6.17.2010

Ponchos Restaurant

I'll admit, I've kinda strayed from the food part of this blog. To make it up to you, this post will be about food and only food.

Yesterday for lunch, I was feeling like a liquado, aka Mexican smoothie time. I'd recently discovered an old menu for a Mexican restaurant that had been left on the doorstep a while back. I knew exactly where it was located- right in between a run down muffler shop and the corner where all the day laborers shoot the shit. This place wins on location alone.

I studied the menu thoroughly before I left the house in order to eliminate stupid gringa time at the ordering counter. When I pulled up to the restaurant, I realized there were only two parking spots for this place. ::::sads:::. Lucky for me, only one other car was there. :::not sads!:::

I went in and ordered a mango smoothie (faaaaav) from the young girl at the counter. She went to the back to check the stocked fruit, then proceeded to break my heart by telling me they only had strawberry and banana left. Ughhhhhhh. I went with a strawnana combo, despite my eyeballs making a love connection with the bubbling horchata machine. I ended up ordering a sope, which I've never had before (Totally wierd, I know.) and a chicken soft taco. The whole meal came to around $8. The poor counter girl forgot to charge me the first time around for my smoothie, so she had to ring it up seperately. Then she got all frazzled and gave me too little change. When I pointed it out, she looked flustered and then gave me twice as much change. Bless. I corrected her math- which, by the way never happens- and waited in a booth for my food.

I couldn't wait to get home to try my precious liquado. :::taste::: Um.... :::another taste::: Ummm... not so good. Maybe it's because it wasn't my usual M.O. (mango delight), but it just wasn't my kind of smoothie. It tasted like strawberry, banana, and milk only. -Like it was missing that secret, special, magical, Mexican ingredient that's usually in these badboys. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't horrible, just nothing to write home about.


When I got to my house, I felt like it was Christmas morning. Was this going to be a fucking badass bowling set (Yes, Chris, I still remember bowling down the living room floor) or something lame like a math coloring book??? First to be opened, the sope. Okay, for anyone who doesn't know what this is (ahem, me), the counter girl described it as a fried tortilla topped with beans, your choice of meat, lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. Soooo, what's the diff between that a tostada? I'll tell you what the difference is. This tortilla is thick- I mean, like as I was eating it, I thought it was an Eggo waffle. And it's not actually a tortilla at all. It's made from cornmeal, so it's closer to a gordita. Aside from not really knowing what it was that I'd ordered, the quality, flavor, and size was great! It was perfectly seasoned, no grizzly bits in the meat, and the lettuce/ tomato looked bright and fresh.

Next, onto the chicken taco. The chicken was shredded and topped with a little bit of Jack cheese (could have used more) and shredded lettuce, and the whole thing was resting on a corn tortilla. It had a very mild flavor, a bit light for me, which is why I think it needed more cheese (as most things do). But for anyone with a devil's spawn gut (I'm talking to you, stomach), this is a great order because it's plain and mild and will fill you up.

So overall, I think this was a positive experience with Senor Poncho. I would order both of these items again, I would be willing to try other items on the menu, and I miiiiight even consider trying the mango smoothie.

UPDATES!!

So, some of you may remember back in April I met up with Chrystal and Danielle for a drink at Profile. Well, it looks like I may have been some good luck for this little diamond in the rough because the other day I happened to drive past it and guess what! It was a totally different restaurant! That's right, my review was the kiss of death for this place! Wow, I knew I had some pull in the industry, but this is just ridiculous. I was driving too fast to see the name of the new place (I only had enough time to do a quadruple-take), but I'm 100% sure it's no longer being known as Profile.

Ok, remember that one time I said this was going to be about food and only food? Well, that was a little stretching of the truth. I have one quick little nonsense for you.

While stopped at a light the other day, I spotted this angel sent from above.

(Click to enlarge)

That's right. He has a book with a giant, white cross on it and is waving it directly.at.me. He must have heard about my Profile review.

12 comments:

Together We Save said...

Looks yummy!!

Ally said...

Dude, I'm so wanting Mexican right now and I'm hating you for it. It's 12:55 am here and they closed the nearest Taco Bell--forgive me as that isn't even really Mexican, but who else would be open in the 'burbs?. I'm screwed. All I have is some fresh salsa hubs made yesterday. I want a damn chicken taco and some beans and cheese baked into a waffle-like substance - kinda reminds me of an Empanada, a little? Maybe?

Jess said...

This post makes me hungry!!!!!

LaceyRee said...

I love me some Mexican food, and I usually have "stupid gringa time", but I will never be as bad as this one girl at Olive Garden a couple of weeks ago. She was complaining to the waiter that she couldn't understand the menu and "whatever gibberish language it was in". It's definitely in English. There's even pictures. It was all I could do not to laugh right in her face.
Yummy post :)

Unknown said...

Bible guy totally looks like he's flipping you off with his other hand.

Sara McCarty said...

Hahahahaha! I love that you pre-read the menu to eliminate "stupid gringo time"! That's hilarious!

And that sope looks awesome.

Deborah said...

I am going Mexican food for my birthday next week! My absolute fav next to Chinese. Oh and next to burgers. Oh and next to steak.

Scratch all of that shiz and let's just say I eat.

Your place sounds lovely. I truly love Mexican and try to get to Chipoltle often. Of course that may not be Mexican. But it's good.

Eeeeg gads I can yabber!

TILTE said...

TWS- thanks for visiting!

ally and debs- taco bell and chipotpoltple do NOT count as mexican food. this what you need to do: drive into an escary part of town and look for a restaurant who's name has lots of X's and/or Z's in it. they may possibly have cockraoches somewhere in the building, but i'm telling you, the food will be well worth it.

lacey- at the olive garden?!!? that's fucking embarrassing.

wombat- he was doing the good cop/ bad cop thing.

Elaine said...

That sounds sooo delicious!!

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Sara Louise said...

My cravings for Mexican food knows no bounds. I make my own fajitas and tacos here in BFE France, but without any good, greasy mexican restaurants around, it just isn't the same.

Chrystal said...

Hey Profile is an Indian Restaurant now. I forgot the name of it but since I drive by it all the time - I will let you know soon.

TILTE said...

sara- i KNOW your plight. when i lived in london it was the same thing. i'm used to grocery stores that AT THE VERY LEAST have a full aisle of mexican ingredients/ food. the grocery stores in london had one 2x2 section of cheap knockoff mexican stuff that was about as mexican as going to eat at Chili's. it was sadtime to say the least...

chrystal- yes! i thought it was indian. once again, i have MAJOR pull in the food community.

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