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| The Mexican |
Last week I made my way to Lincoln Park with Shelley from
Chicago Is My Boyfriend to check out
The Mexican, a new casual Mexican spot from the folks behind
Taco Joint. The Mexican is a full service restaurant that draws inspiration from fondas, or diner-style restaurants that center around homestyle Mexican meals. The interior design of the restaurant emulates fondas with reclaimed wood paneling, hand painted tables and chairs in vibrant colors, a brick fireplace with a rotisserie, and vintage light fixtures.
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| The Mexican |
The Mexican specializes in mezcalitas, which essentially are margaritas made with mezcal instead of tequila. I'm not a huge tequila fan, so this made me very happy! We tried the Smoky Mango Mezcalita, Pineapple-Serrano Mezcalita, and the Strawberry-Cilantro Mezcalita. Some were spicier than others, but my fave was definitely the Smoky Mango Mezcalita. The drink menu also includes margaritas, Mexican beers and micheladas, and even a paloma slushy.
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| Smoky Mango Mezcalita & Pineapple-Serrano Mezcalita |
The Mexican's menu features ceviche, quesadillas, tacos, enchiladas, fajitas and house specialties including carne asada and pollo rostizado. We started our meal with two appetizers, the house guacamole with tortilla chips and chicharrones. The guac was extra chunky, which we both loved, but it definitely could have used more spice.
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| Guacamole |
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| Guacamole |
Our next starter was the empanadas, per our server's recommendation. The Mexican offers two varieties: one with shredded beef tinga, and one with zucchini, corn, and Oaxaca cheese. They cook their empanadas by baking them, not frying them, and use a light and crusty puff pastry. Each is made to order and is served with a tomatillo salsa with little bits of avocado. I loved the light and crisp texture of these empanadas, and couldn't believe how huge they were. These are great for sharing among the table.
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| Beef & Veggie Enchiladas |
For the main event, we decided to share two entrees; the first was recommended by our server, chicken enchiladas verdes. The dish came with two large enchiladas stuffed with pulled chicken tinga, and topped with roasted green tomatillo salsa, Chihuahua cheese, crema, and an arugula-radish salad. I loved how these weren't smothered in a ton of cheese; they were mostly topped with the fresh and flavorful salsa and arugula-radish salad. Was it tasty? Yes. Would I go back for this dish alone? Probably not.
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| Chicken Enchiladas Verdes |
Our second entree is something I would go back to The Mexican for, the pollo rostizado. The Mexican has a rotisserie grill on display where you can see those beautiful chickens roasting on the spit. The Mexican uses free range chickens which it marinates with citrus, and zesty herbs and spices. You can order a half or whole chicken, but we decided to go with the half since we already tried so much food. The chicken had a wonderful brown and slightly crispy skin topped with chimichurri. It's served with a side of traditional fideo noodles topped with cheese, as well as a toasted guajillo-almond salsa, and tortillas. The chicken was so tender all we needed was a fork to pull it apart from the bone. We ended up using the tortillas and making little tacos with the chicken topped with the nutty guajillo-almond salsa, and other hot sauce varieties on our table. The fideo noodles were a bit bland and dry but an interesting addition nonetheless. We were a bit disappointed to find out The Mexican does not make their own tortillas, especially since Taco Joint does, but the ones we had were so good, they almost fooled us.
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| Pollo Rostizado |
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| Pollo Rostizado |
I would definitely go back for the pollo rostizado and I highly recommend it. You might be thinking, how good can a rotisserie chicken be? But trust me on this one. The other appetizers and entrees we tried were tasty, but nothing else truly stood out. The Mexican is a great spot for casual drinks and eats, and they also offer daily entree specials, as well as a happy hour from 4-6pm daily.
Note: my meal at The Mexican was complimentary; however, all opinions expressed are my own.
The Mexican
1967 N. Halsted St.
Chicago, IL 60614
312.460.3200
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