OT: Good Mexican Food in CT

[ctchamps]

BTW, speaking of margaritas, I think we've touched on this before, but Herradura Anejo (gold) is my standard house tequila, and I don't usually order margaritas out because I make such damn good ones myself, and I hate sour mix. Well, if that's your bent as well, there is a relatively new product to look for and keep in your fridge for the times when you don't have a ton of limes, or you don't feel like squeezing them:

It's a local company, from New Haven, and I have been seeing them in more and more stores, so ask for it if you don't see it at yours: https://www.drinkripe.com/. I use very little and one bottle has lasted a few weeks in the fridge; I've probably gotten around a dozen margaritas out of it, with maybe one left, but I have added some of my own citrus as well.

I rely on you for restaurants. I'm waiting for @mauconnfan to give his critique on this! If he doesn't say next than I'll look for it!

 

[UCweCONN]

I rely on you for restaurants. I'm waiting for @mauconnfan to give his critique on this! If he doesn't say next than I'll look for it!

Maybe we should implement the Testiculo rating system for CT restaurant threads? Two Testiculos being the best and no Testiculos being worst.

 

[sledog]

If it doesn't burn on the way in, and burn on the way out, it doesn't count.

 

[UConnKev]

Sayulita in South Glastonbury

I bumped into this place 4 months ago and have been a regular ever since. It is a modernized Mexican food joint but it's delicious. I really have yet to have a bad meal there.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/0...st_id=10100820978230331_10100820978225341#_=_

 

[huskysupporter]

Sayulita in South Glastonbury

I bumped into this place 4 months ago and have been a regular ever since. It is a modernized Mexican food joint but it's delicious. I really have yet to have a bad meal there.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/0...st_id=10100820978230331_10100820978225341#_=_

Just went there last weekend. Had the lobster enchiladas. Awesome.

 

[mauconnfan]

There used to be a pretty good one in Branford MANY years ago Su Casa on Rt1 - doubt it's still around. Great hiding place when balancing multiple girlfriends back in the day. LOL and the food was pretty good.

 

[Dove]

There used to be a pretty good one in Branford MANY years ago Su Casa on Rt1 - doubt it's still around. Great hiding place when balancing multiple girlfriends back in the day. LOL and the food was pretty good.

Still there. This place survives only on reputation. Just bad mexican now.

Will be at Coyote Blue tonight.

 

[mauconnfan]

Still there. This place survives only on reputation. Just bad mexican now.

Will be at Coyote Blue tonight.

Where is that?

 

[storrsroars]

Agree with the posters who've noted you can find really crappy "Mexican" food pretty much anywhere. I've had what I'd consider "Americanized" garbage on Olvera St. in LA, at plenty of places in Texas and in areas you'd think would be great, like Sedona or San Diego (and to be fair, I found some very good Mexican in LA and San Diego as well). But, what the vast majority of Americans want is a filling plate covered in glop - frijoles, "Mexican" rice and something wrapped in a flour tortilla, based loosely on border cuisine. And if that's what sells, then who's to critique a restaurant owner who serves it?

I lived in Mexico City for a year and had some great dishes that aren't commonly found in US restaurants - probably because they wouldn't sell here. Oaxacan and Veracruzana dishes are some of the best I've had anywhere, but rare to find decent copies in US.

You can, however, find decent taco places in a lot of cities in the US. I wish more places did traditional fillings like lengua or al carbon or al pastor. And yes, even chapulines (grasshopper - much better than you'd think). Sit down places for a full meal are a different story. I like Maya in NYC, but it's expensive for what it is. I find Chicago the best city for representation of every regional cuisine of Mexico. But I'm also fine with a good non-authentic fish taco, as long as it's not tilapia, or a simple milanesa or grilled shrimp dish. Otherwise, I cook better Mexican at home than I find eating out.

Anyway, the concept of "authentic" is mostly B.S. You can be eating on one block in Oaxaca and the cook will tell you the mole recipe from the place two blocks over isn't "authentic" because their family's recipe is different. And you're simply not going to get all the same ingredients cooked the same way once you're away from where it originated. All you can ask for is it to be a decent facsimile.

That said, if someone finds a good snapper a la veracruzana in CT, please do post!

 

[UConnKev]

Coyote Blue. I drank four margaritas there and lived to tell about my experience.




Don't do it.

 

[mauconnfan]

Coyote Blue. I drank four margaritas there and lived to tell about my experience.




Don't do it.

Where did you go after that?

 

[UConnKev]

Where did you go after that?

Your guess is as good as mine. I'm still here so that is all that matters!

 

[UConnfan4ever]

Los Mariachis in Wallingford is excellent.

 

[David 76]

I wonder what 8893 or other locals think of the trucks in front of my office in Madison?

 

[J187Money]

There used to be a pretty good one in Branford MANY years ago Su Casa on Rt1 - doubt it's still around. Great hiding place when balancing multiple girlfriends back in the day. LOL and the food was pretty good.

Used to go there after hours in the early 90s. One of the restaurant guys I worked with knew one of the bartenders or managers. We used to go in, put a $20 on the bar each and they would just put our favorite bottle on the bar till we decided to go home. Which was usually around 3.

Strangely enough never ate there. Some of those hangovers are coming back to me now. Flashbacks. Ugh.

 

[methodology]

I wonder what 8893 or other locals think of the trucks in front of my office in Madison?

