And another Rubios

I work up in American Fork, which was the first city in Utah County to get not only an El Pollo Loco, but also a Rubio’s.  There must be something about mexican chains and American Fork being the first place to test the waters around here.  And the waters must be good for Rubio’s as they are getting ready to open another location, this time in Orem.  Kind of across the street from the new In-N-Out and a couple doors down from the new Smashburger.  No indication when they will actually open, but when I snapped this picture a couple days ago, work was going on inside so it can’t be long.

The Chimi Project: Red Iguana

For eating Mexican food, the Red Iguana is a landmark in Salt Lake City. Whenever a discussion about where to get good Mexican food occurs, it will always get a mention. When I figured out that it had chimichangas on their menu, we put it on the list of places we needed to evaluate as part of our ongoing Chimi project.

Suprisingly, due to the distance between my house and the Red Iguana it has been many years since I’ve eaten there. Fortunately, the ideal opportunity presented itself recently and we made a visit.

Visiting the Red Iguana is all about the food. The decor is utilitarian, but measures up where its important — it was very clean and welcoming. We got there early in the evening so we were able to go in and sit right down. By the time we were finishing though, it was starting to get busy. And I have been past there on nights when there are a lot of people waiting out front on the sidewalk.

The menu has a wide range of food and being only two of us, we barely scratched the surface. There are loads of appetizers, salads, seafood, steaks, eggs, enchiladas and on and on and on. Since my brother’s focus is chimichangas, that is what he got. Their standard chicken chimichanga. Since I’m just along to eat I always like to stay away from the chimis and try something besides a chimichanga.

Often, my standby at mexican restaurants is some form of a bean and cheese burrito. Over the years I found that this almost always hits the spot when I need mexican food to eat and just about every mexican place I’ve been to has some variation on this. Lately though I’ve been intentionally trying to try things other than just a burrito. That came into play during this visit, although I was tempted by the burritos at Red Iguana, surved enchilada style with one of their sauces over the top. The problem I ran into, once I left the burrito section of the menu was that Red Iguana had multiple menu items that I really wanted to try. Here is the short list:

* Enchiliadas potosinas: corn masa filled with queso ranchero and onions, pan fried, topped with cheese, guacamole, salsa, and green onions

* One of the several mole dishes on the menu

* Puntas de filete a la nortena: sirloin tips sauteed with bacon, chiles, onions and tomatoes sitting in a nice pool of almond mole

* Chile rellenos

I finally settled on the puntas de filete a la nortena, knowing that I would have to return soon to try some of the other dishes. And it was a good choice. It made me happy. The sirloin tips were cut in thin strips and then sauteed with bacon, chiles, onions and tomatoes. Add all that hot sauteed goodness to a beautiful almond mole with just enough spice and dinner was excellent. My problem now is that when I go back I will want to order that same dish again and may never get around to trying the other items on my shortlist. Be warned, if you go to Red Iguana it may require a multiple visit commitment.

As for the chimichanga, my brother only gave it mediocre marks. And it was far down on his list of places to get the best chimichanga. It didn’t have the necessary crunch on the outside and inside they had polluted the filling with beans, which according to him have no place inside a chicken chimichanga. So the hunt goes on for chimichangas, but if you want some of the best mexican in Salt Lake City food Red Iguana is a must on your list.

Red Iguana

736 West North Temple

Salt Lake City, UT 84116

801-322-1489

www.rediguana.com

The Chimi Project: Cafe Pierpont (or Pierpont Cantina)

This entry is a little late in posting as we visited Cafe Pierpont about a week ago. I had to squeeze a short trip to Disneyland in during the last half of last week and I didn’t get the review written before I left.

Chimichangas and you might even say most mexican food is all about the textures. The crunch of a fried tortilla offset by the creaminess of refried beans or the give of rice cooked and seasoned. One thing that my brother and I spend a lot time discussing whenever we are evaluating a new chimichanga is whether or not they got the texture right. And by texture, this means does the crunch of the fried tortilla encasing all the ingredients hold up until it reaches us, ready to be consumed.

There are several factors that can make or break the crunch of a chimichanga. In no particular order:

• the ratio of filling to tortilla has to be right. Too much filling and you can never get enough crunch no matter how long you cook it.
• cook time. a truly commendable chimichanga has to be well cooked. If you pull it from the oil too soon you run the risk of not having enough crunch to begin with which is bad, or you may get enough crunch just out of the oil, but by the time you factor in all the delays between cooking and delivery to the table, the crunch can be gone.
• sides and sauce. This is a careful balancing act. Every mexican restaurant typically serves their food with some sort of sides. At its most basic this is refried beans and rice. Some chimichangas are also served with sauce over the top. This definitely has it’s place. But it all goes back to the importance of crunch in an outstanding chimi. If the sauce turns the chimi soggy before it even gets to the table, then the whole chimi effort is wasted.

So, for Cafe Pierpont. It takes over as the best one thus far. Thus, our current list is as follows: 1) Cafe Pierpont 2) Bajio 3) Su Casa. Of course this list is by no means complete as there are other places we still need to visit, but it is the current standing.

We had the chicken chimi at Cafe Pierpont and it was a traditional chicken chimi. Seasoned chicken, rolled in a flour tortilla and fried. It was served with some expected sides and sitting in a pool of sauce, which is one to limit loss of crunch between fryer and table. We both agreed that their chimi could have used more time in the fryer to give it some more crunch, but it was still very good. Other highlights were some complementary tortilla chips and a salsa bar in the middle of the restaurant which offered five different salsas that you served yourself. Interestingly, the salsa they gave us with the chips was not one of the selections on salsa bar.

