New to New England, Help this Texan Find some edible Mexican or Tex Mex food please!??? (Boston: roughest, houses)

[Cloudship]

I think part of the problem is that it is a different style of Mexican you find around here. The OP was looking for Tex-Mex style, which is more reflective of the North Mexican style cooking. Most of that style around here are chains or not very authentic. The hole in the wall type places you find around here, at least in Central Mass, are more reflective of the southern Gulf Cost style, which is a little more like Caribbean cooking than the north.

[OutdoorLover]

I can't know if you'll like it, but we've got a Mexican place in town that I like, and it's about 30 minutes from Eliot/Kittery. It's Agave on State St in Newburyport. Here's their website and they have links to their menus, and in fact, it looks like they have another location in Portsmouth, right across the Piscataquah river from you.
Home - Agave Mexican Bistro

[tysmith95]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

I can't know if you'll like it, but we've got a Mexican place in town that I like, and it's about 30 minutes from Eliot/Kittery. It's Agave on State St in Newburyport. Here's their website and they have links to their menus, and in fact, it looks like they have another location in Portsmouth, right across the Piscataquah river from you.
Home - Agave Mexican Bistro

There's one in Portsmouth NH too.

[Valerie C]

Originally Posted by jon12791

Texas Roadhouse, Methuen?

It's a steakhouse... the one that serves peanuts in buckets, and the restaurant customers throw the shells on the floor. Not Tex-Mex by any stretch of the imagination

[tysmith95]

Originally Posted by jon12791

Texas Roadhouse, Methuen?

This is funny.

[Valerie C]

Are you willing to drive to Manchester, NH? If so, give this place a try:
https://www.elrinconzt.com/

If you make it for a visit, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it...

Originally Posted by HoustonTexasEngineer

my wife and I have been up here (Eliot/Kittery, Me.) for the last 6 mos. We've tried very hard to adjust without decent Tex Mex but its getting tough! Does anyone know of any Edible Mexican food up here? we constantly commute from around Berwick ME/somersworth NH down to Lawrence, MA. is there anywhere up here that actually has edible tender fajitas, good flautas or chimichangas (filled with steak not beef tips of crap) homemade tortillas, non-canned beans, edible borracho or charro beans, non Pace derived salsa, etc?

[robr2]

Here's a place that got a write up in the Sunday Globe - owned by a Salvadoran from California:

Home - California Burritos

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by Lin19687

Kinda like you can't get Good Pizza or Chinese food in TX

That's absolutely horrifying!

Why would anyone live where there isn't decent pizza and Chinese food?

On a side note, I recently went on vacation to Barbados and one night for dinner I ordered my kids pizza at a restaurant. Absolutely (there was no contest), the worst pizza I've ever eaten. They probably have better pizza in Idaho. How hard is it to make an edible pizza?

Originally Posted by Lin19687

There is a good BBQ place in Arlington MA ( Blue Ribbon- really good) and Somerville (Red Bones- not perfect but Good).
but then again it depends on what kind of BBQ you like

I really feel that BBQ is a growing cuisine here in the Boston area. I used to love Blue Ribbon and Red Bones but as I've gotten more and more interested in BBQ food and gotten better and better at making my own I found visiting those places to be incredibly disappointing. I also think Blue Ribbon may have gone down hill. I'm pretty sure one of the original owners sold out to the other a couple years back and that may have affected things. Some of the higher end BBQ restaurants like the Smoke House in Kendall and Sweet Cheeks Q in the Fenway are pretty good but you pay through the nose. I'm sure if you dig around you can find less expensive alternatives but I've gotten to the point where I'm happiest if I just make it myself.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

That's absolutely horrifying!

Why would anyone live where there isn't decent pizza and Chinese food?

On a side note, I recently went on vacation to Barbados and one night for dinner I ordered my kids pizza at a restaurant. Absolutely (there was no contest), the worst pizza I've ever eaten. They probably have better pizza in Idaho. How hard is it to make an edible pizza?

There is absolutely decent Chinese food and pizza in Texas. Especially Chinese food. Houston is more diverse than Boston and will satisfy almost any ethnic craving you want. You might have to drive a bit further. It's easier to find bad Italian and Chinese food in Texas, but that's more an adjustment of cuisine to suit local tastes (also mediocre chains are everywhere).

And it's not hard to make a good pizza, but it's even easier to make a bad pizza. Just take the circle out of the freezer and put it in the oven. Good pizza requires dealing with fresh dough and having a reasonably hot oven. If the restaurant doesn't make pizza, they aren't going to out of their way to do it well. In some places, it's also harder to source the right ingredients. Even the best pizza chef in the world is going to struggle in places where it's hard to get cheese (or even milk) and wheat flour . When I was visiting my parents in China, I tried to make them pretzels (four ingredients, flour, yeast, water, sugar) and it was tough.

[turf3]

Bostonians want very hard to believe their city is a restaurant-goer's mecca like NYC, San Fran, Chicago, etc., but it isn't.

Dallas and Houston definitely have a better range of food types and quality available overall. But less high quality Italian; Boston is better. Chinese and other Asian, about the same. Indian; I think Boston is better. Seafood, about the same (surprisingly). Everything else, Dallas and Houston bury the Boston area.