Dining review: Midtown Mexican food options are increasing, and increasingly tasty

I love when a certain cuisine becomes so prevalent in Anchorage that we start to learn its nuances. Recently, there has been a renaissance of local Mexican offerings in Midtown alone. Three new — or newly imagined — Mexican eateries have recently popped up that all have something different to offer.

Cinco de Mayo

The Burrito King on the strange geographical island between A and C streets near 36th Avenue has been rebranded as Cinco de Mayo, offering a shiny new dining room with a shiny new bar and a shiny — not quite so new — menu. I love the food from the Taco/Burrito King family of restaurants and have long felt the only thing missing from their delicious tortas was a tangy margarita or cold beer with which to wash it down. That said, rather than leveling up the Taco King franchise to include adult beverages, the restaurant’s facelift seems to put it more into Gallo’s territory, with a huge menu and a slightly more lacquered feel. (Note: While I don’t always love an “all things to all people” menu, I was impressed with the wide array of vegetarian dishes on offer, including tostadas, fajitas and enchiladas).

My daughter and I stopped in one recent weekend afternoon after an exhausting morning at the farmers markets. We liked the open, airy space — casual but sleek. We opted for fajitas and chicken enchiladas and were just hot enough from our summer day exertions (I’m already missing them, writing this in a fleece pullover) to justify a late-afternoon house margarita, which was strong, well-balanced and refreshing. Sipping it alongside the generous basket of tortilla chips and two different kinds of salsa was the making of a perfect summer afternoon.

The enchiladas ($16.95) bathed in a bright but smoky sauce were tasty with plenty of tender, shredded chicken. And the portion, with its heaping sides of rice and beans, was massive considering the price point.

I’m a sucker for something that comes to the table sizzling, on fire or with a sparkler on top, so I enjoyed the crackling pan of fajitas ($26.50) that arrived at the table. One quibble: The dish was heaped with a pile of not-quite-melted cheese that I have reason to suspect is from the all-but-tasteless bag of Mexican blend found at your local Costco. All it did was shroud the tasty, well-seasoned meat and vegetables with a layer of blandness. This dish deserved the sharp tang of a … well, real-er cheese or, in fact, no cheese at all. (Full disclosure: I have a bag of this mediocre cheese in my refrigerator as I type. I occasionally use it when I’m cooking a mediocre meal.) But I bravely soldiered through the cheese and ultimately enjoyed my dish, including the enormous side of rice, beans and tortillas that came with it. Like the enchiladas, this dish offers good value.

Cinco de Mayo is not reinventing the tortilla, but they know what they’re doing and I’ll be adding it to my list of convenient spots for reliable, affordable food and a strong, icy cocktail.

If you go:

Cinco de Mayo

111 W. 38th Ave.

907-771-6000

tacokingak.com

Monday-Saturday: 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m.

Sunday: Noon-11 p.m.

Salsa Oaxaquena

On the other end of the spectrum and decidedly less shiny is Salsa Oaxaquena, a small, quirky spot in a Spenard strip mall with offerings authentic enough to have me covertly googling the dishes on their menu (alas, no photos or descriptions were available to help). I dropped in, solo, for lunch, opting for the carne asada tacos ($22.50) on the sole basis that I had something to compare them to. I also ordered dinner to go — a chicken mole platter ($28) and a beef huarache ($24). I ordered the mole because it is a favorite of my husband’s and I ordered the huarache because, when I googled it, I got a picture of Don Johnson from Miami Vice. Huarache, it turns out, means sandal. As a child of the ‘80s, I considered it a good sign.

[Open & Shut: Anchorage gets a Oaxacan restaurant, a new Serrano’s, a winery and a small-batch cannabis shop]

The dining room is homey and pleasant if a bit scrappy. It’s a spare space well-served by the lively Mexican pop music playing and there is — intriguingly — a small stage with a mic on which a white cowboy hat was hung. Rumor has it that in the evening, the stage is open for Mexican-inspired karaoke with locals singing rancheras, mariachis and corridos. They had me at the white cowboy hat.

