Molcajete Mexican Restaurant is a beautiful restaurant on Lee Highway in Chattanooga, Tennessee that serves delicious Mexican food!
A couple of months ago, I posted on my Facebook page asking what everyone’s favorite Mexican restaurant in the Chattanooga area was. I got a ton of responses-several of which corresponded to my personal favorite (Delia’s, DUH) but lots of which I had never heard of. You’ll forgive me if there’s a disproportionate number of Mexican restaurant reviews for the next few months, right??? I’ve got a lot of work to do!
One restaurant that several people mentioned was Molcajete. Philip actually ended up eating there a couple of weeks ago and really liked it, so we decided to go back last weekend. We went at about 1:30 or 2:00 on Saturday afternoon, and while there were quite a few people in the restaurant, we were seated immediately. Our chips and salsa were delivered quickly and our server, Grace, took our drink orders. We also ordered a small bowl of queso because why not??? I will tell you that one of my readers highly recommended the choriqueso (queso with chorizo) but I didn’t want to go that heavy plus we typically order regular queso so I wanted a point of reference.
The chips, salsa, and queso were all pretty standard Mexican restaurant versions. The chips were thin, very crispy, and not too greasy. The salsa was just slightly spicy and pretty smooth (which is how I like it-I don’t care for chunky salsa) with a decent amount of cilantro. The queso was very thin and not very spicy. ⬅️I feel like these are very bland descriptions. Everything was good, but like I said, pretty standard…so I just don’t have much to say!
I decided to order the taquitos with ground beef. Taquitos are rolled corn tortillas stuffed with meat and fried (flautas are the flour tortilla version). Their taquitos are served with guacamole salad (basically just guacamole and shredded lettuce), shredded cheese, rice, and beans. I have to admit, the taquitos were delicious. The tortillas were very crispy-impressively so-and the meat was very well seasoned. On its own, I found the guacamole to be a little too spicy (it had chunks of jalapeño in it), but scooped onto the taquitos it worked perfectly. The beans were, again, pretty standard. Not bad but not earth-shattering. The rice was well seasoned and well-cooked.
Philip decided quickly on a chimichanga (pretty much his standard order) but then noticed the chimiRica-a chimichanga filled with grilled chicken or steak, onions, chorizo, and special sauce, topped with queso sauce. He ordered the small with beef, and I’m pretty sure that if he had ordered the large we would have been in bad shape. In fact, he didn’t even finish the small! It was pretty gigantic. The meat and onions were well-cooked and the cheese sauce made it super-gooey. He didn’t really notice the special sauce, though. His one complaint was that it didn’t come with rice and beans and that, a la carte, they would have cost $4 ($1.99 each) extra. I had plenty, though, so I shared with him.
The decor at Molcajete is very nice. The servers and other staff were very friendly and the food was tasty and fresh. The menu is extensive. It’s definitely (at least mostly) Americanized Mexican food, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t taste good. They have a full bar as well. The prices were on par with other similar restaurants-our total for the queso and two entrees (we drank water) was $18.00 pre-tip. If you are in the Brainerd/Lee Highway area, give Molcajete Mexican restaurant a try!
Molcajete Mexican restaurant is located at 6231 Perimeter Drive, Suite 127, Chattanooga, Tennessee (in the same complex as Sportsman’s Warehouse and Pin Strikes). They are open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday. You can call them at 423-760-8200. You can like Molcajete on Facebook.
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