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Opening today at Montrose and Ashland-chef Raul is ex Frontera, Topolobampo, Chilpancingo, Platiyo, and headed up Fonda del Mar until a few months ago. Kitchen is mostly ex-Frontera. Went there for the opening party last night. Menu of about 11 apps and 11 entrees. Byob with liquor store across the street. Only 38 seats.
Sampled great seviche, fresh corn tamales, fish tacos, guacamole with light & crunchy house-made chicharron, cochinita pibil, pork chops in Oaxacan black mole, shrimp with poblano cream, crepas with goat milk cajeta. House made tortillas and masa creations.
Okay-I know these guys, but if last night was any indication this will be a killer addition to Chicago's Mexican cuisine scene.

Mixteco Grill
1601 W. Montrose Ave.
(773) 868-1601
www.mixtecogrill.com

driving by and viewing this place before it opened it looked like an over-sized taqueria. what is the interior like and what type of restaurant are they striving to be?

The decor might be described as modern fonda-casual, but certainly not taqueria. This is a regional Mexican restaurant with moderate prices-although I don't know the exact prices.

this location seems to have suffered some sort of curse, I think it has been three or four different restaurants in the last 2-3 years. (Coyote Grill, Lakeview Grill something as such.) But this sounds super promising, thanks for the heads up!

bjt

Website is under construction. What price range are we talking? Thinking about taking a ride and checking this out tonight.

Oops, sorry! Just saw you said moderate prices and that you didn't know exactly what they were.

Hopefully, we will go tonight and I can provide that info.

I'm going to have to check this out, I go up and down Ashland often and have noticed the sign the past few weeks. Stewed's report makes me want to check it out. It's close to home. Maybe Friday night.

Wow, this is so exciting - normally I'm just following LTH-ers reccomendations, but this time I actually got to try a place on the early-side of the curve A friend and I went to Mixteco last night, and we were told we were their first official customers. We arrived about 6, and unfortunately the place was empty and remained that way for almost our entire meal.

To answer some questions from above, the main dishes ranged in price from $13-20ish, and smaller plates/apps were around $5 - $7. We started with the guacamole, which was nice and chunky, topped with onions and radish (I think) and came with three large pieces of chicharron. My friend had a ceviche and tamales, which were both from the apps section. I think the ceviche had marlin, and was quite a big portion for the price. She didn't like the tamales as much, as they were a bit dry. The two apps were plenty for her, I think she only finished half of each, but she is quite petite. My entree was a very nice salmon fillet in a yellow mole, with zucchini slices and some roasted fennel. I've never had that particular mole before but it seemed freshly made, savory with a bit of lingering heat.

Our server was very enthusiastic, but not overbearing (as I was worried since the place was empty). She came back after I ordered the salmon to check if salmon cooked medium was ok with me (it was, and the fish was very moist and tasty). The chef came out to speak to us, and he was clearly very excited about his place. He's from Mexico City and his partner is from Guanajuato (sp?), and he said that the fish tacos are his specialty and something we must try next time.

Fortunately a few people came in to check out the menu towards the end of our meal, and then another couple finally came in to relieve my friend and I of our feeling that we needed to stay just so the place wouldn't be entirely empty. All in all, it seems like a nice little addition to the neighborhood, and hopefully business will pick up as word gets out.

My husband and I tried Mixteco Grill tonight, and we loved it. Everything was really fresh and tasty - nothing like your run-of-the-mill Mexican food. I loved the ceviche, fish tacos and salad with smoked salmon. My enchiladas had a really smoky mole sauce with a lot of depth, and my husband's pork entree (I don't remember what it was called) was also excellent. It came with homemade tortillas, and mashed beans - all good. For dessert, we had an incredible dish of crepes with goat's milk caramel. It was fabulous. Even the coffee was good.

Portions were generous and prices were reasonable. Service was excellent. We live close by and will definitely be back.

Do they serve alcohol?

Just drove by--they are BYOB.

I stopped at Mixteco late-afternoon today but learned, then, it opens at 5 p.m. The windows were covered with large black trash bags, which I thought was strange. My first impression was that the place was closed, not in operation at all. A woman motioned to me through the door, though, that they'd be open at 5.

From what I saw throught the door, it looks very bare-bones decore-wise - more like a taqueria than a restaurant offering more than that. The Mixtec region of Mexico is situated principally along the Guerrero/Oaxaca border - mostly in the mountains as I recall - and the earlier reviews I've read here commenting on the seafood/mariscos seemed out of place for a restaurant representing the region. Given the prices being quoted, the food better be very, very good - to compete with the other restaurants along Montrose.

Instead of returning to Mixteco I ended-up at Hopleaf, and had a wonderful meal and a couple of pints of very good beer.

Ms Snax and I arrived around the time you were completing your post tonight, Bill, and as much as I like Hopleaf, you missed out.