Overall a good experience. Although, the one comment I made to my brother as we were finishing up. Even though it was good, the food was not something that I will be craving. The next time someone asks me where to go for good mexican it would be on the list, but there isn’t one dish there that makes me want to eat there again. The only comparison I can think of is the shrimp tacos at Bajio. Every once in awhile, I just need to have the shrimp tacos from Bajio because they are so good. Not that kind of experience at Cafe Pierpont.

Cafe Pierpont

122 Pierpoint Avenue

Salt Lake City, UT

801-364-1222

on the map

The Chimi Project: Bajio

My brother and I continued our survey of chimichangas available in the greater Salt Lake area. Today was stop number 2. See our first stop in the previous post on Su Casa.

Today was Bajio Mexican Grill. For those not close to a Bajio, it is a regional mexican chain that started here in Utah. From what I’ve heard, although it’s unconfirmed, the guy who started it used to be one of the partners in another Mexican place in Provo called Rosa’s which has since closed. After Rosa’s he opened Bajio. Another unconfirmed piece of info that I’ve heard is that Bajio is at least partially owned by or has an investment from Subway. Bajio, which may have been local to Utah at one point, now has locations in several states and is actively franchising additional ones.

Enough of that though, back to the chimichangas. When we first made our list Bajio was on it. And like I mentioned, we had both been there in the past but neither of us had ever had the chimi there. The one we went to is on 2100 South in Salt Lake — the part of the city known as Sugarhouse. Fortunately the lines during lunch are nothing like they are at the one in Provo which always has long lines. My brother went for the chimichanga with their spicy chicken filling (as opposed to the lime chicken filling). I myself got their new mexican pizza with their al pastor pork and sweet rice.

Let me get my impressions out the way first. This actually is the second time in a week that I have been to Bajio. And while the mexican pizza was good, it was not good enough to supplant my two favorite Bajio items – first and foremost, the honeybutter sauteed shrimp tacos and the chicken taquitos with the works on top of them. The pizza was good, but ohhhh… the shrimp tacos with their mango salsa and sweet rice on the side cannot be beat. The pizza was good, but I will once again be ordering the Shrimp Tacos on future visits, the pizza was not good enough to keep me away from them.

For the chimi, here are my brother’s impressions:

• high marks for the fact that it was made and fried fresh right in front of you, a little extra wait but worth it, especially since Bajio is a semi-fast food place.
• you cannot beat the plate-bending heft of the finished product
• the quality of the accompaniments (salsa, rice on the side, guac, sour cream, etc) significantly add to the overall experience. In Bajio’s case they do it right.
• not really food related, but this Bajio has the good ice. I can’t really describe what the good ice is since it is a thing that was defined in our family long ago. But if you want to know what it is go to this Bajio, their drink machine dispenses the good ice.
• the quality of the tortilla used, which was cooked fresh after we ordered, adds to the overall quality of the chimi. Again, a big positive for Bajio.

On the negative side:

• Our opinion is that a critical factor in a good chimi is the variety of textures in the chimi. You need the soft, moist, seasoned filling contrasted with a crunchy exterior. Bajio could have cooked their chimi a bit longer to give it some added crunch.
• Another important factor, related to the variety of textures is the filling to tortilla ratio. In this case, if there is too much filling, it overwhelms the crunch of the tortilla on the exterior. It is important that the filling to tortilla ratio is balanced. We decided that Bajio erred a little on the too much filling side in relation to the amount of crunchy tortilla available.

But that is it on the negative, which is pretty minor. The consensus was that it is vastly superior to the Su Casa version, but might not quite measure up to the one they serve at Baja Cantina in Park City, although that is based on a 13 year old memory of the last time my brother had a chimi at Baja Cantina, so it may be a bit idealized. We hope to get an updated impression from there soon.

Bajio Mexican Grill

1010 East 2100 South

Salt Lake City, UT

www.bajiogrill.com

(many other locations listed on their web site)

The Chimi Project: Su Casa Mexican Restaurant

Su Casa is a small Mexican restaurant in downtown Salt Lake City. I was recently reading the editor’s monthly message in a local Utah business magazine and he was drawing a comparison between chimichangas and advertising. I won’t go into the details, but…

…he did provide a list his favorite places to get a chimichanga. My brother, being a chimichanga lover, immediately wanted the complete list of restaurants when I mentioned the article to him. Today was our visit to the first of those on the list (look for others in the future).

Su Casa is the favorite restaurant for a chimichanga for the guy writing the article. For my brother and me it is a Mexican place close to work that neither of us has been to before. He ordered the chicken chimichanga and I had the chile relleno.

Impressions after the first visit: Su Casa gets high marks for interior decor and ambiance, very clean, great service, and a menu that wasn’t too complex. The food itself was served quickly and as ordered, but didn’t knock our socks off. We both agreed it was solid and worth eating at again, although my brother said if he was to return he would get something different next time in place of the chimichanga.

Coming up on the list of places to visit are: Cafe Pierpont, Bajio Mexican Grill, Baja Cantina, and Gecko’s Mexican Grill and any other place we can find that purports to have a good chimi.

Su Casa

516 E. Broadway (300 S)

Salt Lake City, UT 84102

801 363 7771