Oh god.
-
Oh god. I used to love Mexicali Rosa's, back in the 80s. I'd go there at least once a week. Their chicken enchilada was to die for. But they took a serious turn for the worse in, I'm not sure, maybe late 90s or early 2000s? At some point, I just didn't like them anymore.
Anyway, I went to Mexi's tonight, Mexicali Rosa's alter ego and am still trying to figure out how to describe it. Industrial lowest denominator? Radical mediocrity? Hedge fund cuisine? Everything bland, no hint of spice or flavour - salt is not a flavour and every bite was like eating out of a salt mine. A bland-ass salt mine.
Certainly nothing like Mexican or Tex-Mex or whatever they were gunning for.
A passable beer selection though -the salt making you wanting to order many of those. Hey, if you're drunk enough you'll eat anything.
Look, this city's got some great Latin food and this ain't it. Personally I'd suggest La Bonita ($$) or Feleena's. But there are others, feel free to suggest your local faves..
@zazzoo Joe & Clyde. Clyde made some stuff so spicy I think he was the only one in Ottawa who could eat it. That was late 70s for me. At the time Montreal was touted as a better foodie town but I really loved a couple of spots in Ottawa - Topkapi was one of them
-
Oh god. I used to love Mexicali Rosa's, back in the 80s. I'd go there at least once a week. Their chicken enchilada was to die for. But they took a serious turn for the worse in, I'm not sure, maybe late 90s or early 2000s? At some point, I just didn't like them anymore.
Anyway, I went to Mexi's tonight, Mexicali Rosa's alter ego and am still trying to figure out how to describe it. Industrial lowest denominator? Radical mediocrity? Hedge fund cuisine? Everything bland, no hint of spice or flavour - salt is not a flavour and every bite was like eating out of a salt mine. A bland-ass salt mine.
Certainly nothing like Mexican or Tex-Mex or whatever they were gunning for.
A passable beer selection though -the salt making you wanting to order many of those. Hey, if you're drunk enough you'll eat anything.
Look, this city's got some great Latin food and this ain't it. Personally I'd suggest La Bonita ($$) or Feleena's. But there are others, feel free to suggest your local faves..
@zazzoo I like Casa Mexico but it's $$ like La Bonita. I don't know why we don't have really good Tex mex. I used to love the original Carlos & Pepe's in Mtl but it has returned in a mediocre chain format. Sigh
-
@zazzoo funny parallel to my evening.
@ottaross Oh yes? Please share!
-
@zazzoo Joe & Clyde. Clyde made some stuff so spicy I think he was the only one in Ottawa who could eat it. That was late 70s for me. At the time Montreal was touted as a better foodie town but I really loved a couple of spots in Ottawa - Topkapi was one of them
@leslore I think you just landed on what happened when they started going bad. Joe and Clyde - Joe died in 2022, age 80. They would have been right around retirement age in the 90s.
Montreal will always be the better foodie town. But we're getting better. Until pretty recently we had some rather big holes in terms cultural variety, but they're slowly starting to fill out nicely. Still can't get any decent soul food, that I know of.
Topkapi, the Turkish place? I've not tried that one, thanks!
-
@zazzoo I like Casa Mexico but it's $$ like La Bonita. I don't know why we don't have really good Tex mex. I used to love the original Carlos & Pepe's in Mtl but it has returned in a mediocre chain format. Sigh
@FoodieKenobi This has actually been driving me nuts all night - trying to remember the name of a really awesome Tex-Mex sports bar that was here in Ottawa South - Bank at Alta Vista. It was run by an ex-CFLer for the Ottawa Rough Riders. The place was always packed.
I literally cried when he shut down. It was Mexicali Rosa's, actually - they bought his restaurant. It was rebranded, new everything but because Mexicali's already sucked by then and they got no customers and quickly closed it.
It's a Chinese buffet place now, I believe.
Casa Mexico? I'll check it out! Thanks
-
Oh god. I used to love Mexicali Rosa's, back in the 80s. I'd go there at least once a week. Their chicken enchilada was to die for. But they took a serious turn for the worse in, I'm not sure, maybe late 90s or early 2000s? At some point, I just didn't like them anymore.
Anyway, I went to Mexi's tonight, Mexicali Rosa's alter ego and am still trying to figure out how to describe it. Industrial lowest denominator? Radical mediocrity? Hedge fund cuisine? Everything bland, no hint of spice or flavour - salt is not a flavour and every bite was like eating out of a salt mine. A bland-ass salt mine.
Certainly nothing like Mexican or Tex-Mex or whatever they were gunning for.
