First things first. Salsa Check:
Passable.
Indeed, the salsa itself was passable. Clearly it was a blended mixture, but it certainly tasted more robust than the watery mess at Chuy's. Did it use all fresh ingredients? In this condition, it'd probably be impossible to tell for sure, but I'd err on the side of no. This is the kind of stuff that comes out of jars where the assumption is that it was fresh at one point and does have the potential (at the very least) to go bad. I don't particularly mind a thicker blended salsa if it tastes good. That's not the kind of thing that bothers me. This one tasted of tomatoes with slight hints of some other salsa elements, but it was barely there. All the same, I can live with passable, and that's what this was.
Looking through the menu, I come across one of my pet peeves of Mexican food in Florida. Whether or not Horchata is on the menu is highly variable. This both frustrates and confuses me. If you are not familiar with Horchata I suggest boning up. It is incredible.
This is pretty similar to the way I make it. Now, I know what you're thinking. That seems like a metric ass ton of work to get a drink. This is true. That's why purveyors of Mexican foodstuffs to restaurants have concentrated versions of this. Will it be as good as the kind shown above? No. Will it still fit the gap? Probably. It's basically the drink that works perfectly with Mexican food (as opposed to Margaritas that usually overpower nearly anything you can think to eat.)
So I look through the rest of the menu, and discover some kind of bait and switch items. Namely, the California Burrito they have is not a California Burrito but a San Francisco burrito. I know that likely very few patrons of this restaurant know the difference, but the reality is that it does exist. Further, their fish tacos are not the Baja Fish Tacos that I prefer. What does that mean? Well, it's served with lettuce instead of cabbage and there's no white sauce that the fish taco is traditionally served with. Honestly, I was trying hard not to let this result in me prejudging the food, but when your expectations are subverted, it's hard to deny being affected.
It seems like the main thing Nopalera is going for is their combination dishes. These are mixes and matches of the standard variety of Mexican. Enchiladas, tacos, burritos, chile rellenos, chalupas, and tamales all get mixed and matched to whatever your particular preference is. It makes it pretty convenient to review, but as my goal is to give restaurants their best shot at proving their quality, I went right to their specials. This is where you start seeing their more authentic dishes. All the same, one of my friends got the bean burrito, so I got a shot at one of their most basic dishes as well as their supposed best ones.
As an appetizer, we got the Fajita Nachos off the special. For $12 dollars, I was expecting some ridiculously good nachos.
This was the worst part of the meal. I should have trusted my better judgment when I saw that the fajita nachos came with chicken, shrimp, and beef. There's a pretty good reason that most people usually don't mix proteins in their meals. All the same, this gave me a look at the meat of their fajitas, and if their fajitas all used the meat that came with the nachos, then I'd stay away from those fajitas. The flavor of their marinade on the meat was alright, though fairly underwhelming considering the flavor profile of Mexican food. The main problem was that each piece of meat was overcooked. It's like they tried to cook the beef, chicken, and shrimp in a big pile. Considering all those meats cook in different times, that's really not something you should do. as a result, it all came out overcooked. There really wasn't much queso for these nachos as well, but the queso that did come with the nachos did, in fact, taste like it was made from real cheese at some point. It did have a slightly store bought taste as the cheese cooled, but it was a bit too complex for me to think it was just off the shelf. it certainly didn't look/taste like the kind of nacho cheese I made in my recipe rebuttal of Chuy's. The pepper and such were really just completing the notion of this being all the normal fajita stuff on nachos; however, the end result is that you should totally pass.
My buddy got the Bean Burrito for $3.
This was the highlight in terms of value. The burrito itself was large, decently seasoned, and had pretty good tasting beans on the inside. The sauce was of the more basic tomato based style, but like the salsa tasted as if tomatoes of an alright quality were used at one point. I grant that there were no super complex flavors at work here, but sometimes the simplicity of a dish can make it stronger. This is the case here. You should probably be aware that the tortillas are definitely not made there (which is a shame. Even shitty pizza places in Gainesville tend to make their own dough.) All the same, at a whopping 25% of the price of the fajita nachos, I was somewhat shocked. Honestly, there isn't a ton to say about this one, but upon checking out the other prices, this particular item is a winner.
My girlfriend got the Enchilada Suizas (a specialty item) for $9.
This one was a pretty good value too considering she got 4 enchiladas and the tomatilla sauce actually tasted of tomatillas. The chicken, like at Chuy's, was more textural than flavorful, but at the very least this chicken was not as overcooked at the fajita nachos found above. It was pretty simply prepared and presented. The cheese was OK, though for being one of the more traditional Mexican enchiladas they served, I think some Mexican crumbling cheese would have gone a long way here over the melting western cheeses they went with.
I got the carnitas for $12. It's one of the most expensive entrees, so I assume this is where they step it up.
Now, I'm trying very hard not to compare these carnitas to Carnitas Uruapan, which is where my parents took me when we visited Tijuana to get, what are widely regarded as, some of the best Carnitas in the world. And no, the one in San Diego does not count as it's run by the TJ one's brother, and he apparently does some things differently. First, you should probably know what carnitas are, you white person, you. To be simplistic, it's almost the pulled pork of the Mexican food world. Instead of shredding off the pork though, you get cubes of pork as carnitas is Spanish for "small meat." Usually that meat is then crisped up through a more direct heat process. In TJ they slow cook these pigs in these pots in this huge hearth outside the restaurant, and, when the time comes, a guy will skewer some meat, pull it out of the pot, and take it into the restaurant to be cubed up.
So how does this stack up. Well, they got the cooking part somewhat right. A fairly crispy exterior with a moist interior. The problem lied in the flavor. There just wasn't much of it. It was severely lacking. Further, with the fairly mundane guacomole and lack of the simple garnishes that make great carnitas, I think they kind of missed the boat on this one. Carnitas are tough to do right, and while it's a worthy goal to try and master them, going half assed is not going to really endear anyone who knows how good carnitas are supposed to taste. Honestly, their flavor profile was pretty similar to what you can get at Chipotle. That's not necessarily a terrible thing, but it is something to keep in mind if you're choosing whether to go to a restaurant and drop 12 dollars or get take out from Chipotle for 6 dollars. The value thing comes into play if you can't take it up a notch.
Lastly, my girlfriend and I got some of their rice and beans. $4 for rice and beans to go with a meal seems excessive considering the portions they gave and that they likely just have a vat of these made in mass quantities ready to go. The rice was relatively flavorless but had a decent texture. The beans were seasoned, but were completely uniform in consistency, which I'm not a huge fan of.
In the end, my recommendation of this place is largely mixed. Better than La Tienda? No. Mexico Lindo is a bit more authentic, but they're about equivalent. It's about the same as Las Margaritas, really, and Las Margaritas is super far from where I live, so this place will do in a pinch I suppose. If you're looking for a sit down dinner type place for Mexican, this is basically par for the course for Gainesville. Maybe a little better at some things, a little worse at other things, but mostly...about the same.
-Charles
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