Best Mexican in Philly

[Neuronix]

As a native Delawarian, I agree on Mexico Lindo. Though on a student budget in Center City without a car my favorite Mexican would be El Rey Del Sol for Tex Mex as good as Texas down on South Street.

[philadining]

Welcome, Neuronix!

Is El Rey Del Sol the one next to Tower, or the one across the street and down a little?

What do you like to get there?

[mrbigjas]

el rey sol is across from tower. i like the beef stew tacos (if they still have them; i haven't been for a good while now). the mrs likes the enchiladas verdes.

and welcome neuronix! post more!

[Andrew Fenton]

I'm also a fan of their stew, which you can get as part of a platter with beans and stuff. And I really dig on the huevos rancheros, which feature eggs poached in a really good, chunky homemade ranchero sauce.

and welcome, neuronix!

[Neuronix]

Thanks guys I plan on posting plenty. My goal in life is to find cheap eats in or near Center City as I'm a poor grad student. Any suggestions on other latin food? I'd love good, cheap Cuban, Argentinian, Spanish (not latin, forgive me or others! I feel like Philly has some great places in some areas (Chinese for example), but really lacks in others (Cuban).

Edited March 31, 2006 by Neuronix (log)

[KatieLoeb]

Thanks guys I plan on posting plenty. My goal in life is to find cheap eats in or near Center City as I'm a poor grad student. Any suggestions on other latin food? I'd love good, cheap Cuban, Argentinian, Spanish (not latin, forgive me or others! I feel like Philly has some great places in some areas (Chinese for example), but really lacks in others (Cuban).

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Not true, our new friend! There's fabulous Cubano eats to be had at Tierra Colombiana, which features both Cuban and Colombian items on their menu. Mixto at 12th & Pine is an offshoot, but the food is pricier and not nearly as good as it is at the original location on North 5th Street in the barrio off Roosevelt Blvd. Portions are enormous and they make a great Cubano sangweech, I'm told. I usually go for the aranitas, little shredded plantain fritters with an addictive garlic sauce to dip them in, the black beans and rice, the ropa vieja, picadillo and the batidos. It's the best Cuban food north of Miami and south of NYC.

And welcome to eGullet and the PA forum! We look forward to more of your insights.

[Neuronix]

If only Tierra Columbiana wasn't so far from Center City Part of being poor is that I don't have a car. Maybe someday I'll make the hour long trek up there...

[KatieLoeb]

If only Tierra Columbiana wasn't so far from Center City Part of being poor is that I don't have a car. Maybe someday I'll make the hour long trek up there...

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Surely some of your colleagues at school have wheels. And of course this bunch of PhilleGulleteers has been known to get together with some frequency if good eats are involved. Keep your eye on the ISO thread that's pinned at the top of the forum and you'll keep up with the latest forays for good eatin'.

[cinghiale]

I prefer Joe's ??? on 10th south of Spring Garden b/c little cheaper, and I think just as good.

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Spot on, Herb. Passed by 10/Spring Garden at noon, yr post in my head. Stopped in, cops & all. Wanted tacos, got the platos, to go. Excellent! Gotta get more divining of this most excellent find. So much mining to do. Edited April 1, 2006 by cinghiale (log)

[Furious Flav-or]

Speaking of Columbian food, there's even better to be had up the road from Tierra Columbiana, albeit without any of the charm. That is, of course, if she's still there.

Two doors up from the corner of 5th and Rockland, a long catty-corner from La Pachanga record store, there's a place that a woman named Ophelia Restrepo runs. I have no clue what it was called, but if it's still there, she makes unworldly Columbian food, especially the chuletas. I'm talking OMFG good. Been at least a year since I was up that way, and I gotta go back soon to get my grease on.

[jason32]

I prefer Joe's ??? on 10th south of Spring Garden b/c little cheaper, and I think just as good.

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Spot on, Herb. Passed by 10/Spring Garden at noon, yr post in my head. Stopped in, cops & all. Wanted tacos, got the platos, to go. Excellent! Gotta get more divining of this most excellent find. So much mining to do.

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I'm a new (and excited) member to eGullet, and in reading through this thread, I was wondering when Jose's would come up. I've eaten there a number of times and each time has been excellent, despite the fact that their prices have crept up a bit from when they first opened (still pretty reasonable -- $6-7 for a burrito-- considering the crap you can get elsewhere for the same prices), but before it was an absolute steal. The steak they use in their burrito has tons of flavor as does their shrimp. The menu is quite limited but I guess they figure stick to what they do best.

