Meet La Tapatia
By: Mr. Wilson on
June 2, 2009
Upon sitting, diners are presented with the customary basket of chips and bowls of salsa. We received one bowl of mild salsa and one bowl of a hotter variety. The mild salsa is much too close to tomato sauce for my taste buds, while the hotter salsa has a much more acceptable zing. The corn chips are fresh and tasty. In addition, La Tapatia gives diners a glass of ice water when they sit down. Not many restaurants still do that, and it's a pleasant touch.
Which brings me to the topic of service. Those water glasses? In my experience at Morales's restaurants, those water glasses don't stay empty for very long. Like at La Tapatia's sister restaurants, service is adequate at worst; overall, I grade it above average. Glasses get refilled, smiles are prevalent, tables stay clean, requests are promptly filled, and questions get answered.
If you know the menu at its sister restaurants, you know La Tapatia's menu. The menu is ample: burritos, enchiladas, tacos and tamales are all familiar to most diners. Those staples are available in various forms, both a la carte and in combination plates that frequently include rice and beans. More adventurous diners may wish to veer off the beaten path and try some of the seafood dishes (the shrimp aren't too shrimpy), fajitas, or other options. Lunch combination plates run about $6, while dinner platters tend to come in more at the $9 - $13 price range.
On this trip, I ordered an enchilada and tamal lunch combo. Both items were served smothered in a red sauce and melted cheese, with rice and beans on the side. Neither the enchilada nor the tamal were very large, but the plate as a whole made for a good-sized lunch. Both items are nice and simple: meat in a wrapper. There aren't any extras like rice or cheese hiding inside. The downside is that the chicken in my enchilada was a touch on the dry side. Having sauce on top helped moisten my bites.
Mr. T went with the more adventurous camarones a la diabla, or Devil's shrimp. The dish is presented as a mound of shrimp, onions, and mushrooms in a tomato-y sauce, and is served with warm tortillas on the side. The plate also included rice and beans. Mr. T noted that there was nothing devlish about the meal; instead, it was far more sweet than spicy. After I saw the plate I realized I had once ordered the same dish at Las Margaritas and I came to the same unsatisfying conclusion. Our verdict: skip this dish. If it's shrimp you're after, I instead recommend the tasty camarones al mojo de ajo (shrimp in garlic gravy), a dish which is much more true to its name.
In the end, if you know any of her sister restaurants, you pretty much know La Tapatia. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to you and your taste buds. My tongue tends to lead me elsewhere if we're only talking about food. Yet I return to Mr. Morales's restaurants with some frequency because I appreciate a business run well. In what has evolved to be a hyper-competitive local market for Mexican and Mexican-inspired restaurants, Morales's family of restaurants has attracted an impressive following. Consider, for example, that Mr. T and I actually had to abort our first attempt to visit La Tapatia because the wait was too long. On our successful second trip no table stayed empty for longer than a couple minutes throughout our visit.
Have you had a chance to make it to La Tapatia yet? What's your verdict?
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I had lunch a few weeks back. Would of liked a bit of lettuce, tomato, and sour cream for garnish, but I headed back to work with a fullness. Had to fight the nappies hard.
I have been eating a lot of their tamales lately. 6 for $7 and two make a satisfying lunch. The tortilla machine was nifty to see in action.
This was an excellent review of a restaurant. Sure wish LJS had a reviewer who could approach your level of information.
Thanks
I give La Tapatia high marks, but I also really like the Morales’ other restaurants.
Generous portions, excellent sauces and consistent quality and service.
Speaking of Mexican food, I ate at Playa Azul in Beatrice. It’s on Highway 77 just east of the mall. It was good and I recommend it if you are in the area, but it has a way to go before it can compete with a Morales restaurant. The food was affordable and good but it was too salty. The service was accommodating but brusk to the point of being awkward.
The LJS “reviews” aren’t truly “reviews”. Even though libel lawsuits against papers for negative reviews are usually not successful, many established restaurant reviewers nowadays err on the side of offering minimal information for potential liability reasons.
More importantly, its just not good business practice for the LJS to start writing bad reviews for local restaurants (or good reviews for some establishments and bad reviews for others). Its just not a can of worms that they want to open.
Thus, the “reviews” they publish aren’t very informative. They are basically “news vignettes” that talk about the personal backgrounds of the owners, offer some factual information about the establishment, and that’s about it. Which is why one has to go to the blogs or places like yelp to read honest opinions about restaurants nowadays.
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