On The Border Mexican Restaurant (CT)

Remember that other HORRIBLE Mexican restaurant that I mentioned the other day? The crappy one with the crappy service? Yeah, well this place was the complete OPPOSITE of that :o) And I'm still disappointed that a smaller, more authentic restaurant with Mexicans in the kitchen would allow themselves to be showed up by a chain but they did. The chain? On The Border Mexican Grill and Cantina. My particular visit was the Orange, CT location (random, I know).

I'm in Connecticut because I'm visiting my old college suitemate, DeAndra. I finally got in at like 4pm and hadn't eaten all day so we were looking for cheap and delicious food. And cheap and delicious, we found. Our waitress attended to us immediately and was better than great the entire time we were there. We got there before 7pm which meant we made it for Happy Hour! Appetizers and drinks were half price so my ass got two mango and passionfruit margaritas! Why not? Little did I know, they were massive. They came with hot chips and salsa, as they should! (I forgot to mention at Mixtec, our rude waitress had the nerve to tell us that chips and salsa were not free, we had to order that travesty of a dish as an appetizer). Adding to my excitement, they hand press their tortilla chips right there in the restaurant! Fresh chips, fresh salsa, fresh guac and balling ass Margaritas= an amazing intro to On The Border. I was ecstatic, because I only saw my experience getting better. To maximize, I went ahead and asked the waitress what was good, specifically the Dos Equis fish tacos (I've been meaning to try them for awhile now). The waitress answered "Oh my God, I can't even, oh my God!". That was all I needed to hear. DeAndra got beef brisket tacos and her fiance Michael got the taco salad. About 15 mins later, our waitress arrived with our plates and everything was GREAT! She was NOT LYING about those fish tacos! They were cooked in Dos Equis beer batter and the fish was flaky and delicious. It was served on a grilled tortilla with cheese, shredded cabbage and a really tasty chipotle ranch-ish sauce that complimented very well. DeAndra's beef brisket tacos came with little "onion strings" kinda like thin onion rings that she SMASHED so I'm assuming they were tasty. By the time I looked over at Mike's taco salad, it was nonexistent. Yeah.

(These aren't the ACTUAL tacos I had. I couldn't get pics so I wanted to provide a close visual)

So, yeah, I don't really have much else to say other than On The Border is the shit. For real. I overindulged on chips and salsa so by the time my fish tacos got there, I was full. Thus, we packed everything up for a round two later that evening. We were planning on having our friend Allen* over and I figured I'd finish enjoying them then. Not. NOT! Remember I said i had two massive mango margaritas? Yeah, well those shits set in by the time we were leaving. I cool sailed out of there, praising our waitress for her good service on the way, and forgot all the food on the table. (As a matter of fact, I'm writing this post right now hungry as shit.)

Final thoughts: GO TO ON THE BORDER! NOW! Seriously, treat yourself. You deserve it :o)

Couldn't Get It Up...

(CGIU posts are designed to point out the restaurants that failed to satisfy me during my visit, thus, I think the title serves correct)

It's funny, I was just thinking these posts are probably getting boring. I figured I could only talk about delicious food for so long before it became a "same sh**, different day" situation. In the event that this true, today's post will be brand new sh** on a totally different day, thus the "couldn't get it up" category. Today's failure of a meal came from Mixtec Mexican Restaurant in Adams Morgan.

Looks good right? Blah.

I've been meaning to try MixTech for awhile now since they advertise themselves with actual pictures of the food looking all delicious. And I won't take that away from them, the food did look delicious. The taste? Not so much. In fact, not at ALL. But I won't start there, let's start at the beginning so you can really understand my disappointment.