[cinghiale]

...despite the fact that their prices have crept up a bit from when they first opened (still pretty reasonable -- $6-7 for a burrito-- considering the crap you can get elsewhere for the same prices), but before it was an absolute steal.  The steak they use in their burrito has tons of flavor as does their shrimp.  The menu is quite limited but I guess they figure stick to what they do best.

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Agreed, Jason. I ate there again yesterday for lunch. gf and I split tacos carnitas (3), spicy chicken burrito and chicken quesadillas. Tacos were pretty good, though I think Taqueria Veracruzana gets my vote for best carnitas (though Jose's does load 'em up w/guacamole, sour cream, veggies, cheese, etc. as desired at no upcharge). The chicken burrito (we choose black beans) was excellent; I was reminded how my last burrito, purchased about a year ago at Pico de Gallo, was so bad as to put me off burritos permanently, I thought -- this one was excellent, and I'm back. The best dish were the quesadillas. The caramelized onions were so sweet, the chicken so tender, the tortillas so perfectly crisped, the seasoning terrific. Man, we were stuffed. Total bill was $21, including two sodas. I'm gonna try the steak and shrimp items next, at you recommend.

And welcome to eGullet.

[Andrew Fenton]

This morning a group of eGulleteers converged on Restaurant Acapulco (1144 S. Ninth St.) to try their Sunday barbacoa special. The restaurant is well within the Washington Avenue Good Eating Zone, just a block or so away from La Lupe. It's easy to recognize thanks to their sign, which also gives a subtle hint about the especialidad de la casa:

Why only on Sunday? Well, you couldn't eat this little fellow on just any day:

(But remember, you're eating goat, not a goat, especially a cute little goat! I'm pretty sure that this goat had a nasty disposition.)

Anyway, goat is sort of a standout on the menu; the other specialty of the house seems to be seafood. After we'd ordered, a beautiful whole fried snapper came by. It was gorgeous. Still, we came for goat, and we were gonna get our goat. One way or another.

But first, chips, pico de gallo, salsa verde and a dish of beans:

Could there have been more chips? Why yes, there could have been. If there had been, would I have eaten them all like some sort of half-man/half-pig creature from the island of Dr. Moreau? Why yes, I would have; and probably not have had room for the rest of the meal.

Oddly, not everybody was psyched about dipping their toe into the shadowy pools of goativorousness. Appropriately for brunch, then, here's an omelette made with spicy sausage:

The goat special came with a bowl of broth. Goat broth? Probably, though it wasn't overwhelmingly goaty:

It was spicy, with a sheen of oil floating on top as a heat-accelerator. But no time to admire the soup because up next was the piece de resistance (hard to resist, actually):

That's some barbacoa there, bub. Some bones, not too much fat, good flavor, nicely browned. And yes, that is in fact a side dish of spaghetti. Why spaghetti? A nod to the Italian Market location? A chef trying his hand at fusion cuisine? Or a culinary remnant of the Calabrese invasion during the Mexican-Italian War? This is a mystery. But the combination of spaghetti, tomato sauce, Parmesan and queso fresco was oddly tasty.

[mrbigjas]

mmmmm goat.

a couple notes:

1. the broth is referred to as consome both there and at taqueria la veracruzana, where they serve the pieces in the broth, which gets interesting when you're fishing them out of there. not as difficult as the duck noodle soup at nan zhou, because you have a fork, but a messy situation nonetheless.

2. that was crema on the spaghetti, not queso fresco. a weird combination indeed!

3. their pico was excellent, and the salsa verde had the nice addition of little chunks of avocado in it. good stuff.

thanks andrew--good idea!

[shacke]

I will add my thanks to Andrew also. Mighty good kid plate. Strange combo indeed but it was all really good and mindboggling filling.

Evan

[Andrew Fenton]

2. that was crema on the spaghetti, not queso fresco.

Dough! I mean, d'oh! I always get those mixed up. Anyway, there's no doubt that the combo of that and parmesan is a wicked dairy double team. But oddly good.

[KatieLoeb]

Sorry I missed this! Looks like good eats. Hopefully today was but a reconaissance mission and Sunday Goatalicious Brunch will become a regular get together.

