mexican restaurants Archives - Page 4 of 4

Delia’s Dayton-February 8, 2012

February 8, 2012

You may have read my glowing review of Delia’s Taqueria right here in good ol’ S-D back in December. I pretty much declared that Delia’s is the best Mexican food I have ever eaten, and I pretty much swore off all other Mexican restaurants at which I have eaten to date. Remember that? Well, I found out that Delia’s has a sit-down location in Dayton, TN, and I knew I had to go ASAP. A much-needed personal day from work provided the opportunity to go with Philip, my mom, and my sister for lunch. I was not disappointed!

Delia’s in Dayton is just past the “town” part of Dayton…you might think you’ve gone too far, until you see the bright orange double wide on the left. It’s a dine-in/take-out, with a window outside for those who are taking out. There were not many people dining in when we got there, so we were seated immediately, and baskets of free and unlimited chips and salsa were quickly delivered to our table. That’s one of the advantages to dining in, obviously! The chips were the delicious homemade chips that are served at Delia’s in Soddy-Daisy, but Philip thought that the salsa seemed a little different-less chunky, but still delicious. I liked that the salsa was served in these little mini-carafes with an individual bowl for each person. Double-dip away! (By the way, what do you think of the pics? I got a new phone and the camera is vastly better than the camera in my ipod.)

The menu at Delia’s Dayton is identical to the menu at Delia’s Soddy-Daisy, with the obvious difference in address and phone number. It took me ages to decide what to eat because so many menu items sounded so appealing, but I finally decided on the quesadilla Taco Roc (have you heard of Taco Roc? It’s on Lee Highway. Yep, apparently they own that too. It’s on the list!). Pretty much just meat and cheese on a flour tortilla with guacamole, lettuce, pico de gallo, and sour cream. I ordered mine with steak. Everything about it was delicious, and I ate the whole gigantic thing. The steak had a great grilled flavor and was very tender and sliced very thin. I’ve only recently started eating guacamole, and I thought that theirs was great-not super-chunky, which I appreciated. I also greatly appreciated that the pico did not have huge chunks of onion in it-they were small enough for me to tolerate (I have issues with raw onions, in case you didn’t know). It was also slightly spicy but not overly so. Thank goodness. I’m a huge wuss. I would definitely order this again!

My mom decided on the tacos platter with ground beef on flour tortillas. I’ve had this twice, except on corn tortillas, which I prefer for tacos. As has been my experience in the past, everything was pretty much perfect with this meal-perfectly seasoned meat, great rice, and skin-less refried beans. She really enjoyed it (also, I might mention that the day after Philip and I first tried Delia’s my parents tried it, and they’ve gone there about 100 times since. Okay, that’s an exaggeration. But not much of one.).

My sister decided to just have the chicken with cheese sauce, which she ate with chips. As you see below, it was basically just a bowl of chicken, chopped up into tiny bits and sauteed, then mixed with cheese sauce (which, interestingly, is absent from the menu as an “appetizer”-come to think of it, there is no appetizer menu). The chicken was nice and brown and very fresh-tasting, and the cheese sauce tasted great and was very thin, which is how I like it.

Philip had been chomping at the bit to go to the sit-down location so that he could try the chimichanga, which is generally his go-to menu item at a Mexican restaurant. He hadn’t tried the chimichanga at the Soddy-Daisy location because he was afraid that it would get soggy by the time he got it home. He kept it simple and ordered ground beef as his meat. He was not disappointed. He loved that this chimichanga contained sauteed vegetables (green and red peppers and onions) and not just meat like the chimichangas at most Mexican restaurants. He was truly raving about this meal. I tasted it as well and found it to be delicious. Another win for Delia’s!

Delia’s in Dayton is a bit of a drive if you live in Chattanooga or even Soddy-Daisy, but if you happen to be in the Dayton area and you are looking for fantastic, fresh food, go there. It’s fantastic!

Delia’s is located at 8795 Rhea County Highway, Dayton, TN 37321. You can reach them at 423-570-1813. I am including the menu for Delia’s Soddy-Daisy below for reference; prices may differ somewhat.

Delia’s Taqueria-December 26, 2011

December 29, 2011

I have a confession to make. I know that being a food blogger, I should be adventurous and be willing to try new places sight unseen….but that’s not my style. I don’t usually try new eateries until someone I know has recommended them. Example: Kioto. My assistant ate there before me (Thanks Melissa!) and recommended it….so I knew it was safe. Another example: we recently tried to “have an adventure” and try a brand-spanking-new local place without hearing anything (positive or negative) about it….and it was a complete disaster.

That being said, when I saw Delia’s Taqueria while driving through Soddy-Daisy a month or so ago, I knew I had to give it a try, the sooner, the better. There’s just something about hole-in-the-wall Mexican joints; they are always, ALWAYS the best. Not that you could really call Delia’s a “hole-in-the-wall”, since it’s free-standing. Really, it’s more like a stationary taco truck. There’s not really any seating to speak of…a couple of picnic tables out front is all. So, get it and go….and that’s okay with me, because food this good….well, you really don’t want just anybody seeing you eat it. Oh, and another plus for me: I love being the person to tell Urbanspoon about a new restaurant! That’s just plain fun. But, I digress.

