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By DCist contributor Celeste Dawn Mitchell
Mexican food in Washington tends to be either a very bland affair or an unnecessarily fussy affair. Either we need six cups of salsa to impart any sense of flavor to it, or the cooks are too busy making Alaskan scallop enchiladas with toasted pine nuts to put together a decent steak taco. Even the so-called premier Mexican restaurants leave much to be desired.
Though the tableside guac is worth the stop, Rosa Mexicano's menu is too cryptic. Picking a satisfying dish is like playing roulette at a Vegas Casino. There's a slim possibility you might pick a winner, but chances are you won't. Plus, you'll be out $25, and you'll be still hungry. Lauriol Plaza never leaves us satisfied either, and it seems like we'd be awful easy to please after a drunken two-hour wait.
Our hunt for quintessential Mex/Tex-Mex led us to the oft-overlooked La Loma. The night air was a bit too chilly for patio dining, so we opted for the first-floor dining room, where the globe bulbs overhead were capped with sombreros. The wait staff promptly served up a kicky homemade salsa brimming with tomato chunks and strips of onion. The plain Jane tortilla chips weren't worthy of it.
La Loma makes all the staples -- tacos, enchiladas, fajitas -- and boasts an impressive looking seafood menu. But we make it a rule to stick to the basics on our first visit to a restaurant. We don't trust your Salmon Cancun until you prove to us that you make a decent burrito.
We tested the waters, so to speak, with the Camarones La Loma appetizer. For $7.95, we received exactly five shrimp sautéed with garlic, scallions and white wine immersed in a rich butter sauce with tortillas on the side. We suppose the tortillas and the fact that they didn't call it "shrimp scampi" justified the eight bucks.
A glass of sangria arrived with apple bits floating in it. The fruit was good, but the fifth of rum obliterated any trace of sweetness the actual beverage had and brought on an unwanted buzz. So we reverted to the chips and salsa.
For the main course, we went for the chicken chimichanga ($8.95) and a single taco al carbon so that we could get a taste of La Loma's "famous" fajita meat. Its reputation proved to be well deserved. The flavorful, succulent steak strips might be enough to bring a sworn vegan back to the dark side (provided it was cruelty-free succulent steak). A scoop of pico de gallo gave the taco a hint of freshness.
The generous chimi was filled with reddish marinated chicken and green peppers in a shell that was more of a wrap than a crust. It was quite tasty also -- and it reheated well the next day. There were sides, but we've never tasted refried beans or Spanish rice worth mentioning.
Thanks to the attentive, anticipatory wait staff and delicious takes on shrimp, steak and chicken, we'll be back to La Loma to see what they can do with that salmon.
La Loma Mexican Restaurant
316 Massachusetts Avenue NE
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 548-2550
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Glad to hear you had a good visit. I found it just as flavorless and inauthentic as all the others. Really terrible salsa.
As a Texan of Mexican descent living temprarily in DC, this stranger in a strange land has tried desperately to find good Tex-Mex cooking to no avail. Like Meg, I found La Loma lacked the kick of the real deal. The only place that has come even close is the genericaly named Alamo Grill in Georgetown. The Aroz con Pollo is just like my mom makes it. In fact, nearly every dish is exactly like my mom makes it. The prices are cheaper than you'd expect for Georgetown and the waitstaff is great. My only complaint is the salsa, but then again I learned to make it from my dad and frankly I don't think anyone will improve on the recipe.
I had tried La Loma two years back and it was terrible; tried it two months ago and it was much better than before but that only brings them up to "average". I'm guessing they got a new chef in that time frame. Great spot for happy hour, not so great for the food.
You might want to try La Lomita Dos in the 300 block of Massachussetts Ave NE, especially the beef dishes.
I'd like to point out that Tex-Mex is an abomination to begin with. Please stop mentioning it in the same breath as good Mexican.
After years of living so far away from the border I've found that when I go home even average Mexican food tastes like the best thing I've ever eaten.
"...but the fifth of rum obliterated any trace of sweetness the actual beverage had and brought on an unwanted buzz."
unwanted buzz? this is a foreign concept to me
In the Capitol Hill area, I'd rather make the extra trek to Las Placitas in Barracks Row. La Loma is always so crowded and it's so not worth a wait. Never understood why it was so popular.
Thanks for saying that, InExile. I was struggling with using the term "Mexican." I realize that what most of us call Mexican is actually its bastardized cousin, Tex-Mex. And if half-decent Tex-Mex is a struggle to find in D.C., I don't even want to think about what it would take to find good authentic Mexican.