I'm still awaiting Andrew's posting of our feast at Jose's last week. That was some good eatin'. Cheap as dirt and unbelievable homemade food. I can't wait to go back.

Andrew. Did you have to go there with the picture of the cute baby goat???

[Andrew Fenton]

Andrew.  Did you have to go there with the picture of the cute baby goat??? 

Oh, Katie, I was just kidding.

But seriously, folks, I'll be here all week. Try the barbacoa...

[Buckethead]

I recently had the best tacos of my life at El Jarrocho, 13th and Ellsworth. They also are a bit slow to bring the check, but as long as they keep me in tacos, I don't care. My wife thought I was exaggerating when I told her how great the tacos were until she had one, after which she said 'There is no reason to go back to La Lupe. Ever.' If I remember correctly, $5 gets you three tacos, your choice of carnitas, chicken, or chorizo.

The rest of the menu is hit or miss, though. On a subsequent visit I had some kind of pepper steak type dish with queso fresco on top, the queso had become solid, I had to cut it up with a steak knife in order to get some in each bite. Nothing I've had there since can hold a candle to those tacos, at any rate. We have also heard that they make excellent breakfast, though I haven't verified that yet.

[percyn]

Sorry I missed it...its been so long since I saw what was about to be my meal (expect for the occassional lobster).

I have another somewhat skeptical theory on the spaghetti.... $0.50/lb ? Man, I hope I am not being influenced by Pedro

[Andrew Fenton]

I have another somewhat skeptical theory on the spaghetti.... $0.50/lb  ? Man, I hope I am not being influenced by Pedro 

Because I'm a wide-eyed naïf (seriously, that cloud of dust around me? It's from the turnip truck I just fell off of), can I ask: you mean that spaghetti is cheap? It's not cheaper than rice (the side dish I'd have expected); or is it?

[herbacidal]

Because I'm a wide-eyed naïf (seriously, that cloud of dust around me?  It's from the turnip truck I just fell off of)

Wait, it's not because you're Pigpen?

[Andrew Fenton]

Okay, we've done South Philly Mexican; now here's a quick rundown of Jose's, in more northerly climes:

I bet you can figure out the address from that photo... It's in a funny area; plenty of gentrification a'goin' on, which led to a distressingly large number of hipsters in the restaurant. There. That's my biggest complaint about Jose's. Other than that, it's pretty good.

We'd been tipped off to Jose's by Rick Nichols's very handy rundown of Philly Mexican, which mentioned the chicken-lime soup as a standout. We called ahead to learn that he doesn't usually make it in the summer, but if he has some notice, he'll make up a batch. And here it is:

Good broth, and I always like the addition of lime to soup. It's a pretty spicy soup, as well, and spicy in an interesting way: there's that hot sauce on top, but also lots of sliced ginger in it, giving it heat in two very different ways. Definitely call ahead for this soup; it's worth it.

The rest of the menu subscribes heavily to the "tortilla with lots of stuff piled on it" school of Mexican food. Some standouts include the huaraches:

So called, I assume, because it looks like a sandal. Huh. Anyway, I think we ordered this with chorizo, which was in no way sandal-like; it was pretty tasty.

Grilled shrimp salad:

Pretty self-explanatory, I think. If the photo is blurry, it's only an accurate representation of my state at this point in the evening, after drinking lots of tequila...

Mushroom quesadilla:

Again, pretty self-explanatory, except that I don't think that I've ever seen mushrooms (except for huitlacoche) in a Mexican restaurant.

And finally, here's tostadas (or whatever: the key point is that they're corn tortillas) with carnitas:

Chock-full of carnita-y goodness!

Conclusions? Jose's doesn't break any new ground, but it's worth going to try the soup, if nothing else.

edited to add: my, how nice it is to be able to be blasé about a good new Mexican place in Philly. Oh, how the city has changed over the last few years, and hooray for that!

Edited July 19, 2006 by Andrew Fenton (log)

[phillyjawn]

another great reason to love jose's?!

if you live in the no.libs./spring garden neighborhoods, they will deliver right to your front door

Edited July 19, 2006 by phillyjawn (log)

[KatieLoeb]

There's them pictures! Yeah! That was just a silly feast of much Mexican goodness. The chicken-lime-ginger soup is off the hook and everything else was just delicious. This is definitely my new fave "down and dirty" cheap eats place. I'm totally jonesing to go back. All I need is a dining companion...