La Choza
7402 Edinger Ave.
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
I love restaurant lists. Half of the bookmarks I save on my web browser are restaurant lists. I can't resist the best Chinese food in OC or a list of the top ten most romantic restaurants. I quickly save these and use them for later. This brought us and our good friends Scott and Cynthia to La Choza in Huntington Beach.
In the middle of last year, OC Register restaurant critic Brad A. Johnson published his list of OC's 20 best full-service Mexican restaurants. I had been to fifteen of the restaurants on his list, and some I agreed with (Gabbi's Solita and Sol Agave), while others I was not so keen on (Puesto, Carmelita's, and one of the most overrated, Javier's). Lists are subjective, so I gave Mr. Johnson a pass on the clunkers that populated his list and decided to give some of the ones I had yet to eat a try. La Choza was one of those.
La Choza comes to us from Enrique Haro, who opened the original La Choza in West Los Angeles 1976. After a remodel, he renamed his Olympic Boulevard restaurant Tia Juana's and updated the menu by adding some seafood dishes. It stood until 2007 when they had to move to make way for Walgreens. Enrique brought back the La Choza name for the move to Huntington Beach. Still, he kept the Tia Juana's menu and many of the employees, including his mother, Alicia, who has run the kitchen since the first inception of La Chozza all those years ago.
Sitting across the street from an apartment complex and a block west of the always-busy Bella Terra Shopping Center, La Choza brings to mind the old-school Mexican restaurants I'd sometimes visit with my family. When walking into La Choza, a lady making tortillas behind a glass partition counts out the number of your party, and then the server sends over the freshly made tortillas. The whole restaurant feels old-school with its brightly painted walls and an extensive menu that features plenty of combo plates, seafood, burritos, and regional specialties from around Mexico. We could only talk for so long to Scott, who is always charismatic, so let's find out if La Choza belongs on the list of best Mexican restaurants in OC.
As always, I like to share what the Chips and Salsa look like when dining at a Mexican restaurant. These were run-of-the-mill tortilla chips, but I did enjoy the choice of having the red and green salsa. Both were solid flavorwise, with the green being a tad spicier, but I missed having some chunks included in these salsas. Some chopped-up tomatoes and onions would have made these a bit better.
I usually do not partake in alcohol when we are out; I usually try to focus on the food instead, but since Scott was going on and on about his love for his future bride, Cynthia, I felt the need to dull the pain of listening to this lovesick puppy by partaking in a Margarita on the Rocks ($8.75). Cynthia must have felt the same, as she had the Blended Margarita ($8.75). Both were solid, with a good balance of margarita mix and tequila, which was evenly distributed once I stirred it up with my straw. This was a little more tart than I usually like, but it did the trick of helping me forget what Scott was talking about. Man, that guy can be a real chatterbox.
Katie and I have gotten into Queso Fundidio ($7.75) since we started this restaurant blog, and with the fresh tortillas served here, we felt we needed to try this one. This was not the best version of this delicious starter that we have ever had. The menu claims this had chorizo, but if it did, it was just a tiny bit, and I did not detect any. I got some shredded chile strips but needed more to make this average. Not only was the flavor lacking, but the consistency of this needed to be corrected, and it was very oily. Not even La Choza's delicious tortillas could have helped this out.
As is her usual tradition in a Mexican restaurant, Katie always gets an appetizer of Guacamole ($7.95). She learned this from her dad, who I have seen do this many times in the almost decade I have known him. This was average guacamole. A little on the runny side, I like my guac the same way I like my salsa, with some chunks to it. This runny green puddle was splashed with a little tomato sauce (why?) and sprinkled with a few shreds of cheese, which did little to save this from being anything other than mediocre guacamole.
Most meals at La Choza include your choice of soup or salad, which I always appreciate. We all picked the salad, which fit in with the theme of our meal so far but was very lackluster in looks and taste. The iceberg lettuce was very pale and only garnished with a tiny amount of shredded carrots and very thin salad dressing. Until this point, La Choza was consistent with their food; bland, thin sauces, and not very photogenic. I would like a turnaround once our entrees come out for us.
The first plate to make its way out to us was Katie's, and she had the Two Taco Combination Plate ($14.95). The menu states that these are hard-shelled tacos, but they let her have one soft-shell chicken taco with their hard-shelled version. She felt this was an okay plate, nothing special. The tortillas highlighted her meal, but they could not hide the fact that the chicken was dry and bland. Not one of her favorites.
Mr. Personality, AKA Scott, selected this Carne Asada Burrito ($9.95) as his evening meal. This wet burrito was topped with red enchilada sauce and cheese, while the inside contained broiled steak, beans, and salsa ranchera. This was a large burrito, but our good friend Scott finished it like a champ. However, he was not too impressed with it, as the beef inside was a little bland. He'd probably get something else the next time he was here.
Scott's way better half opted for the simple Carne Asada Taco Combo Plate ($10.95). Cynthia chose to have this taco soft instead of crispy. She agreed with both Katie and Scott that this taco was nothing special and that she'd try something else next time she was here.
When I'm new to a Mexican restaurant, I usually gravitate towards Carnitas ($14.95) on my maiden visit. The carnitas at La Choza were listed under their menu's regional section, with Michoacan as their area of origin. I had heard that this was where this pork dish was created, but I had never had the pork prepared this way in little cubes. They were okay, but I missed the crispy ends when the carnitas were shredded. The beans and rice were adequate, but more guacamole would have been better. Kind of an awkward plate, and I'm in agreement that I'd probably get something different on another visit here.
I should have snapped a picture of the tortillas earlier, but I got this one before Katie snapped it up. The tortillas are the best thing about this restaurant, and to their credit, they were not shy about getting you some more when you scarfed down each round they'd bring.
It baffled me how La Choza could end up in the top 20 Mexican restaurants in the OC Register. Our experience was far from top list material, but as is the case with all of these lists, they are subjective, and restaurant reviewers have different tastes depending on their visits. Even though the food we ordered failed to impress, the tortillas were tremendous and made us wish that more Mexican restaurants would offer freshly made tortillas, even though it was time-consuming. None of us would return to La Choza, but please let us know if you have a different experience.
Out of five pizzas (because choza translates to hut in Spanish, and the most famous hut is probably Pizza Hut), five being best to zero being worst, La Choza gets 2 pizzas.
For more information about La Choza, head to their website here: https://www.lachozaoc.com/
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