Delia’s is a little red food truck, cart, trailer, whatever. I guess you just have to see it to get the visual. It’s connected to a trailer that used to be the office of a used car lot, which I am assuming has been transformed into a storage facility or office of sorts. They have a little covered porch where you walk up to the window to order, and their menu is a huge board of pictures and descriptions of dishes (think of the menus in Mom & Pop Chinese joints). We took a few minutes to peruse before ordering. The man who took our order was very friendly. Philip asked him if they had been doing good business and he told him that they had been. He also told us that they make all of their food fresh, right down to the tortillas and the chips. Okay, I’m sold. We ordered and were on our way within 10 minutes, and that is with the guy in front of us ordering for himself and his 5 children. I’m not kidding! That’s what I call speedy service. The worst part of this was having to smell the intoxicating bouquet (ha!) of the food while we made the 10-minute drive home….but somehow I made it and even managed to photograph the food before ripping into it.

Of course, I have a gene that does not allow me to eat food from a Mexican restaurant without having chips and salsa. I cannot physically do it. These (fresh and homemade) chips and salsa did not disappoint. Oh, do you need me to repeat that for you? THEY MAKE THEIR OWN TORTILLAS. The chips were fantastic, and the salsa was very fresh-tasting and tomato-ey, just slightly spicy but safe for lightweights like myself. They did include tiny cups of “hot sauce”, one red (just a little spicy) and one green (medium to hot…I only took one bite) that each had fantastic flavor.

Chips & Salsa-Hot, Fresh, and Homemade for $2.00!

There were many items on the menu that were extremely tempting for me, but I decided that I would go simple on this first trip since I feel like you can really judge a restaurant based on their most simple, basic items. I chose the taco platter, which included two chicken or beef tacos (I chose beef), rice, and beans. You can choose the type of tortilla that you want (corn or flour), and of course I chose flour. The tacos also had lettuce, tomato, and white cheese (queso blanco? I’m not sure what kind of cheese it was!). The menu states that they are made with pico de gallo but there wasn’t any on my taco, and honestly I was happy with that. I prefer my tacos without salsa or pico. The tortillas were not fried, which I love. You don’t find a lot of Mexican restaurants that offer tacos in corn tortillas that are not fried (although I’m sure most of them would do it if asked). It’s more authentic this way. The tacos are served in two tortillas each, which helps with the “breakage issue”. The meat was incredible. It was perfectly spiced but not greasy at all and was not in a thick sauce as you typically find in more Americanized Mexican eateries. The produce was fresh and tasty. The beans were perfect-not too thick, not too thin….and there was NO SKIN on them, which is so important! I really loved the rice, too. It was not overly flavored and didn’t have a lot of weird chunks like Mexican rice sometimes does. I ate every bite of my meal. And I didn’t regret it.

Two Beef Tacos, Rice, & Beans-$4.99

Philip decided on the Fiesta Burrito, which is available in ground beef, steak, chicken, a mix of steak and chicken, shrimp, pork, a combo of steak, chicken, and pork, barbacoa (the best description I could find for barbacoa was “Mexican barbecue.” Traditionally sheep meat is used for barbacoa, but this is Soddy-Daisy, so I am assuming they used beef…), al pastor (which to me sounds like it would be lamb but apparently is pork with a chili sauce), Mexican sausage (chorizo, I presume-are there other varieties of Mexican sausage? I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know!), or vegetables. The Fiesta Burrito is prepared with rice, beans, pico de gallo, and sour cream. Philip chose Mexcian sausage. When he took a bite, his eyes rolled back in his head and he proclaimed the meat “incredible”. He insisted that I needed to try it, so I did. I typically don’t like sausage because I don’t care for the spice combinations, but this stuff truly was incredible. Of course, Philip finished his burrito as well, and then stated that, “Now there’s no need to ever go to Q’doba.” I won’t argue with that!

Mexican Sausage Burrito ($4.99), before....

Mexican Sausage Burrito, After-I had to show you the inside!

All of this incredible food, my friends, was had for around $13. They also serve fountain beverages and the traditional bottled drinks that you see in the “international foods” aisle at the grocery store, which always look so tempting and yummy, and Mexican Coke, which is made with cane sugar, not high fructose corn syrup. They also served flavored fresh waters in flavors like mango and tamarind. I must try these at some point. Also, I recommended Delia’s to my mom, who went and got take-out that same night….and then again the next night-so clearly it made an impression on my parents, too.

I love promoting truly local businesses, especially these tiny operations that don’t generate a lot of publicity in the traditional ways. This place is amazing. Please eat there, all of you, so they will stay in business and we can eat there whenever we want! You will not regret it!

Delia’s is located at 105 Porter Street, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379 (near Wal-Mart). You can reach them at 423-521-7145. They are open Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. At this time, they do not have a website or Facebook page. I have sent the menu to Urbanspoon to be uploaded onto their Urbanspoon page, but here it is for you!