We get to the restaurant where my friend Brandon and I literally walk into a room full of people eating. No person smiling, saying "welcome to MixTech". No stand with the sign that says "Please wait to be seated" or "Seat Yourself". No scarecrow substitute. Nothing. Just blatant disrespect. But I'll take it, I'll be nice. I walk over to the kitchen area and ask the first chick I see, "do we just sit down or...?" She tells me to sit and someone will be over. We do and we are left reading the menu for like 15, 20 mins. When my waitress comes to the table, it's the same chick I just spoke to in the kitchen and she goes "you ready?" (BEAT) You ready? YOU READY?! Have some courtesy and introduce yourself! "Hi, my name is Rrrosa and I'll be your waitress this evening!" No? Okay. We tell her we're not quite ready yet and she takes off. No "how are you?", no taking of drink orders, just no air of "my job is waiting tables and these people will probably tip me based on my performance tonight". Apparently Rosa didn't get the memo. Long story short, she finally brings us our food and the piss poor excuse for chips and salsa (looked like they shook all the flavor off of some Doritos chips and stole some day old pico de gallo from Busboys and Poets). I ordered a Yul Brynner burrito (the menu claims he like it) and Brandon had chicken tacos and they were both completely tasteless. Like TASTELESS.

It's Mexico, they have seasonings right? Somehow Taco bell is getting a hold of some, I'm not sure where Mixtec got left out.

At this point, I am the embodiment of "disappointment" At home, there's a restaurant near me in Dearborn Heights (Detroit) called Mexican Fiesta. Lucky for me, this place is one of the best Mexican restaurants in the city. They make their own chips and they're served hot out the grease with salsa. Did I mention they're hot? It's delicious. Seriously (in fact, post on them coming soon). But Mixtec? IT ALL TASTED LIKE MULTIPLE PILES OF NOTHING. In fact, without any intent of being malicious, I can comfortably say that Mixtec was the worst restaurant I've ever been to in my life. It blew me that I was loading my fork with delicious LOOKING food and tasting none of it. I should've eaten styrofoam, I'm sure it would have been cheaper. There's nothing worse than getting full off of nasty food. Don't ever, I mean EVER be fooled into going to MixTec in Adams's Morgan. There's nothing worse than EXPECTING highly of something and it being lower than your previously expected low! Not even in the ball park of what you expected. AND the service was bad. It was ALL AROUND BAD! That was like buying tickets to see Kanye West and you get there and Webbie's on stage. Singing some old song that was hot for a minute like 2 YEARS ago. You'd be pissed, right? In all, don't allow yourself to be fooled by the smiling white people in the window, it tastes like shit. Probably worst.

North Sea Asian Fusion Restaurant

Lucky for you, I finally ate at North Sea in Adams Morgan and remembered to take a picture of my plate before I smashed it down my sushi hole. No pun intended. As always, the sushi at North Sea was delicious! I always make sure I at least get a spicy crunchy shrimp roll because, as I mentioned in the Sushi Go Round post, theirs is the best. It's got cooked shrimp, some ground up crunchy stuff and some other stuff (sorry, can't quite recall right now) with a tasty sauce that they make themselves. I can't quite describe the taste but it complements the spicy crunchy shrimp-ness well. So, for every reluctant Negro who doesn't eat sushi because "(with a frown) it's raw fish", the Spicy Crunchy Shrimp roll is for you. Also, if you don't like shrimp, they make it with tuna and salmon. Trust me, you should mess with it. It's an Asian fusion restaurant so they also have Thai and some american foods. My first time having Pad Thai was at North Sea and I can say that it was better than the trials that followed.

AND, on top of delicious sushi, they have the NERVE to have a Happy Hour! You read correctly, and it rides from Monday to Sunday (yeah, 7 days a week) from like 4.30 to 7. SOme of the sushi is half price and the ngiri is a dollar each. It's not a bad deal at all. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! Get this. North Sea sells wine, beer, cigars, delicious and they'll deliver ALL of it! Seriously. You can order a case of beer and some sushi and they'll bring it right to your doorstep.

So...if you're ever in Adams Morgan and ou want some GREAT SUSHI, stop in to North sea. You won't regret it :o)