Celebrating Cinco de Mayo at Tacos Ensenada

Tacos Ensenada

24601 Raymond Way, Suite 1

Lake Forest, CA 92630

Okay, I know that this blog has been all about Mexican food lately. I am even almost tired of Mexican food, at least for the next few days. But it is Cinco de Mayo and I really felt obligated to go out and have more Mexican food. So, I put Katie in charge of finding a place we have never been, and it had to be close to home, since we were not going to be able to get out until eight. Lets see what she came up with.

She chose Tacos Ensenada. Tacos Ensenada is located in the Bell Towers Shopping Center off of El Toro. This area has so many little places to eat, that it would take months for you try them all. Lets see if this is one worth finding.

After placing your order at the counter, you are brought the basket of chips above and can choose your salsa at the salsa bar in the middle of the restaurant. The salsa bar has at least six different salsa's, chopped onions and cilantro and spiced carrots. This is one of the salsa's that we picked. It was good and spicy. Really one of the best salsa's that I have had in a long while. The chips were good also.

Here is Katie's colorful plate. She went with a Combination Plate of a Chicken Taco and a Cheese Enchilada. This was also served with beans and rice. The taco was pretty good sized and had lots of chicken. The cheese enchilada had a good red sauce on it and was filled with plenty of cheese. I liked the taste of all the things on her plate. The beans were obviously home made, and tasted really good. The rice was good, but not fantastic. Also the price was right for this big plate, under $8. In fact, all of their combos are under $8, and they have 25 to choose from.

Here are two pictures of my plate. I went with the Chili Verde Combo. This was not as saucy as other chili verde's I have had. This tasted good though, I think having less sauce really made the meat stand out more. It was cooked well and had a great flavor. I also definitely took advantage of the three different bottles of hot sauce that they had on their tables. The tortillas were okay.

Okay, so just in case I did not have enough food, I also ordered a Carnitas Burrito. This double wrapped burrito was filled with rice, beans and very tender carnitas. I will next time get this served wet, because it was a little dry with the double wrapped tortilla. I made this less dry with the use of the hot sauce and salsa. Very good burrito though.

I have eaten a lot of Mexican food in the last few weeks, and this is one of my favorites for a fast/casual Mexican food. Everything tasted fresh and was prepared while you wait. I also thought that the prices here were pretty good, and the variety was as good as anyplace around.

One more side note, I went here the next morning and picked up their Breakfast Burrito. I did not have my camera, but trust me it was big, and included eggs, bacon, ham, chorizo and potato. A very hearty meal, and it went well with the salsa. I am still looking for my best breakfast burrito, so if you know of one I should try, leave me a comment.

So out of five bottles of wine, (because Ensenada is the wine capital of Mexico), five being best to zero being worst, Tacos Ensenada gets three bottles of wine.

For more information on Tacos Ensenada, click here: http://www.tacosensenada.com/home