Restaurant Review: Los Mariachis #2

While I still can’t find Los Mariachi’s #1, I did manage to dine at the Los Mariachis #2 (9100 Ulmerton Rd, Largo, FL 33771-3821, (727) 584-9739) last week, as it’s less than a mile from my work and I wanted to kill some time before heading back over the bay on the Howard Franklin Bridge. The atmosphere is what you’d expect from upscale Mexican, including a beautiful functioning fountain when you first walk in, dozens of tables and booths, the sound of latin music all around and decorations that are instantly recognizable as south of the border.

At 6PM, the place is sparsely packed. I was seated immediately and my Diet Coke was out within 5 minutes. There were two different servers working in a team, so if one was busy the other would come by and check on me and the other guests. This system really seems to work well at Mariachi, as no one ever went without a fresh drink, napkins or anything else they might like.

I ordered the Chili Rellenos and a traditional beef taco. While I waited, they brought out complimentary chips and salsa. The chips themselves were a little too thin and dry for my liking, lacking the salt and oil that I’ve come to love in traditional tortillas. The salsa was thin, unexceptional and would roll off the chips too easily when dipped. The whole chips and salsa experience was uninspiring, though it did give me a nice base layer while waiting for my entree.

At 22 minutes from the time of ordering, my entree finally came out. The taco looked like a standard hard shelled taco, but the taste was a bit off. I couldn’t pinpoint the issue at first, but I figured it out as time progressed. The meat wasn’t seasoned. It was plain hamburger, tucked into a shell and coated in a white shredded cheese. As I continued to analyze the taste profile, I realized that the cheese was also very plain. The traditional mexican spices that I had come to expect were absent in this dish, leaving the taco relatively flavorless. While I wouldn’t say that the taco was disgusting or even bad tasting, I would say that it was a very empty and flavorless take on something I eat almost every day and have really loved from other restaurants.

The Chili Rellenos didn’t favor much better. The chili itself was smaller than I expected, probably not much more than 3″ around and an inch tall. Unlike Rellenos I’ve had in the past where you have a cheese and meat stuffed pepper covered in red sauce and cheese, this was a highly segmented take on the dish. The pepper itself, not cooked enough to have any cohesion with it’s other ingredients, was firm and spicy. The cheese, melted to the point of being hard, encased the pepper. Without sauce between the cheese and pepper, the pepper adhered to the cheese and made the dish more difficult to eat. Inside, the same bland ground beef of the taco was uninspiring. Nothing about this relleno gelled together as it should. Again, not something I’d say was appauling, simply not as appetizing as I had hoped it would be. The rest of the dish was made of guacamole, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese combined into a makeshift salad.

As a whole, Los Mariachis is an unimpressive cliche of what a Mexican restaurant should be. The food is bland, the atmosphere is accommodating but as-expected and the service is good, but not great. I won’t write this place off entirely, but it’s not the kind of place I was so impressed by that I’ll make an effort to visit regularly, even though it’s a stone’s throw from where I spend 10+ hours/day.

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6. Restaurant Review: Los Tucanes Mexican Food
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