Fiesta Mexicana

Disclaimer:  when I mention Mexican food in the following words, know that this is Mexican food made in Minnesota.  I know it is different than Mexican food you will find in Mexico.  Sometimes I have a craving for Mexican food and sometimes I am too lazy to make it, or I don’t have the plethora of ingredients some recipes call for, or the time to make five components for one dish, so I logically head to a Mexican restaurant to fill the void.  Usually, unless I fill such void at El Carambas, I end up wondering why I didn’t go through the work of buying and making the food myself.  Last Sunday I went to Fiesta Mexicana for lunch.  I haven’t been to El Carambas in a while, but from what I recall, they have the best Mexican food in town.  After again visiting Fiesta Mexicana and recalling my memories of El Carambas, I will continue to believe El Carambas has the best Mexican food in Rochester.  I just wish El Carambas wasn’t literally on the complete other side of town from me.

Enough about El Carambas, however, unless I review it later.  Fiesta Mexicana is conveniently located in the Northbrook Shopping Center, right north of Silver Lake, sharing the same strip mall with places such as Glynner’s Pub, Little Ceasar’s, and everyone’s favorite, the DMV.  There is ample parking since it is a strip mall, but the parking lot could use quite a bit of work.  It’s about as smooth as a box grater. 

The outside of Fiesta Mexicana is hospitable.  They have a patio outside that will seat probably 20 or 30 people which is a good asset for the warmer months of Minnesota.  Walking inside the front door, the restaurant feels like a typical Mexican restaurant.  It seems that I have been to two different groups of Mexican restaurants before, a few unique ones, but mostly homogenous ones.  They all have a similar look, just a different name on the front.  There are bright colors, like greens, pinks, and yellows, or Southwest colors like clay, turquoise, maroon, and terra cotta, typically they have some kind of Cinco de Mayo looking decorations up all year long, and pictures and other decorations that look like you can get at any flea market or outdoor shop in the southern United States or in Mexico.  It doesn’t look bad, per se, just typical.  

Upon entering, we were immediately greeted by a hostess and seated at a table.  One of my restaurant pet peeves is when you pull a chair out and it squeaks more than a car without breaks because of metal on tile contact.  Apparently Fiesta Mexicana doesn’t have caps or gliders on their chair legs to prevent this.  It is annoying.  The chairs and tables seem to be a little past their prime.  With a little renovation of the tables and chairs, I think the restaurant would look much better.

Shortly after sitting down our waitress came by to drop off the requisite all you can eat chips and salsa and to take drink orders.  Like most every Mexican restaurant I have been to, particularly the ones that fall into that homogenous category, they all have the same beverage options, sub-par Mexican beer, slightly better Dos Equis Amber and Negro Modelo, a full bar where you can get your favorite hard liquor made into the fruitiest drink possible, a cola option, and perhaps a wine option.  I stuck with water for this trip, but I forget if they serve Coke or Pepsi.  I am guessing Pepsi since people here love that stuff.  This coincides with their lack of taste buds.  

The chips and salsa were better than I remembered them, so that was a plus.  When the chips first get to the table they are hot and crispy.  Even when they cool down their crispness remains.  They are either very lightly salted or unsalted and I am guessing made in house, at least they should be made in house.  The salsa was better than I recalled it being too.  I thought the last time I had the salsa it tasted flat.  This time, however, it had a good salt level, a taste of tomato and cilantro, and a little spice.  It wasn’t a completely smooth salsa which I do like.  Minnesotans would probably find this “spicy” but it was not.  One time when I dined at Fiesta Mexicana I got the salsa I’m sure they reserve for the non-Gringos that was significantly spicier.  I do not recall its contents, but I do remember large chunks of tomatoes, onions, and peppers.  One issue I did have with the chips and salsa had nothing to do with the chips or the salsa, it had to do with how the chips were served.  The basket they were served in was lined with a coffee filter; I don’t like how this looks and surely they can take an extra five seconds and put a napkin in the basket.

Fiesta Mexicana’s menu is what you would expect from a Mexican restaurant in Minnesota.  It contains over 50 choices for dinners, as well as appetizers, à la carte choices, salads, American food, and desserts.  The menu is much too long in my opinion, but a lot of the menu is a repeat of itself with various dinners including various types/numbers of tacos, burritos, enchiladas, tostadas, chili rellenos, and so forth.  The usual suspects are on the menu regarding these, as well various variations of fajitas and a good decent seafood selection.  The menu is somewhat broken down into animal, so if you want some kind of pork Mexican dish, you look at the pork section.  I was contemplating getting Carnitas because it is so tasty, but after reading the description I was disappointed to find out they use pork loin for it.  Every other time I have seen it and when I have made it, pork shoulder has always been used.  Instead of opting not to see how bad Carnitas is made with pork loin, I chose the red, white, and green enchiladas. 