This restaurant is still getting its legs under it, so there are a few kinks that I expect will get ironed out (like the lack of descriptions on the menu). The first is that, with the tacos, you are given a choice of either store-bought tortillas and a side of rice and beans OR house-made tortillas with no rice and beans. This feels like a tacit confession that they’re serving something they don’t think is top-notch. I opted for the house-made tortillas and suggest you do the same. They are excellent and with more flavor than you can find inside a grocery store bag.

The second is that the food takes time. Everything is made to order and you can hear the crackle and sizzle of the grill from behind the counter. That said, it was worth the wait. The carne asada was smoky and well-seasoned, and I loved the salsa bar with adorable pig-shaped molcajetes filled with salsa verde, avocado sauce, grilled peppers and heaps of cut limes.

The huarache was a hit at home. With cool cabbage and avocado toppings atop a hot (sandal-shaped) tortilla, fried beans and meat, I recommend that you eat it quickly before the salad wilts. I loved the balance of bright and crispy toppings with the deep, earthy flavors of the beans and the savory spice on the meat. Next time, I’ll enlist the help of a pizza cutter, and order one as an appetizer.

But for me, the meal of the day was the chicken mole. The dish is startlingly, intriguingly dark — almost black — and the flavor is as deep as the color. The sauce is steeped in earthy spices with a slow heat that lingers on your tongue. The chicken is fall-off-the-bone tender and the rice and beans were well cooked, with just the perfect al dente bite in the grains. I was pretty much stuffed after all this feasting, but over the next few hours, I kept going back to the chicken — a bite off the leg here and a sip of the sauce there. Let’s just say my husband didn’t get his fair share.

If you go:

Salsa Oaxaquena

3505 Spenard Road, Suite B

907-865-5375

Wednesday-Monday: Noon-12 a.m.

(As with all small businesses, hours may vary, so please check ahead.)

TortillaWorks

Justin Curran, who began selling a variety of fresh tortillas at various farmers markets around town, has just opened a small brick-and-mortar tortilleria. On offer are classic, Southwest (with chiles, garlic and cumin), “cheezy” garlic, chocolate (with cocoa, cinnamon and arbol), and a curry roti. For the inspired home cook looking for the freshest tortillas around, Justin has you covered. For the uninspired home cook (me!) looking for a shortcut, Justin also has you covered.

I popped in on a recent weekday when I found myself with an unexpectedly full house for that night’s dinner. The space is definitely a work in progress and Justin is definitely a one-man band — both in a few growing pains evident (missing menus!) and in his infectious enthusiasm for his business and food.

He helped me assemble all of the fixings for a taco bar — fresh tortillas ($9 for a pack of 10); beef, chicken and curried potato fillings (between $7-$16/pound); beans ($6) and salsas — and he even hand-shredded good sharp cheddar and lettuce to take home with me. I also grabbed a jar of house-made mole and enchilada sauces because I simply cannot resist a mason jar filled with something homemade. I might have to go back for his take-and-bake enchiladas.

My guests were fully satisfied, my house smelled delicious, I did next to no work, and (sorry Justin!) took most of the credit.

I’m looking forward to trying his not-yet-famous gumbo, which he occasionally cooks up in a huge cast-iron cauldron that has been in his family for over 120 years. Occasionally, he told me, people try to lift it and they can’t. Did I make the attempt? I did. Could I lift it? I could not. If you want to attempt a feat of strength, or just get your hands on fresh and creative tortillas, TortillaWorks is worth a stop.

If you go:

TortillaWorks

343 W. Benson Blvd., Suite 11

907-744-2815

tortillaworks.com

Tuesday-Friday: 2-9 p.m.

Saturday: 9 a.m.-2 p.m. and 3-9 p.m.

(As with all small businesses, hours may vary, so please check ahead.)