El Limon (take two)

446 Lancaster Ave.
Malvern, PA 19355
(484) 329-7969
Website

I have written about El Limon before, but damn, it's still about the best Mexican food outside of the city, so I have been a frequent customer lately. Take, for example, the barbacoa nachos.

Rich, tender shredded beef, with a heaping portion of fresh tortilla chips. a sprinkle of pico, plenty of guacamole, and an artistic drizzle of sour cream. It's the perfect size, and perfect proportion. Funny how so many local places get it wrong.

The chicken tinga tacos are another killer choice. The stewed chicken has so much flavor, smokey, and deep tomato-ish umami.

Look at the tender shredded pollo. Perfectly juicy, and well presented.

The chorizo is good, but I prefer mine to be fried a bit harder. I like it to be well rendered and crispy. This is not that, but it has plenty of flavor, and again, I still order it so it's obviously above and beyond other places...

Not to mention, the burritos. These are what Chipotle wishes they could assemble with such care and love. Smothered and covered, they come with your choice of sauce. If you can only choose one, I recommend the chipotle. It's a crema that packs so much flavor, you will be dreaming of it later. But don't sleep on the mole. I have yet to be disappointed in it.

I know it's swimming in green sauce here, but I never turn down a good sauce.

Don Gabriel

611 W Strasburg Rd.
West Chester, PA 19380
(610) 431-3212
Website

I was told West Chester had some great Mexican spots, so I thought I would start with the popular Don Gabriel. It's located in what was obviously a WAWA in it's former life.

It had all of the makings of a great spot. No frills seating, a small grocery store inside, and chips and salsa.

A kitchen with various pots of bubbling sauces and stews.

And fresh guacamole.

The guac was good. The chips were medicore. But they were not a show stopper. The salsas, while plentiful, all lacked acidity and salt.

The pork tamale was decent, nothing to write home about. Confusingly, I had a previously frozen sweet corn tamale sample at Trader Joe's recently that far surpassed this offering.

The sope was good, like a salad on a masa disc. I liked the cotija, but again, nothing was too impressive with this item.

I felt the taco trio would be a good way to try some of my favorite meat varieties. The chorizo was good, the barbacoa had all the trappings of good 'coa, but the chicken was extremely bland and dry. In addition, why were they served with lemon slices? The lime shortage?

The torta was the biggest winner of the group. I got the al pastor, and although the bread could have been better, it had all the necessary requirements. I would order this again, if I were ever forced back here.

Probably the biggest disappointment was the mole. It had a couple of whole pieces of chicken in a rather bland sauce, lacking the complexity and depth of traditional mole. I would pass next time.

I just didn't find anything to love at Don Gabriel, and ended up spending over $40 in disappointment. I have heard West Chester has great Mexican, so where is it?

Chipotle

1512 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 558-5213
Website

That's right, Chipotle. But wait, it's okay because McDonald's no longer holds a majority share. As you will soon see, I have been lucky enough to be driving around in a 2011 Chevy Camaro, which I will talk about in further detail later. See how pretty it looks in Center City.

Anyway, I hadn't been to a Chipotle in years, and with the somewhat recent outpost being opened on Walnut, I felt that maybe I should see how El Fuego's corporate competition stacks up.

 

The corridor to get back to the line is thin, sleek and attractive. I know I am not "supposed" to like this place, but I can't find anything to complain about.

They operate on the usual burrito-joint assembly-line process.

I went with a chicken burrito and a barbacoa (my favorite) bowl.

Barbacoa below.

The burritos are massive, as expected, and I am not ashamed to say, delicious. Everything was delicious, in fact. The cilantro rice actually had flavor and was cooked just right. All of the ingredients were well prepared, from the slightly spicy adobo marinated chicken to the roasted chili-corn salsa.

In the bowl, the spicy shredded beef barbacoa was tender, had some real heat, and ALMOST stood up to my favorite (and standard for comparison) out West. I liked both the bowl and the burrito, but I'll always favor my Chipotle ingredients wrapped in a tortilla.

It almost pains me to say that this place is better than El Fuego, but it is. There was plenty of flavor, and given their efforts to sustainability, they're not quite as evil as other, comparable fast food establishments.