May 8, 2011-El Metate

May 13, 2011

In the week and a half that Philip has been out of town, I have probably eaten out more that I had eaten out in the two months prior. In fact, last night I was supposed to meet my mom for dinner and actually called her and asked her to come to my house so I could cook for her, since I realized that the only non-restaurant dinner that I have had since last Thursday was a Lean Cuisine that I ate Tuesday night before logging on for my class. Alas, she had already invited my brother to meet us there, so I now officially have eaten restaurant food for 8 days straight minus one which was a frozen entree. This is not a good record to be setting. I will be cooking chicken parm at my parents’ house tonight, though, and Philip will be back on MONDAY (cue balloons here) so I am making a grocery list!!!! All that to say, I have three separate restaurant review posts to put up in the next three days. Obviously, I have eaten out at more than three restaurants, but this is a local restaurant review blog, so those are the ones you get!

On Sunday, Philip’s dad was taking his (Philip’s, that is) mom out for Mother’s Day lunch after church. They called and invited me to go along, and his dad (whom I’m pretty certain is enjoying reading my restaurant reviews) suggested that I choose the restaurant so that I could blog about it. I consulted my list, which is three pages long, with each page containing about three columns worth of restaurants that need to be reviewed. I’m going to be busy for a while-but I digress. I just couldn’t decide. Philip and I never, I repeat never go out to eat after church on Sunday, let alone with any type of holiday crowd, so I had a complete freeze-up. So, I gave my list to his mom and suggested that she choose a restaurant. She chose Biba’s, an Italian restaurant near the Publix in Hixson, and we decided that El Metate would be our back-up (they had never eaten there!). When we got there, though, it became quickly apparent that lots of other mothers had the same idea. We opened the door, saw the crowd, and made a beeline for El Metate, where we were seated immediately.

El Metate is mine and Philip’s favorite place-besides our house, of course-to eat Mexican food. I have never had bad service there, and the food is always good. Because we like to gorge on queso dip, Philip and I almost always order just tacos, otherwise we end up feeling like Violet Beauregarde when she turned into a big blueberry and had to be rolled out of Willy Wonka’s candy factory. However, since Philip’s parents and I did not have any queso, I was free to order off of the menu at will.

I chose to have fajita nachos (I think they’re actually called nachos con fajitas or something like that, but it was five days ago, so you’ll have to forgive me) with both chicken and steak. That was actually the special that day. The fajita nachos have queso (see, I got my queso anyway!), peppers, onions, tomatoes, and whatever meat you choose over chips. I have ordered them before and really liked them. One of my friends actually got them with shrimp once. Look for them on the fajita part of the menu, not the nacho part. I ate almost the entire thing-all of the chips and meat, just left some of the peppers and onions. I don’t know if this serving was smaller than what I’d had before, or if I was just much fuller before because of the Violet Beauregarde effect. Anyway, they were fantastic!

Philip’s dad chose fish tacos. Now, if you haven’t had a fish taco before, you may be cringing. Lots of people-the majority of my family included-think it sounds like the most terrible idea ever. In fact, Philip did not take to the idea immediately the first time I made them. Give them a chance! They really are great. Anyway, the fish tacos were simply grilled (or at least I think it was grilled) tilapia, with pico de gallo, a choice of corn or flour tortillas (he chose corn, as would I), and a side of rice and beans (although he decided to forego the rice). Quite different from what I make (I’ll post my recipe sometime soon) but simple and from his report quite tasty.

Now for the big mamma-jamma. Philip’s mom ordered the “special dinner,” which she got for half-price since it was Mother’s Day. The special dinner should actually be called the special dinner for a family of four. It included a taco, a tamale, and enchilada, a chile poblano (also called a chile relleno at some Mexican restaurants), rice, beans, and some other item I can’t recall. Maybe a chalupa or gordita or something like that. Anyway, she had no less than three-that’s right, three plates-in front of her. When they brought the third plate, I was fairly certain her eyes were going to pop out of her head. Needless to say, a to-go box was in her future. Actually, she ate the taco and whatever the item that I am unsure of was, a few bites of everything else, and boxed all the rest of it to take home-for her and Philip’s dad to share! I’m serious, that’s how much food there was!

As usual, the service was great. Everyone is always very friendly there. They are very quick, and they keep your drinks FU-U-U-L-L-L. I appreciate that, as I am always in a race against the clock to make sure I drink enough water, then I feel like Violet Beauregarde anyway, but that’s a different matter. Many of the servers (come to think of it, I am fairly certain that my server at either location of El Metate has always been a man) are jokesters. It’s not a gourmet restaurant, but it’s good food. I definitely recommend it!

El Metate has two locations in Hamilton County (there are others in the Dunlap/Sequatchie County area): By Publix in Creek Plantation Village-5922 Hixson Pike, Hixson, TN (423) 842-1400, or by Soddy-Daisy Wal-mart-9332 Dayton Pike, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379 (423) 332-3190. Their website is http://www.caminorestaurantgroup.com/el-metate-mexican-restaurant.html.

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