Ah, another DCist writer settling for shitty mediocre food. You guys are starting a trend!
Mojo: La Loma is in the 300 block of Mass Ave NE. I think you may have either the restaurant or the address mixed up.
I go to La Loma a lot. I've seen outstanding Tex Mex in Houston, so anything in DC pales by comparison. But La Loma is consistently good, great service. One pet peeve: with fajitas or other dishes they serve exactly four tortillas. That just isn't enough. If you ask for even one more they charge you something ridiculous like $5. Same with their guacamole and sour cream. The portions of these are too small, and if you ask for even a little more you are charged an exhorbitant amount.
Otherwise, though, a good bang for the buck.
Try the seafood chimichanga. Very good.
Amen - Tex-Mex is bullshit!!!
I'm glad this discussion is going on - since I moved here I've been having an impossible time finding good Mexican food! It's still not as bad as the Mexican food in NYC, though. Having grown up on the border, I never understood the Pace salsa commerical (this stuff's made in New York City?!) until I moved there...
Has anybody been to Alero on Connecticut in North Dupont? They're the best I've found so far (which isn't saying much, obviously), but I'm definitely gonna try the Alamo Grill ASAP...
Great. Another worthless suburban restaurant review. I thought this site is called DCist?
Oh, waitaminit...
My girlfriend and I, originally from California and Arizona respectively, ate here once, and were not impressed. Service was decent (which translates to wonderful by District standards), and it was nice to eat outside, but we weren't impressed by the food.
Sure, the standards exist on the menu, but it seemed pretty much as bland as the majority of the "Mexican" food around here. The ingredients themselves seemed to be of a decent quality for the price, but yeah, no go on flavor.
I personally just get my taqueria fix at Taqueria Distrita Federal on 14th and Otis or Tacos Pepitos II on Columbia[0]. Or, I make it at home.
Sometimes, one of those bazillion Salvadorean run "Tex-Mex" joints in the area gives me a good fix too. It's not quite the same, but enough stuff crosses over. Now if I could just get over the fact that my rice has veggies in it, life would be easier.
~EEE~
[0] Or the Gaithersburg location, which has even better food, since I'm apparently the one suburban DCist reader who doesn't live in NoVA.
Why not mention Mixtec in AM? They're not perfect, sure, but they're the best at real regional Mexican in DC since thier sister Gtown restaurant (I forget the name) died after a long decline. Nice melon drinks, enchiladas, and pork tacos.
Foodie, don't get me wrong. I actually enjoyed the food. If I don't like a place, I have no problem saying so. I was just saying I realize Tex-Mex and Mexican are not interchangeable labels even though we use them that way, and that good versions of either are hard to find in the area. I'm open to suggestions as always...
Nice try but it should be "La Loma es muy *Bueno*
La Loma is OK, but the sister restaurant La Lomita (the original) on 15th & Pennsylvania is much better.
While still not as good as the places in my native Colorado, there are some pretty good Mexican restaurants and bakeries in the "Little Mexico" neighborhood just across the DC border. They aren't easy to get to by public trasnportation, but are worth the trip. The Post wrote about the area a couple years ago:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36892-2004Aug3.html
Beg to differ here, DCist. La Loma is sufficiently short hike from my workplace that I end up eating lunchthere from time to time because someone insists, but ugh. If you do go back, stay far, far away from the chiles rellenos. soggy, overbreaded, tasteless goo. Which pretty much describes their basic bean burrito, too. Maybe my mistake has been not trying meaty things, I suppose.
Let me second Mixtec - not Tex-Mex, just good Mexican.
And for the previous poster, their sister restaurant was Enriqueta's, wasn't it?
Los Amigos in Del Ray used to have great Mexican food at a very reasonable price. Over the past 5-10 years though, the portions have gotten smaller and smaller, the quality has dropped lower and lower, and the price has gone higher and higher.
Yes, it was Enriqueta's. Mmmm Chicken enchiladas with Mole and pork with tomatillo....
Damn near broke my heart when they started metering out the salsa fresca.
It seems to me that most Mexican food in the area is actually Salvadoran food in disguise. Now, I like a good pupusa, and Salvadoran tamales can be stunningly wonderful, but the two cuisines are quite different. Mexican food in Charlotte, NC, is better than the doughy stuff here.