I can't imagine what restaurants you think they're competing against (much less losing to) on Montrose, but Mixteco ain't no taqueria, that's for sure. I don't know much about Mexican geography, or how germane the Mixteco name is to their menu, but Los Nopales is the only Mexican restaurant within two miles of Mixteco that can even approach their level of quality and service.

First positive sign: each time a party walked in the door, we heard the tortilla chips hit the fryer oil...can't beat fresh like that. We also enjoyed tilapia tacos that showed a light touch, super-hearty sopa Azteca (with chile pasilla and lip smacking chicken tenders that easily shredded with a spoon, thus staying extra moist) and the most delicate empanadas I've had in years. Our entree of enchiladas in red mole and a citrusy side salad was immaculately presented, but could have used another layer of flavor to really shine. Still took half home for laters.

Add one giant slice of tres leches with wonderfully fresh strawberry and pineapple garnish, and we had a fantastic meal for two at $40.

Darn it! Just when I start to whittle down my list of Mexican places to try, another one gets added!

J/K.. Of course, more choices is always better. This one sounds very promising. (But thinking about that incredible salsa de guajillo at Jesse's, I can't feel too badly about our choice last night.)

Yeah, well, that's over already.

In fact, although we were easily seated around 6:20, people were waiting for 4-tops (though not 2-tops) by the time we left around 7:30. (I suspect the chocolate cake that takes 15 minutes to bake will soon be off the dessert menu by necessity.) Two weeks from now, they'll be lining up outside, and the chef told us he's already thinking about expanding into the space next door.

And this success will be entirely deserved. I don't know where Mixteco ranks yet in the pantheon of ex-Frontera employee restaurants but as far as I can recall it is probably already the best Mexican restaurant east of Western on the north side, which not that long ago was just about the entire restaurant world as far as anybody besides a few culinary Magellans was concerned. (Even if it's not necessarily saying much in the greater spectrum of Chicago Mexican-- wow, it's really better than Mamacita's, El Jardin AND El Burrito Loco? Yes, but don't take that as damning with faint praise.) And so I think it will go from cute little discovery to everybody's jampacked favorite in record time. Like, sometime this week. Give it a GNR now, while the chef's still returning your calls.

What we had, that is, after the fresh chips and brightly ancho-flavored salsa:



Tacos ensenada, that is, fish tacos in the more typical style (eg. Fonda del Mar, not Tacos del Pacifico). I've liked Fonda del Mar's a lot but these blew them away-- seasoned/vinegared tomatoes sharpened this dish up to a fine point.



Empanadas, which we basically ordered for the kids (though I knew they'd only eat the beef and cheese and the best one, olive-y tasting huitlacoche, would be saved for me).



Uchepos Gratinados-- this extremely photogenic dish was corn tamales with cheese and roasted corn. Everybody loved the pure comfy scarfability of these, in fact we ordered a second plate of them because the kids liked them so much.



Some kind of white seafish-- corvina? what is that, dover tilapia?-- grilled with a green mole and white beans. The mole wasn't the most profound I ever had, but it was fine, and I liked that they weren't afraid of charring the outside to the point of bitterness.



Our old friend cochinita pibil, familiar to me from the Yucatan, or at least Chuck's earlier in the week-- and a fine rendition.



We just dabbled in dessert, ordering a single plate of crepes with cajeta (goat milk caramel). The sauce on this, bright was cinnamon and the cajeta's own caramel flavor, was terrific, but the texture of the crepes was a bit odd-- maybe they were rewarmed, but they seemed kind of heavy and mealy. Strange. Too bad, because the sauce really was great.

All in all, an impressive level of performance for a place in its second week (and obviously coming under the gun very quickly), but to their immense credit, they're staffed for it-- I've never seen so many people working so small a room, including four cooks in a space big enough for one or two. And the level of hospitality was extremely high, even under the beginnings of real pressure. This is one of the best casual-level additions to the north side since Spacca Napoli opened a few blocks away, and you'll want to go soon.

Given the splash here on LTH as well as in the lead story in this week's Dish column on Chicago Magazine's website, it's not surprising.

This is great news--both the parts about Mixteco's success and about Mixteco being able to handle its success--and it goes to prove a point I've occasionally been somewhat contentious in making. When new and newly-discovered places falter in their performance under the slam of new business (often due to the LTH effect), some people here say, "Well, what do you expect? Cut them slack--they couldn't possibly have been prepared for it. It's our fault anyway, for discovering them so fast." I'll tell you what I expect. I expect that they be able to handle it. That's what charging money for your food should entail. (If you're content to run your business like an amateur, fine, be an amateur--in other words, don't charge money. Or else, recognize that being ripped for your customer-service shortcomings is fair game, and fix them immediately.) One place figuring it out is proof that it can be figured out all the time, and Mixteco, from your report, is that place--the proof that establishes that the restaurants that don't step up to the plate in this department are making lame excuses, or having lame excuses made for them.

