Cinco de Mayo suggestions

[Doug McDonald]

Arun Bhalla wrote:
>
> bill...@uiuc.edu (ferguson william k) writes:
>
> > Please compare the following:
> > Dos Reales
> > El Sombrero
> > Margarita's
> >
> > One of them is likely to be our lunch destination today.
>
> Dos Reales.
>
> Enjoy, but watch out for a big crowd rushing to the same place. It is
> Cinco de Mayo on a Friday, for pete's sake. Their service is
> amazingly quick, though. Fortunately, El Sombrero is just down the
> street and probably won't have a wait like Dos Reales could.

I have now tried both places, and clearly, if you want Mexican food,
El Sombrero is much superior. The caveat is that I have not
tried them for lunch.

Dos Reales is nowhere near as good if you want Mexican food.

Margarita's (Urbana) is good too, except for the dishes made with
gound beef. Margarita's campus is also good, if and only if you
order from the Spanish-only menu. Try the Ceviche tostado! ASk them
what the items are in English if you can't read culinary Spanish.

Doug McDonald

[Arun Bhalla]

bill...@uiuc.edu (ferguson william k) writes:

> Please compare the following:
> Dos Reales
> El Sombrero
> Margarita's
>
> One of them is likely to be our lunch destination today.

Dos Reales.

Enjoy, but watch out for a big crowd rushing to the same place. It is
Cinco de Mayo on a Friday, for pete's sake. Their service is
amazingly quick, though. Fortunately, El Sombrero is just down the
street and probably won't have a wait like Dos Reales could.

Arun

[ferguson william k]

Please compare the following:
Dos Reales
El Sombrero
Margarita's

One of them is likely to be our lunch destination today.

Thanks!

[Melissa Muckenhirn]

ferguson william k <bill...@uiuc.edu> wrote
in message
news:DwAQ4.14600$nb2.2...@vixen.cso.uiuc.ed
u...

I'd go for El Sombrero, since it won't be
crowded and the food is much
more Mexican and tasty. I think I'm coming to
the decision that for good,
more authentic Mexican food, I like this
place (but El Matador is still
great for service and I still like the food
there.) But I will say the Sombrero
entrance assaults your nose with the Pine Sol
smell. Ask to sit far from
the door and you'll be OK.

Melissa

[ferguson william k]

I'm glad that Melissa brought up El Matador. My wife has reminded me that
it was El Matador, not El Sombrero, that we were wanting to compare. I've
heard that El Sombrero is more authentic and the other posts from today
concur. We're going to try El Matador this time.

VIVA! el CINCO DE MAYO!!
http://www.vivacincodemayo.org/history.htm

[Melissa Muckenhirn]

Responding to my own post, I might add that
El Sombrero is the only
place in town where recently I have seen the
chile relleno made with
an actual, whole poblano pepper. At Dos
Reales, I accidentally
ate the whole piece of green pepper in one
bite because I (incorrectly)
assumed there would be more pepper under the
cheese glop. No.
And at Matador, I had about 3-4 bites of
pepper (again, not
poblano.)

Sombrero uses a whole chile stuffed with
cheese and then dipped
in the egg batter and fried as I believe they
are supposed to be.
I had them like this at Fiesta but that was a
long time ago, so I
can't say whether they've changed or not.

Melissa Muckenhirn <mm...@prairienet.org>
wrote in message
news:njCQ4.345$p92.152@firefly...

[vwe...@ncsa.uiuc.edu]

The relleno at Chevy's is actually made with a whole pepper as well.

Von

Melissa Muckenhirn <mm...@prairienet.org> wrote:
: Responding to my own post, I might add that

:>

--

Von Welch vwe...@ncsa.uiuc.edu
Alliance Computational Environment and Security NCSA

[ferguson william k]

We ended up at El Matador on West Springfield. I had the lunch chicken
fajitas and my wife had "Number 8", I think. 8) I believe it was a
burrito, tostada, and rice. My serving size was very large for $5.50. Hers
was $4.95, I think. The chips on the table were perhaps not as good as Dos
Reales, but the salsa was decent. My fajitas were very good, but only
tortillas served with the lunch. Normally I would have asked for more, but
I enjoyed picking at the fixings with my fork and tried not to eat it all,
because, as I said, it was a very large serving. My wife liked her meal
OK, too, but she would choose Dos Reales over El Matador normally.

Thanks for your help!

P.S The wait staff was very pleasant, quick, and festive. I believe they
were all celebrating the holiday and having a good time.

bill...@uiuc.edu (ferguson william k) writes:

[M Brink]

Actually, Dos serves "Chile Poblano", which is just as you describe a chili
relleno. I had never encountered the "glop o' cheese" passing as Chile
relleno before until Dos (although it IS tasty for chip-dipping!), but the
Chile Poblano is pretty good. It is an optional "upgrade" on most of their
combo meals (I think an additional 50 cents).

"Melissa Muckenhirn" <mm...@prairienet.org> wrote in message

news:duDQ4.347$p92.45@firefly...

[Melissa Muckenhirn]

I"ll keep this in mind next time I'm there.

M Brink <mab...@SPAMPROTECTED.soltec.net> wrote in message
news:8f05qu$aea$1...@aura.soltec.net...