Enchilada's

Enchilada's is much much better than Monterrey could ever hope to be.

7/26/2006: Enchilada's

A relatively frequent spot in our travels, though I've never been sure why...Enchilada's is further away from (and a little more expensive than) Monterrey's, but I don't think it's much better. This time, I ordered the chipotle grilled chicken, which was a chicken breast (quite dry) smothered in cheese and not-so-good chipotle sauce. The "sonora vegetables" on the side were good, at least: flavorful, not oversoaked in butter. I skipped the queso, but I don't remember theirs ever being remarkable (though it's among the best in cost-to-quantity ratio, at least, which is good for big groups).

My score: two chips and some crumbles out of five. I'd imagine the rest of the guys had better luck w/ their enchilada plates and would up that to three, maybe even four. But hey, they took their sweet-ass time posting this week, so come get some.

P.S. Jon and I beat the shit out of Mike and James in Halo 2 last night. This has nothing to do with Mexican food...it just needed to be stated.

7/19/2006: Blue Goose

A sparsely attended night encourages us to stay local and head up the street to the Blue Goose. We sit inside on account of the warm weather - which keeps us from are usual chick watching. So sad... The service was really good, counter to our normal Weds night enchilada special excursions. The queso was good, but not great and the food was good. Three of us partook in various versions of the afore mentioned enchilada special, while the fourth chowed down on a heaping order of tacos al carbon. Over and out.

7/12/2006: El Ranchito

This south Dallas establishment is a pilgrimage for our lazy asses. Because we're residents of the EDT (East Dallas, TX), the Wednesday Night Mexican Club has an unofficial criterion of driving distances less than 10 minutes for food. This works out nicely because 1) there's an abundance of good Tex-Mex cuisine in that range and 2) we're lazy. But El Ranchito gets top marks in our gang, so we didn't hesitate to make room for such a journey.

This visit, however, blew ass. My guess is that we got the "white people will tip us no matter what" treatment (we were one of only three white tables at the restaurant that Wednesday). Our service was slow and sloppy; the worst was when our order for pre-meal queso didn't show up until one minute before dinner was served, and as soon as the queso arrived, we needed more chips...those didn't arrive until AFTER dinner was served. Bitch bitch bitch, maybe, but if we're overpaying for melted cheese, we should at least get it on time. It was pretty bland queso at that, which was a first. Can't attest for the rest of the table's dining experience, but I wasn't fond of the enchiladas suizas. There was no discernible flavor in the mess of sauces piled upon my chicken enchiladas.

But on the bright side, the live mariachi band was tops. They have live bands at El Ranchito frequently, but this one actually had a horn section (rather than just a synth-horn rig). Perhaps that made all the difference; the oompa-oompa songs kinda ran together by dinner's end, after all, but you can't beat real effin' horns.

2 chips out of 5...plus a bonus chip for the band.

bienvenidos

We are from Dallas, TX, and we eat Mexican food every Wednesday night. You don't need to know much else about why we do this, other than the fact that we're an annoying mix of broke and picky. We'll tell you about our experiences at various Tex-Mex establishments in and near Dallas every week. Please respond with your own thoughts--particularly recommendations for good joints, because that's much of the reason we're even bothering with this.