Tag Archives: mexican food

Dinner at Cielito

12 Apr

Two nights ago, a friend and I went to Cielito for dinner. This was my first time in the restaurant portion of the restaurant/taqueria. Our waiter was really good about checking things in the kitchen for me. We started with some special which is pictured above. We also got the ceviche peruano which I liked. It had sea bass, aji amarillo pepper, red onion, red jalapeno, cucumber, crispy choclo (like corn nuts), sweet potato and a lime-ginger sauce.

I would get this dish again. We ordered the Tamal de Requeson y Acelgas next.

These corn tamales were steamed in corn husks and served with fresh ricotta cheese, swiss chard, thick cream and a roasted tomatillo sauce. I love tamales so they were consumed quite quickly. The last item we had was basically three fish tacos. With the fresh cilantro on top, they were fresh and tasty.

After eating, we walked upstairs to check out the space they had. There was a really cool lounge feel to one of the areas. There was also a great space for a dinner with friends upstairs. Perhaps I have found my birthday dinner location!

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Velvet Cactus

5 Apr

Mexican food is typically easy for those on a GF diet, so we tried out Velvet Cactus while we were in New Orleans. This restaurant had a really appealing ambiance with cool artwork all over the place. Lo and behold, they had a written GF menu on the wall near their kitchen! Unfortunately, their chips are fried in contaminated oil so those were off limits. My celiac brother and I shared the Island Jerk Skewers to start.

There were incredibly tender and served with a honey lime sour cream that was quite good. For my main dish, I ordered the shrimp burrito “naked style”. This basically meant I got the fillings of a burrito in a bowl.

It consisted of grilled shrimp, pico de gallo, roasted corn, black beans, green onion, cabbage and rice. I ordered some corn tortillas on the side so that I could make tacos out of the dish. This was both filling and tasty.

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Chilaquiles

26 Mar

We only had time for a quick dinner tonight, so we ran over to La Super Rica. Lucky for us, the Chilaquiles were on the specials menu for the day. This is one of my three favorite things there, including #6 and #13. Yum.

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Dos Carlitos

2 Mar

Dos Carlitos in Santa Ynez is owned by the same owner as Carlitos and Cava. For this reason, we thought it was very important to try it out to make sure that it was as tasty as its sister restaurants. We started with the nachos which were very good. I then had the grilled chicken salad which was served with avocado, grilled peppers, corn tomatoes, scallions and a vinaigrette.

There was so much chicken in this salad that I couldn’t come close to finishing it, but it made for great leftovers later on!

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Cielito Taqueria

22 Feb

It is an unbelievably gorgeous day in Santa Barbara today, so we decided to go to a lunch spot where we could dine al fresco. We ended up trying Cielito Taqueria, the newest spot in La Arcada. I got two tacos, the crispy chicken taco and the shrimp taco. They were able to tell me that the corn tortilla for the chicken taco was fried in oil that was not contaminated by anything else.

I thought both of these were really good. Everything tasted really fresh. We also got a side of chips and salsa. My only complaint was that the salsa was served in little to go containers which made it hard to scoop out of. I also hope that the boxes and taco holders are compostable or recycled because it seemed like there was a whole lot of packaging used. We sat outside right by the fountain which was full of turtles that entertained us by playing their version of king of the hill. We will definitely return next time we are craving some Mexican food downtown!

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El Bajio

18 Feb

I wanted a quick and easy lunch, so I decided to try El Bajio this afternoon. I have a friend that always says how good their veggie taco is so I tried one of those and one of their spicy chicken tacos. The veggie taco has grilled zucchini, carrots, onions, bell peppers and cheese. It was a nice departure from the usual fillings of a veggie taco. The other taco consisted of spicy chicken, bell peppers, cheese, lettuce and sour cream. I liked the veggie taco better. Both were held together by corn tortillas that were good, but not quite as good as Super Rica in my opinion.

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La Super Rica Taqueria

28 Jan

If you live in Santa Barbara, chances are you know of and have been to La Super Rica before. Is it really as good as people say? I think so. Above is the #6, one of the tastiest things you will ever eat. It consists of sauteed strips of chile pasilla with onions, melted cheese and herbs on two corn tortillas that are about three seconds old. It is one of my go-to dishes there. The other is #13,  which is possibly even better than #6.

It might look ordinary, but this is no ordinary dish. The menu says it is melted cheese with homemade tomato sauce and 3 corn tortillas. I like to think of it more as a party in my mouth. This is one of my favorite things to eat in the world. The other dish I like to get here is the Chilaquiles which is not on their regular menu. I know they have it on the specials’ menu every Tuesday though. As a tip, they are cash only and you can expect to wait during normal dining times.

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Rose Cafe

19 Jan

I know it is odd to start a post with a picture of crushed ice, let alone my 100th post, but this is no ordinary ice. When we were meeting with potential wedding photographers, we bonded with one of them over our shared love of Rose Cafe’s crushed ice. The ice isn’t the only thing that is magical about this particular restaurant. You know that one place that is the place… the one that tastes like home to you? That is Rose Cafe on the Mesa to us. When we moved to Baltimore, we would have their salsa shipped to us every so often just to get that taste of home. Now that we are back, I am able to get my salsa and nachos whenever I darn please.

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Los Agaves

3 Jan

I was feeling really run down today. When I got home from work I crashed on the sofa for longer than I intended. When I woke up, all I wanted was something warm and gooey. Enter the nachos from Los Agaves… the perfect cure for the chills.

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Casa Blanca

27 Dec

We decided to try Casa Blanca tonight on State Street. The outside patio always looks so appealing, so we figured that the inside must be nice as well. They did a great job renovating that space. It felt like it was the perfect atmosphere to go with a big group of friends and have some drinks. The food wasn’t overly impressive though. It kind of reminded us of the now defunct Left at Albuquerque food. We started with nachos. I then had a bowl of the Chicken Tortilla Soup. The food wasn’t bad…just kind of ordinary. Our waitress was great in that she knew about gluten and was able to confirm that they could prepare the soup GF. We will definitely return with friends to take advantage of that outdoor patio and their extensive tequila list!

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