Finally Making It to Los Sanchez!

Los Sanchez

11906 Garden Grove Blvd.

Garden Grove, CA 92843

My friend Sammy has been telling me that I have to try Los Sanchez, ever since I started this food blog. Two years into the blog, and I have finally made it to one of Sammy's favorite places. Sorry for the delay big guy.

Los Sanchez is a Garden Grove institution. Everyone from GG, always tells me that I have to try Los Sanchez. They are in a new location. Not sure where the old one was, but even switching locales has not hurt business here. They proudly state that they serve Sonoran style Mexican food. After a quick web search, I came across Chowhound's lively debate on what makes Mexican food Sonoran. You can read it here.

We arrived at Los Sanchez at about eight o'clock on a Saturday night, and the place was hopping. The restaurant is pretty good sized for a Mexican fast food place. They feature a large outdoor patio in front and a large dining room containing about 25 tables. The menu is a little overwhelming when you come in. There are tons of pictures hanging above the register, so it took sometime for us to decide what to get, but this is what we came up with.

Starting us off is the chips and guacamole. The chips were pretty average, but the guacamole was below that. Very runny guacamole here. Almost seemed like it was made in a blender that was set on liquefy. It was not very flavorful either.

One thing I have learned while writing this blog is that there is no way to take a great picture of a burrito. You can take a picture of the cross section, but even then it never really turns out that great. So here is the Barbacoa Burrito that Richard ordered. He was not very enthused with his choice. The burrito here just contained barbacoa beef and cheese. Richard summed the burrito up like this,  "It was bland, a Chipotle burrito has more flavor." Not so sure about that, but I did not get a chance to try this burrito, so I will have to go with what Richard said.

Katie went with an unusual choice for her, when she ordered the Quesadilla Dinner. She opted to get this with  cheese only, even though meat was an option. The quesadilla was very greasy. Kind of reminded me of one that I have had at Del Taco. I am not one that is skittish about grease, but this might have been a little much for even me. Katie said words that I never I thought would be uttered, "there was too much cheese on this". She did like the rice here though.

The first part of my meal was the Super Taco, with Asada. Not sure what makes this a super taco, it could be all the lettuce and cheese that was added to this. I had enough lettuce left over to make a side salad. The meat on this taco was okay, not very tender. I would skip the asada the next time I came here.

For the main part of my meal, I went with my standard meal at a Mexican restaurant, a Carnitas Plate. I judge  Mexican restaurants based on whether they can prepare this dish properly. Here it was just okay. The pork could not stand on its own. It was average tasting, but made a little better when mixed with the beans and the runny guacamole. I liked the beans and rice okay, and I thought the portion size of this plate was pretty good.

My friend Sammy just happened to be at Los Sanchez when were here, so I snapped a quick picture of his Albondigas Soup. This big bowl of soup really seemed to please Sammy. The soup looked freshly made, and had plenty of meat and veggies.

Needless to say we were not too impressed with Los Sanchez. Maybe we just hit the wrong items on their massive menu. Maybe we hit them on a bad night. The meats here were a little on the bland side, and the cheese made everything greasy. I can see this spot being popular with the late night crowd, and I am told they do a great business for lunch. The service was great here. From the counter girl, to the girls clearing the tables in the dining room, to even the guy with the deep voice, bellowing out the numbers for pick up. All of them were really great. The prices were pretty great as well. All of the items here are in the $4 to $9 range, and the portion sizes are a great value for the prices they are charging.

Out of five strawberries, (because Garden Grove is home to the Strawberry Festival, even though there is only one strawberry field remaining in the city), five being best to zero being worst, Los Sanchez gets 2 strawberries.

For more information about Los Sanchez, click here: http://www.lossanchez.com/