Taqueria Cinco is great (black school bus). Extremely nice guy and family. Uses his grandmother recipe and only cooks prepares the foods over wood cause that's the only way his grandmother would cook.

Better than any truck on long wharf. Has all the traditional meats along with stuff like nopales.

I see no problem with the trucks there BTW and have shown my support throughput the whole ordeal. No reason for the racist bigotry things they have had to put up with. No one ever gave the good humor guy crap

 

[Redding Husky]

Having lived in both CT and TX, I can say the Mexican food up north is nothing like it is closer to Mexico.

Steak, BBQ, or Mexican? Go to Texas.

Italian or seafood? Go to the Northeast.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Mexican isn't a priority when I visit CT
But if you ever get to Mesa
The Tia Rosa is excellent

 

[nomar]

Yeah, our waitress at Hugo's mentioned Rosa Mexicano when we were bemoaning the lack of high quality Mexican cuisine in the Northeast generally, so that made me seek it out. I did not think it was close to the level of Hugo's in any respect, but they are trying for that higher-end; whereas the Hell's Kitchen places are more "ordinary," authentic (sorry Waqouit), everyday kinds of places.

Rosa Mexicana is fine. I think Dos Caminos is at least as good, if you're talking about chains. Mexican food in NYC has come a looooong way since I've been living here. Lots of decent to good places. There are a lot of good mom & pop places and there are also bodegas that make tacos, tortas, etc.

The tacos at Taqueria (on St. Mark's - moved from the LES) are as good as any tacos you'll find on the Northeast. The guy who started it is from LA. (I'm not sure if that's a backhanded compliment, but they're sensational.)

 

[CL82]

Well it is kind of a long drive from Storrs, but Casa Maya in Gillette NJ is pretty good.

 

[nomar]

There used to be a pretty good one in Branford MANY years ago Su Casa on Rt1 - doubt it's still around. Great hiding place when balancing multiple girlfriends back in the day. LOL and the food was pretty good.

Oh man, blast from the past. I ate there with my grandparents probably in the mid-1980s.

 

[David 76]

Taqueria Cinco is great (black school bus). Extremely nice guy and family. Uses his grandmother recipe and only cooks prepares the foods over wood cause that's the only way his grandmother would cook.

Better than any truck on long wharf. Has all the traditional meats along with stuff like nopales.

I see no problem with the trucks there BTW and have shown my support throughput the whole ordeal. No reason for the racist bigotry things they have had to put up with. No one ever gave the good humor guy crap

I totally agree about the food trucks. They brought life to the center of Madison. Great to see families eating on the Academy School benches. I also agree that the owner of the Taqueria is as nice as they come. He volunteered to speak to some of our kids about his life experience.
Ever notice that most of the protesters (anti food truck)live on Randi Drive? The rest are from Island Avenue. Except 1 guy who lives across the street, I don't get it and I can't respect them or the dirty tricks they have tried

 

[TasteofUConn]

I don't know where you are going with the pompous stuff, someone gives their opinion on food and you call them a pompous a--, that seems a bit ridiculous.

No. They didn't simply give their opinion on food. They gave their opinion on food, then they suggested that another person was "easy to impress," which is tantamount to calling them a simpleton, and then they went on about how so few other people have experienced the culinary transcendence of him. Not just "giving an opinion." He was being pompous, in a "you don't know good food. I know good food" kind of way.
But that's completely okay. Because he's probably right. And being pompous when you're right is really not that big of a crime.
Take my area for example, which I moved to from the East coast. The "pizza" is flat out awful. I've found one - ONE - place in my entire county that has pizza that I'd even give higher than a C+ too, and those C+s were given when I was loaded and hungry, so generous at best. When I first got here, I noticed that everybody bathed - I MEAN BATHED - their pizza in ranch dressing. Not just the pizza really - everything. I thought it was disgusting. It wasn't until I had tried 10 pizza joints that I figured out why they did it - the pizza was so god awful the garbage ranch probably was helping the flavor. But to tell them? To tell them, "the stuff you call "pizza" here is rat ." The look at you with big, blank, stuporic eyes and say, "what do you mean? It's good."
I never was a big ranch fan. Now I loathe the stuff.

 

[sledog]

Which ones burn on the way in, and burn on the way out?

But the Saloon in Minturn, CO, near V/BC is good.

 

[storrsroars]

Take my area for example, which I moved to from the East coast. The "pizza" is flat out awful. I've found one - ONE - place in my entire county that has pizza that I'd even give higher than a C+ too, and those C+s were given when I was loaded and hungry, so generous at best. When I first got here, I noticed that everybody bathed - I MEAN BATHED - their pizza in ranch dressing. Not just the pizza really - everything. I thought it was disgusting. It wasn't until I had tried 10 pizza joints that I figured out why they did it - the pizza was so god awful the garbage ranch probably was helping the flavor. But to tell them? To tell them, "the stuff you call "pizza" here is rat ." The look at you with big, blank, stuporic eyes and say, "what do you mean? It's good."
I never was a big ranch fan. Now I loathe the stuff.

You're in Erie? If you find your way down to Pittsburgh, I'll hook you up. We've got a half dozen "A"s and another half dozen "Bs" around here, although we also have plenty of places that have (need) ranch dipping sauce too. And worse.

Luckily we do have some great taco places and one really decent Latino hole in the wall (Casa Rasta) and a couple of places that are trying to break the mold with different dishes. C'mon down!