Baja Sol Cantina – Eden Prairie, MN

Some of my former coworkers called an emergency Friday lunch gathering and since I had nothing going on, I thought I’d better show up. See how easily I cave? I’ve never been to Baja Sol, but it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. I think I got it confused with Baja Fresh, which is a Chipotle/Panchero’s style burrito place. This is more of a sit down restaurant with a chip and salsa bar.

The menu has a lot of things to choose form and the pictures look pretty good, although extra-white, if you know what I mean. I wanted something rather large, so I finally decided on the Smothered Baja Burrito with spicy chile verde. The picture of it looked really good, plus it looked pretty substantial, so I went with it covered in chile verde at the suggestion of our helpful waitress. I also got two sides with mine – I went with the black beans and also the steamed vegetables since they’re healthy, right? And since I wasn’t working, I got a margarita. I love afternoon drinking!

The margarita was decent – I’m not sure if I’d drive here specifically for one, but it was palatable. While we waited, we went up to the chip and salsa bar. You can fill your plate with chips and then mix and match different salsas. I got the mango and peach salsa and the one with season ingredients. The Habanero salsa was good and had a good flavor with plenty of kick. The mango and peach was probably my favorite though. I really liked the sweetness with the heat it had.

The food came out rather quickly and I was impressed. The burrito is placed a super long skinny plate and smothered with the chile verde. It also has the two sides in small ramekins at either end. This was going to fill me up, I could tell. The black beans were fine and I enjoyed them. Then steamed vegetables were just alright. They didn’t thrill me to be honest and were pretty oniony. But the burrito was really impressive, both the size and the flavor. I didn’t expect much, so I was pleasantly surprised. It had a ton of beef inside and beans, onions, and peppers. For a white-bread kind of Mexican place in Minnesota, this place is alright. For some sort of comparison, it’s like a more flavorful Chi-Chi’s when those were still around. Maybe like a Chevy’s or something.

The waitress seemed impressed I ate the whole thing, but I told her the burrito really wasn't that large. She seemed horrified. Oh well.

We got in there and out of there pretty quickly since people had to get back to work. It was a pretty good lunch, and I’ll probably go back here for lunch again. It wasn’t terribly expensive, but it’s more than taco bell (which is on the next block and soooo tempting for me). It’s worth checking out if you’re into Minnesota Mexican food.

Top 5 things about Baja Sol Cantina
1. Smothered Burrito
2. Mango and Peach Salsa
3. Habanero Salsa
4. Super friendly staff
5. All you can eat chips and salsa

Bottom 5 things
1. It’s still extra-white Minnesota Mexican food
2. The steamed vegetables were pretty bad
3. Didn’t feel like I should order 4 margaritas and rub it into the working people
4. It got kind of loud in here during the lunch crowd
5. I had to set the alarm to get up in time for lunch – hahahaha, suckers.

www.baja-sol.com