A passable beer selection though -the salt making you wanting to order many of those. Hey, if you're drunk enough you'll eat anything.
Look, this city's got some great Latin food and this ain't it. Personally I'd suggest La Bonita ($$) or Feleena's. But there are others, feel free to suggest your local faves..
@zazzoo Down my way, we discovered Mexicali Rosa's for the first time around 2000, 2003. Moved around then, found another in the new town. Absolute fave.
Then it happened. It has since happened to many of our favourite places, but this was the first. Sudden downturn in quality, huge. A server confided in us that now all thefood was being made centrally, frozen, and shipped out to the individual restaurants to be reheated. We could tell.
Both the ones we knew were closed and gone within six months.
-
@leslore I think you just landed on what happened when they started going bad. Joe and Clyde - Joe died in 2022, age 80. They would have been right around retirement age in the 90s.
Montreal will always be the better foodie town. But we're getting better. Until pretty recently we had some rather big holes in terms cultural variety, but they're slowly starting to fill out nicely. Still can't get any decent soul food, that I know of.
Topkapi, the Turkish place? I've not tried that one, thanks!
@zazzoo Thanks for the update. Haven't been back for at least 5 years now.
BTW - my experiences with Topkapi were all '77 thru '83 . So lots may have changed in that period.
I vaguely recall a Kashmir place a few blocks from Byward Market as well.
-
@leslore I think you just landed on what happened when they started going bad. Joe and Clyde - Joe died in 2022, age 80. They would have been right around retirement age in the 90s.
Montreal will always be the better foodie town. But we're getting better. Until pretty recently we had some rather big holes in terms cultural variety, but they're slowly starting to fill out nicely. Still can't get any decent soul food, that I know of.
Topkapi, the Turkish place? I've not tried that one, thanks!
@zazzoo I was a student back then. So my REAL favourite place was a diner on Charlotte between Rideau & Besserer. It was run by this older woman. She cooked 3 main dishes daily - stick to your ribs stuff like chili or mac & cheese or a goulash. No tables. Counter seating around her cooking area. She would look me over when I ordered & ask me if I was hungry before piling one more huge scoop of food on my plate. When I was done she would look at my plate for 5 or more seconds then say what seemed like a ridiculously low price. Basically a culinary angel.
Ontario has always been a bit of an odd spot for variety. West Coast seemed like that in the 90s as well.
-
@zazzoo Down my way, we discovered Mexicali Rosa's for the first time around 2000, 2003. Moved around then, found another in the new town. Absolute fave.
Then it happened. It has since happened to many of our favourite places, but this was the first. Sudden downturn in quality, huge. A server confided in us that now all thefood was being made centrally, frozen, and shipped out to the individual restaurants to be reheated. We could tell.
Both the ones we knew were closed and gone within six months.
@ZenHeathen Yeah they were buying out better competitors and turned into a franchise, I guess, with "Mexi's" being the final white-friendly branding destination - a corporate name as bland as their corporate food. Hey just hang some Mexican flags up, now we're 'authentic'.
I didn't realize they had spread to other cities though!
-
R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
-
@zazzoo Thanks for the update. Haven't been back for at least 5 years now.
BTW - my experiences with Topkapi were all '77 thru '83 . So lots may have changed in that period.
I vaguely recall a Kashmir place a few blocks from Byward Market as well.
@leslore The Turkish scene is one of those cultural holes that's really fired up lately. We went from Topkapi being the only one in the city to there being three just in my immediate neighbourhood, and more popping up all the time. Two of them are book-ending a Starbucks. There must be a story there.
-
@zazzoo I was a student back then. So my REAL favourite place was a diner on Charlotte between Rideau & Besserer. It was run by this older woman. She cooked 3 main dishes daily - stick to your ribs stuff like chili or mac & cheese or a goulash. No tables. Counter seating around her cooking area. She would look me over when I ordered & ask me if I was hungry before piling one more huge scoop of food on my plate. When I was done she would look at my plate for 5 or more seconds then say what seemed like a ridiculously low price. Basically a culinary angel.
Ontario has always been a bit of an odd spot for variety. West Coast seemed like that in the 90s as well.
@leslore Yeah, back then - more like mid-80s rather than 70s for me - I really enjoyed the diner scene. I was broke af and would often need to eat at Shepherd's soup kitchen, but I could always afford a diner breakfast. Coffee, juice, 2 eggs, sausage or bacon would be something like $2. A ton of little mom and pop diners along Rideau back then.
Not sure what the scene looks like overall, now. Eddy's Diner on Elgin Street is still a big deal, but they were never my favourite. All of my old haunts have since closed up.
