A Food Quest

Today, we decided to set out on a quest to find the best Mexican Food in Anchorage. Yes, we said Mexican food in Alaska. The largest amount of Alaskan transplants are from Texas so decent Mexican food has to exist in this town.  Well, at least that is our assumption and we will not stop until we have reviewed every Mexican restaurant in town in the following categories:

Mexican Review Categories (scale 1:5)

• Margaritas (1 = Watered down Costco Mix, 5 = Cyclone Anayas)
• Chips and Salsa (1= Tostitos Chips and canned salsa, 5 = Chuy's thin chips and chunky salsa)
• Queso and/or Guacamole ( 1= Barely melted cheese, 5  = Escalante's white cheese queso)
• Fajitas (1 =Just meat and veggies, 5 = Cyclone Anayas Special Fajitas)
• Enchiladas (1= Frozen isle special, 5 = Megs Sour Cream Enchiladas

First up, Carlos's Fine Mexican Cuisine. Calos's was selected because of the consistently full parking lot.  We had high hopes for this establishment when we pulled up because it was 6pm and we had to park in the back of the parking lot, so this had to be a good sign. I mean, first no Anchorage restaurant has a wait outside of tourist season and second, it has a big parking lot. However, we were slowly let down as the food arrived.

All smiles waiting for the anticipation of our first Mexican food in Alaska!

The best way to sum up this Mexican restaurant was that the only thing Mexican about it was the presentation. Somewhere along the way they found out how to sizzle fajitas, but they lost their flavor somewhere North of the Mason-Dixie line. Below is our official review.

Carlos's Fine Mexican Cuisine:

• Margaritas =1 (We had a mix from Costco that tasted better)
• Chips and Salsa = 2 ( Better than what you can buy in a jar, but nothing to write home about especially when your old home is Texas)
• Queso and/or Guacamole = 1.5 ( They did not even serve queso! We had to change the category because all they served was guacamole. However, their guacamole was decent giving them an additional 1/2 point in this category. Avocados are tough to find this far north so we have to give them a little credit)
• Fajitas  = 2 (The fajitas came out sizzling which perked up our eyes, but after the first taste we knew something wasn't right. The meat just wasn't tasting like fajita meat, even though it did have good flavor, but they also had mushrooms and tomatoes that came out sizzling #morelikehibatchi. Then there were the tortillas. I think they just went down to Walmart and picked up the ones on the shelf. And then there was the set-up plate or lack of one. No Cheese. No Pico........#Carlos'sCheeseLessMexicanFood....yea it does not have a ring to it and neither did their steak fajitas.)
• Enchiladas =  3 (Not bad, the item to get if we come back)

Cheese-less, Pico de Gallo-less set-up plate

Check out those sizzling fajitas. Can you spot the mushroom?

Well, one down and about five more to go. Ooooh how we hope that things will get better from here. #WemissTexas

Xoxo,
W, M, Em-Kat