I can't wait to try it--if I can get in! Mazel Tov, Mixteco.

Anybody happen to know their hours?

Well, I'd wait till they have that success to say they can handle it. There were minor glitches, and there could well have been more of them if they'd been busier. All I'm saying is, they're staffed up for more business than they quite have yet, which may or may not make economic success in the long run, or last.

<<Anybody happen to know their hours?>>

I stopped by this morning because I was going down Ashland anyway. Monday through Friday they open at 5, but Saturday and Sunday 9:00 a.m. My wife is working nearby until 2:30 today, might stop by for a late lunch.

Point taken. Still, I'm pleased--and I think it shows smart business sense on their part--that they opened for business with a presumption that they're going to be doing some business, and staffed accordingly. If the payroll proves untenable, which hopefully it won't, they can let people go. Meanwhile, they're pleasing customers rather than pissing them off--i.e., meeting the rock-bottom requirement that any restaurant open for business should, but that so many new restaurants inexplicably don't. I think it's nice that they had the optimism and self-confidence to believe that if they made good food, people would come, and I think that kind of optimism and self-confidence bodes well for their success. I also think it shows a generous attitude toward customers that they weren't willing to sacrifice customer-satisfaction on the altar of fiscal caution.

Gracias!

Thanks for the report. Very helpful.

Do you know whether the full dinner menu was also available, or if they only serve from the brunch menu (presumably until 5 pm)?

I had a late lunch there today...it looks like brunch menu 'til at least 3 or 4, when I was there.

I really enjoyed the fish tacos, but I thought the salsa/sauce they served with the chips lacked punch. So I asked for something hotter...and got it. House-made habanero. Very good, very hot.

<<I had a late lunch there today...it looks like brunch menu 'til at least 3 or 4, when I was there.>>

Really? My wife and I were there between three and four for a late lunch, we were sitting by the window.
Our first time, and we both thought it stellar. The sopa azteca was the best I've ever had. Really. Intense flavors, smoky (ancho?) chile flavor, hint of onion, chicken,sour cream, crispy thin fried tortilla strips,a little crumbled dry cheese. The mrs.had the uchepos, one of her very favorite dishes,and I had the shrimp,which was exquisite. The whole bill was $35. We left very happy. I just got back from a gig in Indiana and I told my wife I want to go back tomorrow.It's very close to us. Going from the lakefront where we live west to Cicero (Sol de Mexico) or Springfield and Fullerton (Fonda del Mar) is a pain, Mixteco is less than two miles.

I'm glad, ccrush, you got your sauce with heat. I loved the sauce they brought with the chips because I am not a fan of heat. The flavor was so nice and I was glad not to have to forego sauce (like I have to do at TLO) because the sauce was too hot for my palate.

I had to drive by Mixteco Grill two times yesterday driving to and from a birthday party, and I almost stopped for lunch even after having eaten dinner there the night before with Mike G.

Well if it's better than Dorado I'll definitely be making a visit soon. Great to have another good quality Mexican option - with BYOB - within minutes of the house.

We went back again for a late breakfast about noon. We stopped across the street for a bottle of California bubbly (prices were decent). No one else there. We struck up a conversation with Raul, who was the only server. He's from Mexico City (as is my wife). We persuaded him to share a glass of the beverage with which he had no problem. There are four partners, he said, both cooks so they don't hire other kitchen help, Raul who hosts and oversees recipes and one more. We ordered the sopa again, excellent. Then I got the chilaquiles, not on the menu, by Raul's suggestion, red with grilled chicken (the ones on the menu are green with egg) and the better half got the empanadas. Stellar all around. The chilaquiles were perfect, chicken grilled with a smoky edge and moist, the tortillas wonderfully toothy, not mushy, with fresh epazote and onion and a sprinkle of crumbled cheese. The empanadas were terrific, crispy, not greasy.The picadillo was great and I don't usually like picadillo; Raul said it was his mom's recipe. (His mom is in Mexico City but goes back and forth every month or so.) The cheese empanada was a little like Frontera's quesadillas capitalinas, melted cheese and a touch again of epazote. I didn't try the huitlacoche partly because my wife downed it quickly and I was getting full. We asked Raul if they had fried platanos for dessert and he brought a small plate with a bit of cajete for flavor. We spent a leisurely 90 minutes or so, only one other table came in during that time, possibly because of the weather.
This is a terrific addition to the northside dining scene in general and to the pantheon of modern Mexican cuisine in Chicago. Both Raul and at least one of the cooks have experience with both Rick Bayless and Geno Bahena. Options for good Mexican dining have increased greatly in the last ten or fifteen years. Oh, and did I mention the bill was $29?