Guide To Mexican Restaurants

Mexican food is one of our all-time favorites at Sad City. Guacamole, sour cream, cheese, shredded meat, and margaritas are just a few amongst the many reasons to love Mexican cuisine. Luckily for us, there are  a handful of Mexican restaurants to choose from in our fine city. Knowing that Hartford needed a guide to Mexican places, we put ourselves up to the task of trying all we could.

Note: We did not include Spanish or Caribbean or other Latin restaurants in this experiment simply because we never would finish. Those are posts for another day.

AGAVE GRILL
100 Allyn St.
Sad City Rating: Tres Cervezas
It's not that Agave is bad; it just suffers in comparison to Hartford's other Mexican restaurants. Located downtown, Agave is significantly more polished than its counterparts and that may be part of the problem. While guacamole made table side seems pretty kewl, paying $10.50 for it does not. The food is good; though we did have a chicken burrito that was watery. Your won't regret going to Agave except  knowing that you turned down better and cheaper options.

COYOTE FLACO
635 New Britain Ave
Sad City Rating: Cinco Cervezas
When Hakaan lived in the South End, he ordered takeout almost weekly from Coyote. The burritos are excellent and the entire menu is very reasonably priced. Also a great bar and outside dining in good weather make Flaco an excellent choice.

CUCHILANDIA
704 Park St
Sad City Rating: Seis Cerviezas!!
Located inside El Mercado Grocery, Cuchilandia is one of Sad City's favorite spots and has been a topic on this blog before. Tacos, burritos, flatos, rice, beans, chicken, beef, or pork it's all always excellent at Cuchilandia. An extra bonus for having Coca-Cola in the kewl glass bottles. Remember that this is just a lunch or early dinner place as it closes at 7PM, 5PM on Sundays.

EL SARAPE
931 Broad St
Sad City Rating: Seis Cervezas!!
We just recently visited El Sarape and were very pleased. A special of three pork tacos was excellent. The rice and beans were very good. Then there was the chicken burrito. It had to be about 16 inches and was excellent. Order the burrito and you'll have an awesome late night snack. The only slight disappointment was the margarita, which was only ok and had too much ice in the glass.

Ed. Note: On a subsequent visit to El Sarape we had a Mango margarita. Unreal. A++++. Get one. No. Get three!

HONDURAS
517 Park St
Sad City Rating: Dos Cervezas
So this might not technically be a Mexican restaurant but they are advertising Mexican fare so we stopped in and gave it a try. We started with a soup that was excellent. We then ordered four gorditas and three tacos. The food was a disappointment. Everything came out greasy and bland. Pork was overcooked. Cheap but not very good.

MONTE ALBAN
531 Farmington Ave
Sad City Rating: Seis Cervezas!!!
Monte Alban is the third Mexican place to earn a Sad City rating of seis cervezas and it has certainly earned it. One of the more popular restaurants in town, we have ate most of the menu at Monte. Burritos are fantastic. A favorite is the enchilada huertenas, which while mispronouncing the dish for the umpteenth time, we like to order one chicken, one beef, one cheese with all the different sauces. The margaritas? So strong a Sad City intern enthusiastically described them as "like paint thinner" (in a good way).

TACO BELL 
Various
Sad City Rating: Uno caliente cerveza
The most authentic of all mexican restaurants, we were first enticed by the very reasonable prices and the ability to buy food without leaving our car.  We were even more impressed when, from the drive-thru window, we could see the authentic preparation method used for most ingredients; the caulk gun.  When says mexican (or edible) more than shooting ingredients into a taco shell from a caulk gun? Sadly our excitement waned as we tried the food. The meat was too flavorful and complicated for our palette.  The  melted cheese and sour cream too authentic for our Americanized tastes. Only for those who enjoy a taste of "true Mexican"