In the search for the best Mexican food in the valley my girlfriend Abbe and I recently tried Carbajal’s on Baseline road between Ellsworth and Crimson. I thought the place was named after the boxer Michael Carbajal with all the celebrity restaurants popping up here in the valley - but apparently its been in business for over 15 years and seems unrelated.

The restaurant is tucked into a small plaza on the corner of Crismon and Baseline that is also host to a Basha’s. From the outside it looks like a small take out only place, but there is a small dining area as well. The menu is moderately priced for Mexican food and the service is pretty good. They offer fairly standard fare for the genre but everything I’ve tried so far has been excellent. The portions tend to be on the small side (especially for a giant gringo like me) but everything is infused with great flavor and an authentic taste. I recommend the fajitas although many reviews suggest the rellenos. Overall I recommend it.

First Impressions

Mi Amigo’s has moved up in the appearance department-  less frills and random decor, more of a tidy, moderately expensive place.

However, once we were seated, the impression failed.  A laminated, child-proof menu, and crude tortilla chips, made of a half-tortilla each, didn’t make the grade. (more…)

First Impressions

Rosa’s, in a lower-rent neighborhood on University, gives the impression of a slightly downmarket Tia Rosa’s.  They are, or at one time, were ran by the same firm, so it’s not surprising.  Expect a lot of brickwork and tile mosiacs, and some rustic styling across the board, all hidden in a strip mall. We were given a table suitable for 10 for our group of eight, some trays of chips (fresh-tasting, but a bit greasy and not warm) and plastic cups of salsa to start.

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Sinaloa Mexican Restaurant is located on the south east corner of Gilbert and Mckellips in Mesa. It is in the back corner and almost hidden. Sinaloa specializes in traditional mexican food and seafood. I have been here several times and love the place. For around 7 bucks you can get a shrimp coctail that tastes great. For those of you who have had a mexican style shrimp coctail you know what I’m talking about. For those of you who don’t, go to Sinaloas and order one.

I usually like to order their tacos. They have fish, marlin, carne asade, pork, and chicken. They are right around 2.50. Very good price because after the chips n salsa two is usually enough to fill me up. Oh, and speaking of the chips n salsa, it is awesome at Sinaloas. The chips are average, but the salsa is above average for sure. If you are in this area and you are looking for some traditional sonoran style mexican food, go to Sinaloas!!  Trust me…you won’t regret it.

Chilero’s Mexican Food is located in East Mesa on the Southest Corner of Ellsworth & Brown.  We were seated promptly and were brought chips n salsa. The chips were great. They weren’t your typical chips that you get at other mexican restaurants. They were a little thicker and I really liked them. I decided to go with the Chile Verde Burrito Enchilada style. It was on the lunch menu and came with rice and beans. I believe the lunch menu had 6 choices and they were all around 6.95. It was an extra 1.25 or so to have enchilada style.

The burrito tasted great. The tortilla was very good and the green chile was amazing. The rice and beans were also good. Overall, I think the food at Chilero’s was good. I think it may be a bit overpriced, but I would still recommend this place and will still go back. Try it out and tell us what you think.

Decent Mexican food with pretty high prices. Typical Mexican lunch menu burro’s, taco’s, enchilada’s, …..It had comfortable atmosphere with tables and chairs for about 30 people and a small bar seating area.

I got a Carne Asada Burrito from the lunch special menu. Good tasting food that was neatly prepared and served promptly. I ordered a couple sopapia’s for all of us for dessert. They gave me a taste of their flaun for dessert, it was very good, home made.

Relaxed Mexican food, great lunch date location.

First Impressions

Chilero’s sits up on Brown and Ellsworth, in that part of Mesa where you think you’ve already reached Apache Junction but haven’t.  The strip mall it resides in is very new, and the newness and cleanliness is fairly visible throughout.

The general decor feels like a dramatically toned-down Tia Rosa’s, with a few Mexican knick-knacks on the walls and a small tiled fake roof.  Strangely, there are a few Chilero’s themed signs around, which gives it a sports-bar vibe for a moment.

We pushed tables together ourselves to seat ten, but the seats were immediately available.

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For lunch we ended up going to a fairly new Mexican restaurant in Mesa. Located on the corner of Brown and Ellsworth, Chilero’s is a small corner restaurant. Fitting no more than 30 or so people, they offer a full entree menu as well as lunch specials. The inside has what you would expect at any Mexican place, bright colors and Mexican music in the background.

I ordered number five on the lunch special menu,  three chicken flautas with beans and rice. Although I never had flautas before, I enjoyed them. They were freshly cooked and complimented the rice and beans. The service was great over all and the food was ready quickly.

Dessert was two orders of fried dough with powdered sugar and honey, forgot what they are exactly called. The meal was good and filling and it seemed that everyone else enjoyed their meal. However, something was missing, perhaps a bar or more tables or a TV? Again this restaurant is quite small and besides the good food, doesn’t offer much. Might want to stick to a pick-up or take-out order.

Located on Brown and Ellsworth, Chilero’s has a clean cantina feel with a colorful interior. There is a lunch menu that has 5 meals aside from the normal dinner menu.

I ordered the #1, a shredded beef taco and cheese enchilada, but substituted the beef for chicken. The taco is a typical medium-sized, hard shell taco with the exception of having the right proportions of ingredients. I was pleased to see that the taco was not over stuffed with meat and topped off with two shreds of lettuce and a shred of cheese as I usually do. Instead, there was the right amount of chicken, cheese, lettuce, and tomato.

The cheese enchilada was covered in cheese and red sauce, though, there was not much, if any, cheese inside. It complimented the taco nicely even though I wish the red sauce had a little more kick to it. The plate was rounded out with spanish rice and refried beans to make a good sized meal.

Lunch was topped off with fluffy sopapillas.

Second Impressions

Nando’s hasn’t changed much in the few months since our last visit.  The  decor still feels a bit incomplete– as though they wanted to do a “covered in stuff” look but ran short.  In spite of a very large party size- 18 seats- we were placed immediately, albeit at two seperate tables.

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