Tour Stop #35 brings us back to the south side for a place that has come highly recommended from several readers - El Mexico Café on S Seneca. I've passed the place a million times, but I don't recall that I've ever eaten there. If I did, maybe it just wasn't memorable.... kinda like this visit.
EMC is in a stand alone building on Seneca, just south of Pawnee. The place seems fairly nice for a locally owned Mexican restaurant. I arrive and Chris is already there. There's a group of 7 in front of us. But the entire front half is completely empty and there appear to be plenty of tables to choose from. Still, it took a while for them to get us to a booth. That said, there was a decent lunch crowd there and the place had "Wichita Eagle's Favorite Tacos 4 Years in a Row" right on the menu. So, I'm thinking we're going to get some tasty tacos here. Then, I look at the menu and realize - we're pretty thin on choices here. Ground beef or chicken (both on fried flour shells) or their Monterrey tacos. By the way, there's no real a la carte pricing. They say you can order the tacos for $3.99 each (seriously?!?!) or get the two taco plate with beans and rice for $7.99. Since we didn't have a ton of choices anyway, Chris and I both went with the taco plate with one ground beef and one chicken and ordered one for Travis who was running late. Chris and I made an executive decision and also ordered the Monterrey Plate which was basically a seasoned pork with tortillas and pico and we split that between the three of us. Everything came out fairly quickly and once we got a seat our servers were attentive, quick and friendly.
The taco plate came and it looked like pretty standard Tex-Mex fare - lettuce and cheese, with rice and beans on the side (I'm not a bean fan, so I went double rice). The tacos tasted like something I could've whipped up at home. Definitely NOT awful, but AWARD WINNING? I didn't get it. The meat had some seasoning to it, but overall they were the epitome of average. Same for the Monterrey. Again, not a BAD taco, but nothing to write home about. My rice was ... rice. Pretty standard. So, 3 tacos and rice for about 12.00 before the tip. Not high on the value scale, especially compared to some of our favorites.
Overall, I'd say the tacos here were middle of the road. And if you're looking for authentic street tacos, don't even bother as they're not even on the menu. If (big IF) I go back, it won't be for tacos. But the service and cleanliness were enough that I might stop in and try the enchiladas some time (all those people must've been there enjoying something, right?) My overall ratings on the 5 Taco Scale are below.
Food Quality - 2.0 Tacos
Price - $-$$
Value - 1.5 Tacos
Cleanliness - 3.5 Tacos
Service - 3.5 Tacos
Overall Experience - 2.0 Tacos
Likelihood to Return - 1.0 Tacos
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