Wednesday, March 25, 2009

El Gordo - St. Louis Park, MN

A coworker and I needed to escape for lunch, so we decided to have a “guy’s lunch.” DawgMan was feeling all Mexican and had been to El Gordo a few times and had good luck there. I’m still on the hunt for good Mexican food up here in the Twin Cities, so I was definitely game.

It’s in a confusing strip mall in St. Louis Park, but we eventually made it – it was close for a while though. Got seated right away and the servers were very friendly (and appeared Hispanic, which is usually a good sign). The offered to get us drinks and then said the magical four words I long for at restaurants, “We have Pepsi products.” Dewski for me, gracias señor!

DawgMan got the lunch fajita and I opted for the chimichanga. It’s not really my favorite dish, but it’s one of those things that I can kind of gauge the caliber of restaurant by when I’m new there. They brought out some chips and salsa which were pretty good, and we chatted about work. A short while later they brought out our food. Not 10 seconds later, another waiter came by and asked us how everything tasted. I assured him we would let him know after we had actually tasted something. He laughed and left.

The fajita looked good, but since DawgMan is rude, he didn’t offer to share like any normal lunch date would have. Rude. (But it was guy’s lunch, so I could get over it, since I didn’t offer to share mine either – we’re guys, come on.) My chimichanga was good. Not fantastic or great or unbelievable. Just good. I love the creamy melty white cheese they used. It was just a little small and bland compared to some other places. However in the Twin Cities, this still probably would rank as a 7, sadly. It came with beans, rice, and some salady things, so I got full. No complaints there. It wasn’t a huge meal, but it was a decent lunch. I promise I won’t complain about it (though a bite of fajita sure would have been nice…)

If you’re in the neighborhood, check it out. I wouldn’t make a special trip though.

Top 5 things about El Gordo
1. Dew
2. Guy’s lunch should be mandated – get it? Man-dated. ha ha ha
3. Chimichanga
4. Chips and Salsa
5. It loosely translates to “The Fattie”

Bottom 5 things
1. Confusing to get to in the strip mall
2. Portion was a little small
3. Decorated like it’s in a strip mall (because it is)
4. It got good reviews online, but maybe I got my hopes up
5. Lunch companion was selfish (does not reflect poorly on El Gordo)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh my cousin Chad, sounds like you're longing for some El Charro from Tucson!!!

How about a carne seca chimichanga with a large cadillac margarita?