wasn’t good, but then it made you sick too? Geez. Now I’m going to be wary of any place serving “gourmet Mexican” food.
I love Mexican food and the fancy ones never do a thing for me. I hope you’re feeling better.
So, you like your men cheap and grungy?
I love Mexican food, but I would avoid “gourmet” Mexican as well. I also avoid “authentic” Mexican. I like my Mexican food as Americanized as possible. And also NOT POISONED. I hope this doesn’t ruin Mexican for you - I had my first real bout of food poisoning a couple of months ago after eating overpriced airport Chinese food, and I haven’t been able to eat Chinese since. Which is sort of good… but also really sad! I miss Chinese.
The more dingy and shadey the mexican place looks…the better!
Hi,
As a mexican person, I must say I agree with you. Authentic mexican food is working class food, affordable, rich, family-friendly and delicious, we don´t tend to make our food fancy or pretentious at all. It comes from the street stalls where the women make fresh tortillas and the men butcher the meat. There are some Gourmet Mexican restaurants that try to fuse mexican with mediterranean food (i.e. goat´s cheese and chipotle) and are expensive and upscale, they are sort of for going out once in a while, and not really mexican. Real mexican food is just that: simple and relaxed. You can spill all the salsa you want, and nobody will care. I´m glad you have THREE good restaurants to go to! You are so lucky!
(I currently live in London. There are no mexican restaurants here. Only the goat´s cheese kind. It is a sad, sad, taco-less life).
Anyway, hope you get better soon!
Just like Dynamita said.
A good friend of ours works at his family’s restaurant. It is an old Dairy Queen, painted about the same color as your footer. It has bars on the window. It has some wooden tables but mostly plastic, with clear plastic tablecloths protecting the checkered plastic tablecloths. It seats maybe 15 people. If you don’t shut the door, the door doesn’t shut. If you don’t speak Spanish, you’d better hope Carlos is working or expect to point at the menu, which is not available at the table. You order BEFORE you sit down. It’s cheap, delicious, and their rice water is THE BEST EVAR. OH MY DEITY it’s blipping amazing. I thought I liked it before - it’s so… so… FRESH and YUMMY.
Granted, I like Taco Bell too for horribly fake Mexican, but really? If I ever want a truly awesome gut-paining experience (because no matter what I do or order, I WILL get painful gas) that makes my tastebuds want to marry the perishables… I go to Lucero’s.
We’ve got some pretty good ‘fresh’ Mexican chains up here by us. Mmmmm. Sorry you food got you sick. You should definitely let them know (not that you’d ever eat another meal there).