We acted against our better judgment after pool and a day of no nap to try out the new Pancho Villa Mexican restaurant that just opened this weekend. Graem sat in her high chair for about 2 minutes, despite our attempts to ply her attention with green and red tortilla chips, grated cheese, a wallet, a fork, and her baba. She sat in a regular chair briefly, then sat in my lap, then sat in Shawna’s lap, then cruised around the restaurant and almost out the door.
As soon as we walked into the restaurant, I had a gut feeling that it was going to be expensive, mainly due to the fact that the waitrons wore starched white shirts and ties. Sort of antithetical to Mexican food, what with refried beans and cheap margaritas usually entail. Anyway, red flag #2 was the Tabasco sauce bottles on the tables! Traditional red and mild jalapeno, neither of which are particularly Mexican!
We were seated near the kitchen, which had us on alert for Grammy’s wanderlust. It was kind of lame that the table we sat at had a pre-soiled tablecloth (beans, I think). We hoped for the next patron’s sake that they changed it after we were through! Our hunches about price were confirmed when we opened up the extensive, albeit inkjet-printed-with-bad-resolution-clip-art menus. The menu had your typical Mexican fare: enchiladas, burritos, chimichangas, fajitas, and some chef’s specials that mostly consisted of seafood.
Shawna attempted to order the crunchy beef tacos, but our waiter informed us that they didn’t have them. I guess we should cut the place slack for misjudging food quantities for opening weekend, but tacos are a prime staple for a Mexican restaurant. It was a bit annoying that we had to go through the menu with the server to ask, “Do you have this? How about this?” I ordered the Triple Enchiladas mole, with two chicken and one cheese enchilada, and the house mole, which is all they had of the three choices.
The food came quickly, which was a relief to us, since Grammy had strewn most of the cheese around our area. Shawna finally settled on the carnitas, which was a slow-cooked shredded pork in a tomato, onion, achiote and cilantro sauce, similar to puerco pibil, but not quite as citrusy. Her dish came with soft corn tortillas, and rice and beans typical of all the entrees. Shawna would have liked some lettuce/tomatoes/pico de gallo to fill out her tortillas, and the presentation of the carnitas could have been a little better: they came in a big-ass slop bowl with no garnish, just a pile o’meat.
Bean choices were black beans or pinto beans, and the rice was well-seasoned but not too salty. My mole enchiladas were pretty good, and the plate was hot, as I was well-warned. Somehow I chose to touch it anyway. The enchiladas were baked instead of fried, which I suppose has its health merits, but I do love a good deep-frying on any food! The result was slightly less-crisp tortillas that were a bit dry on the edges. The cheese and mole went well together. The chicken was all white meat, and was also pretty well-seasoned. I did get a little fatty bit of chicken, which was a little gross.
The service was decent for opening weekend, the food tasted pretty good, and serving sizes were appropriate for the price. I don’t think we’ll be back to soon–it’s out of our range for a middle-of-the-week, toddler-throwing-food-everywhere meal, which is our demographic these days. I think the suggestions I’d have for them is: get some real hot sauces on the table, splurge a little and have the bottomless chips ‘n salsa, trim down the menu–it’s way too long and confusing, too many loose pages–and have them reprinted professionally.
I guess we should be hopeful, because at least the place is run by real Mexicans, which is more than can be said about the other “Mexican” restaurants in town. We eagerly anticipate Garcia’s opening, which will hopefully will be in the next week or so.
