El No No
Surely I’m not the first to refer to El Noa Noa as such. And if the kitchen’s as inept as it was during my one recent meal there, I won’t be the last.
But maybe it isn’t. Maybe the fact that the place has been packed with hordes for years isn’t merely proof of the spell the lovely patio casts, shady & cool with greenery & a burbling stone fountain. Maybe the food usually rocks, & my experience was a total fluke.
Somehow, though, I doubt it. And I’m not throwing good money after bad anytime soon to find out.
Too bad, because the house salsa—fresh enough to compensate for the stale chips, chunky with tomatoes, peppers, & herbs, vibrant & smoky by turns—would have constituted reason enough to return (& the sole recipient of the extra star in this barely-2-star review) had the rest been merely adequate. Had the margarita not been a watery ruin. Had the carne adovada not been toast.
Had the ceviche not contained shrimp with a musty odor. Had the beans not been paste (& that’s coming from someone who likes her refritos creamy with lard).
Had the steak nuggets on the Tacos D.F. (the name being an attempt at street cred) not been so shockingly tough & gristly that 1 bite would have been 1 too many, except that 2 were necessary to confirm that the first was really that bad.
A no-no indeed.
Gross.
Something must have changed with the kitchen or management over the past couple of years. That is not the food I remember from El Noa Noa. One of my favorite dishes was the tacos DF, and that doesn’t even look like what I used to order (it used to be wide, tender slices of beef, not chopped up little pieces). I was never a regular there, but I always enjoyed the food and seldom had a bad dish. What a shame.
Amy and I were in El Taco the other day and Amy overheard an off-duty waitress complaining that they weren’t even allowed to put lemon slices in the water anymore. We didn’t know where she worked at the time, but I now suspect it was El Noa Noa.
I’d be interested in hearing opinions of decent options for sit-down Mexican restaurants. Seems like they are getting harder to find as many of them cater to the lowest common denomenator. El Paraiso is currently at the top of my list.
What a bummer! There is nothing worse than bad Mexican food, yuck.
A lot of people like Patzcuaro; I have mixed feelings about it. Love Los Carboncitos—or did last time I went, though it’s been a while. Never been to Jalisco—we should go!
Ha! We left this place (around 2 yrs ago if memory serves) saying “Hell-Noa-Noa”!