I have to give a three-star review, and I'm remorseful about that, because I have the suspicion that this is actually a 4- or even 5-star restaurant, but I can't say because I don't eat meat.
But I very nearly fell off the wagon for this place, and filled my facehole with all kinds of meat and seafood. If you get a chance to stop by and look at the menu (or someone posts pictures), I think you'll see what I mean. They have a positively-massive mariscos menu. Their list of carnes is bigger and better than any I've seen in Thurston county, or even Lewis county or Mason county.
They have cabezas (head, that is, not sesos, which is brains.) They have barbacoa de borrego (which, if they're doing it right -- and I only know of one catering-like outfit in the area otherwise that is -- is sheep cooked over fire.) They have birria de chivo, which is a stewed goat that's kind of a big deal. They have rajas, which I didn't know enough about at the time to order -- it's a roasted poblano pepper stewy-thing.
Unless they're overreaching, if they really can handle even half of their meats well, this place should be wonderful. I don't know that anyone incompetent would even bother with half this stuff, and I take its presence as a good sign.
The space is the sort of clean-and-simple interior that you expect in the newer strip malls of Martin Way E. It used to be a teriyaki joint, and doesn't look out of place next to Pho Mania. It's not fancy or grotty, it's perfectly utilitarian and modern. I kind of like that. I am always overjoyed to see these new strip mall developments actually provide opportunities for more entrepreneurs to take the chance opening a restaurant that could fill a niche or become a massive hit. We need more of that in Olympia and Lacey, and I've long hoped that this newish strip mall would provide that where some of the higher-end ones that have been built simply do not.
The owners are from Guadalajara in the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco, which gives them a different background and very different food than a lot of the recently-successful Mexican eateries in the Olympia-Tumwater-Lacey area. (The others are from Juárez and California, if I recall correctly.) [Note: there are also a lot of non-Mexican Latin American places that are well-established and popping up. But that's clearly a different thing, too. I'm just talking about the Mexican and Mexican-style food, and I'm not at all talking about "Family Mexican" restaurants.]
The owners are also really sweet and outgoing, which I find worth mentioning. So my partner and I are vegetarian, and we both love chile rellenos and nopales, and were thrilled to see the latter on their menu. I asked if we could make some special orders, and they were happy to oblige. We got burritos, one with chile relleno and one with nopales. The nopales, I gather, were quite good, and the chile relleno was acceptable, but not the kind of chile relleno I prefer. It was eggy and full of a fresco or blanco style queso, I believe, rather than any kind of melting cheese. But there were a few of them in the burrito, and the peppers themselves were wonderful.
Afterwards they made sure to ask that these weird concoctions we ordered were satisfactory, and their interest seemed sort of piqued by the idea of treating those fillings like meats for a burrito, which is always a good sign. They had some curiosity and creativity in their approach to their food, which is a right and good and joyful thing. They indicated that if there was ever anything they could make for us as vegetarians that wasn't on the menu, the husband -- Oscar -- would give it a shot. That's very keen, and I hope to take them up on it.
I desperately want to go back, and find something else to eat, and give them a better review, but it's going to be tough without eating meat. Their burritos are not urban food logs, they're eaten with a knife and fork and there isn't an obvious filling option that's going to call me back except perhaps the rajas. The rajas sound very curious indeed. Eating peppers is always a good idea.
If I go back, I'm going to want the cabezas. I'm going to want the mutton. I'm going to want the lengua, the tripas. I'm going to wish I could try the octopus or the quail or the goat. I hope Yelpers will try it and report back, because I want to know. Have they succeeded? Are they going to be the next small little taqueria to change the way Thurston County thinks about Mexican food? I desperately hope so, and I think they have the potential, and I'm positively gutted to not be able to share the good news. They're trying, they're energetic, they're friendly, and they're flexible. If even one of their meats is mind-blowing, they're going to be massive. I hope that's the case. read more