Mexican restaurants always seem to be quick with getting you your food after ordering, probably because everything is made and it is more or less an assembly process.  After a short time of waiting and munching on chips and salsa the food was delivered.  A few people at the table ordered fajitas which looked pretty good, though the steak looked incorrectly cooked, as in more medium well than medium rare.  Served with the fajitas were corn or flour tortillas, pico de gallo, guacamole, a charred jalapeño, some green onions, and I think some other items like lettuce and so forth.  I did not taste these, however, so I cannot comment on how they tasted.

I did taste, however, the food I ordered.  The red, white, and green enchiladas, I’m sure to resemble the Mexican flag, were, unfortunately, not red, white, and green.  The three enchiladas are to have three different colored sauces, one sauce per enchilada, but one of mine had green and the other two had red.  My brother ordered the same dish and his were correctly sauced.  I call that an inconsistency.  The green sauce, salsa verde, was pretty tasty.  It has a little heat to it, a nice cilantro note, and an acidic sharpness to it.  The red sauce was decent, though not as flavorful as the green.  It had an earthier flavor with some tomato flavor and a little sharpness, decently spiced though no heat.  I cannot tell you what the white sauce tasted like as I did not receive it.  The filling I chose was chicken instead of ground beef because it is harder to properly cook chicken and for it to taste good.  It seems that they used the less personally desirable, yet more American desired part of the chicken, the chicken breast.  Though they tried to season it, it was mostly tasteless on its own.  Had they used chicken thighs, I have no doubt the overall enchilada experience would have been better, even without the proper saucing.  Instead they used boring white meat. 

My enchiladas were served with rice and refried beans.  The rice was decently flavorful on its own and the refried beans were refried beans, creamy and salty.  I do like refried beans, but I have my doubts these are scratch made refried beans.  It would be nice to have a solid refried bean, but honestly I do not expect it.  Back to the rice, it is what I think of as your run of the mill Mexican rice.  There was some tomato in it, it was seasoned pretty well, and it overall wasn’t offensive, though it also wasn’t impressive.  If you compare rice dishes between Fiesta Mexicana and Nupa, I will take Nupa’s any day of the week.  Yes, it is much different, but Nupa seems to elevate something so simple like rice.  It would be great to see Fiesta Mexicana embrace this same grain and take it past predictable and to fantastic.  

Overall my food wasn’t tasteless or offensive.  It also wasn’t particularly memorable, or unique.  The enchiladas were incorrectly sauced which did detract from the overall food experience as I was only able to taste 2/3 of the sauces I ordered.  Yes I could have sent food back, but I don’t send food back unless there is some egregious error.  Otherwise I’ll eat it and deal with it.  The presentation of the plate was also lacking.  No, I don’t expect the plate presentation of a $40 plate, and yes, refried beans aren’t the easiest of foods to make look good on a plate, but between the goopy refried beans and two sauces that ran across the plate, melted cheese almost everywhere, and partially oxidized plain iceberg lettuce, it wasn’t the prettiest plate of food to look at.  As I was taught, we eat with our eyes first. 

Overall, if you want Mexican food they serve that.  Don’t expect anything earth shattering as it is predictable.  They have a plethora of options to choose from so chances are you can find something you like.  Much of it, however, seems to be safe food offerings.  Like I said before, I think El Carambas makes better Mexican food and they have less safe offerings, such as lengua.  I cannot not recommend Fiesta Mexicana because they give you what you likely expect from a Mexican restaurant in Rochester, Minnesota. 

To recap…..

Food:  Predictable Mexican-inspired food.  Though my food was sauced wrong, it wasn’t tasteless or terrible.  It also wasn’t particularly memorable or unique.  The complimentary chips and salsa are pretty good, though the salsa isn’t anything special.  The chips have a nice crunch.  They could make better food by using dark meat chicken.  Also, for some reason they don’t know how to make Carnitas correctly.  As long as you aren’t expecting Frontera Grill, Barrio, or something akin to those, Fiesta Mexicana will meet your expectations, though likely not surpass them.

Service:  The hostess welcomed us right away upon entering, though they weren’t packed.  The waitress and other staff helping the waitress were fairly efficient; refills were prompt for beverages, chips, and salsa.  Again, I am unsure how quick they are during a busy time, but for this time they were good.  The food was served quite quickly, as it is at most Mexican restaurants. 

Drinks:  I am pretty sure they serve Pepsi.  They have a full bar with your usual suspects for a Mexican restaurant on the beer menu.  They do the margarita thing and probably all of those other tropical drinks that you may or may not want to be seen drinking in public. 

Ambiance:  It is the typical ambiance of the homogenous variety of Mexican restaurants, earthy colors, Cinco de Mayo decorations, vivid paintings, flower pots, Mexican-style chandeliers, and other knick knacks you would expect.  The chairs will probably squeak when you pull them away from the table.

Conclusion:  It’s not the best Mexican food in town, but it is what it is.  You can have your choice between 50 plus entrées, though from what I’ve eaten there between this past time and earlier times nothing is particularly memorable.  I can’t say stay away because it isn’t terrible, it’s just not spectacular.  If you live close to El Carambas I would go there.  If not, you can get Mexican food at Fiesta Mexicana, but don’t expect some deliciously creative offerings.  

Jordan