Mexican Restaurants in Pittsburgh? (California, Oakland: island, place, dry)

[gg]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Munch had a better el toro loco experience Munch goes to El Toro Loco - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

After reading that and looking at the pictures, I have very little interest in going there. I also can't stand places with huge menus. Huge menus almost always mean low quality and not fresh. I will never understand why any restaurant owner wants a giant menu. You can't turn the food over enough to keep it good. I think I will pass on that place.

[sparrowmint]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

After reading that and looking at the pictures, I have very little interest in going there. I also can't stand places with huge menus. Huge menus almost always mean low quality and not fresh. I will never understand why any restaurant owner wants a giant menu. You can't turn the food over enough to keep it good. I think I will pass on that place.

It really depends. At Mexican-American places, many items are just different combinations of similar base ingredients and sauces.

[gg]

Originally Posted by sparrowmint

It really depends. At Mexican-American places, many items are just different combinations of similar base ingredients and sauces.

Look lets face it, those huge menu places are just a big spoon of reheated stuff plopped on a plate then set under a heat lamp. I think we can do much better. Patron is popular with that crap and I think we can do much better. How about a small menu with fresh ingredients. When I was in Mexico, they just grilled fresh stuff and put it on a little corn tortilla and handed it to you. It was fresh and good. The menu? it was about 8 choices. I don't need 30. Do a few things good and fresh. People aren't going to want that crap at some point. Sadly it still flies here in Pittsburgh.

[FoodPoet]

where can I get a good chicken mole dish?

[gg]

Originally Posted by FoodPoet

where can I get a good chicken mole dish?

NYC is probably the closest place.

[FoodPoet]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Look lets face it, those huge menu places are just a big spoon of reheated stuff plopped on a plate then set under a heat lamp. I think we can do much better. Patron is popular with that crap and I think we can do much better.

spot on. the things they serve are so bland

and if you think about it, all the ingredients for these things are very cheap to serve fresh. i think the beans are canned.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by FoodPoet

where can I get a good chicken mole dish?

Casa Reyna at 21st and Penn is the only Mexican restaurant I like a lot in Pittsburgh. El Rey Azteca in Monroeville is good, too. Everything else tastes like everything else.

[sskink]

Originally Posted by FoodPoet

where can I get a good chicken mole dish?

I assume you're talking mole poblano since that's usually the only mole sauce offered around here.

I'd try Cinco. Theirs was a bit more on the bitter chocolate/tamarind end of the scale, which is what my experience with eating mole poblano in Mexico is like. Didn't have the same kick as what I've had in Mexico though. It shouldn't be spicy HOT, but you should know there's some heat there. Probably toned down some for Pittsburgh taste buds.

Among other things I'd love to do if I had unlimited money is a Josza's Corner type of Mexican restaurant. I open when I feel like it. I serve you what I feel like making. I give you a good value/experience. But if you complain about the salsa not being chunky or the guacamole not being creamy, I toss you in the street :-)

[ProFiction]

Sorry for the bump, but I just wanted to mention that I went to Casa Reyna (the restaurant rather than the stand outside) over the weekend, due almost entirely to the glowing praise here, and I wanted to express my disappointment in it.

We had a tough time deciding between the salsa or the mini taco appetizer but decided to go with the tacos because neither of us were planning on ordering tacos for our meal and we wanted to try them. We got barbacao and lengua. Both were pretty good, I'd never had lengua before. They were a little dry but the salsa that was provided fixed that problem. I ordered the green tomatillo chicken enchiladas and she ordered the flautas. I think we both just sat there and quietly suffered through our plates and didn't really say anything about it until later when we were both like 'so, that was really, really disappointing, wasn't it?' The chicken was really dry and didn't appear to be seasoned or marinated or anything. Just like chicken out of a can throw onto a tortilla or something. The tomatillo sauce (which I thought was impossible to mess up) was essentially tasteless as well. And I don't know if this is a place that people often claim as being authentic, but my dish came by default covered in shredded lettuce and sour cream. I don't mind that because I like both but I had to sigh a bit when I saw that a lot of things on the menu came like that. It was one of the worst meals I've ever had at a restaurant. The highlight was almost assuredly the lime Jarritos I ordered :P

Maybe we caught them on a bad day?

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by ProFiction

Sorry for the bump, but I just wanted to mention that I went to Casa Reyna (the restaurant rather than the stand outside) over the weekend, due almost entirely to the glowing praise here, and I wanted to express my disappointment in it.

Maybe we caught them on a bad day?

Was it Saturday? My husband and I were there on Saturday late afternoon. We arrived around 4:30pm.

Everything we ordered was terrible. Even the salsa dip was bad. It was extremely watery, truly like dipping into water. We got a platter of different meats---two chickens, one pork, and one beef. They were all dry. All four were almost indistinguishable and tasted the same. Very bland. We started to question the type of meat because the texture was weird.

What a disappointment. I went there last year with a friend and loved it. I was excited to share it with my husband. He couldn't understand why I raved about the place. There's no way he'll ever give it a try again.

ETA: And didn't the place smell terrible, really musty and putrid, when you first walked in?