Agreed. IMO, a good Central American tamal beats a good Mexican one anyday. The flavor palate is usually more complex, and the use of banana leaves rather than corn husks keeps it moister.
Glad somebody brought up Mixtec, that's some of the best Mexican I've had here in DC.
Way up the comment list, someone mentioned La Lomita Dos but gave the wrong location -- it's actually in the 300 block of Pennsylvania Ave SE. The original La Lomita is at Pennsylvania and G St SE. I'm not sure if they're sister restaurants to La Loma, as the styles are quite different.
That was me with the bad directions- La Lomita Dos is in the 300 block of Pennsylvania Ave SE, across from the Cosi. Mea culpa. I haven't tried the original La Lomita further up on Pennsylvania Ave, and apparantly there's another La Lomita Dos (Tres?) on Connecticut Avenue not too far from Chevy Chase Circle.
In reference to the difference between central American and Mexican tamales, I'll just mention the SoCal adage: "You can't buy a good tamale." I gave up trying. Maybe you haven't had one cooked by a family of Mexican women and their friends at a party during the holidays.
Also, thanks so much for bringing up the difference between Mexican and Salvadoran. Doughy tortillas, bland food, and heavy corn meal=Salvadoran=every bad "Mexican" place in this city.
Meg's right. I learned to make tamales (an all day thing) from a central american lady of spanish descent. We did it for New Years, I think. Perhaps if she'd been mexican...
La Loma!???
My family is from Sonora - where Japanese tourists buy beef to take home.
Carne asada tacos are impossible to find within DC proper - although Distrito Federal on 14th and Pepito's on Columbia in AM are OK. Those two places have great tacos of other varieties - namely pork, which is more native to southern Mexico, where most Mexicans in the US Northeast are from. Beef is distinctly a northern Mexican specialty, and those suren~os are baaaad at it.
For real carne asada tacos, go to Little Mexico in Riverdale, MD, or down Route 1 between the beltway and Ft. Belvoir for a number of taco counters. My favorite is La Mexicana, on Arlington Dr. just off Route 1.
Not to pile it one, but rather to sum up -- La Lomita Uno (12?? Penn), Dos (300 Penn), and Tres (NW) are leagues above the travesty that is La Loma (popular only because of their outside setting and location, certainly not their food or service).
The Fiesta DC in Mt. P on Sunday had great Mexican, Salvadoran and Tex-Mex. I'm not sure who the vendors were, but I assume some of the MD based restuarants.
Also, what's with the lack of DCist coverage on that festival? It was most excellente. Especially Machetre.
Let's just make this simple and plain, and I suppose I am being a hater: There is no good Mexican, Tex Mex or whatever you want to call it in this area period. IT is a bunch of Salvadoreans cooking their bland, tired-ass food trying to pawn it off on you folks as Mexican. At high prices, most the time.
That's all.
I'll probably get bagged on for this, but Cap City Brewing Co. has amazingly good pork tacos.
I saw a young couple finishing up lunch at Lauriol Plaza once, where she went to the washroom when he picked up the tab, and apparently removed her underwear...he took a LOOOOONG time tying his shoes below the table. Not sure if it was the food or what, but high praises indeed!
I have to speak up to defend La Loma's service. It's much better than most places on the Hill. Granted, that's not saying much. But their service is pretty good. They have only one bad server. Don't know her name, but she's easy to find - she's the only female server. She's got a fairly nasty attitude, and has been known to contradict patrons and argue with them. But otherwise service there is very good.
I LOVE Mexican and Tex-Mex, and I travel a lot to the West and Southwest, so I do get my fix.
For Tex-Mex around here, I've decided that Austin Grill (Chinatown specifically) and Banana Cafe on Barracks Row are my two favs so far. They both have good chips 'n salsa, enchiladas, and can make a good margarita. esingles, thanks for the link to the Post article on Little Mexico ... I didn't know it existed!
But my constant and loud rant in this town is about Lauriol Plaza. Folks, this Lauriol madness has to stop. It is SOOOO not worth the crap you have to go through to eat there. The food and chips/salsa are marginal, but the margaritas are argueably the worst I've ever had. They even use the nasty green Daily's Margarita Mix to make them (I've seen the bottle behind the bar). I get drug there a lot b/c I live in Logan/Dupont and everyone wants to go somewhere convenient.
The worst places in Texas, Arizona, and California beat the hell out of the best places here, though. If someone opens up a good place, I swear I'll be there weekly.
Yeah, I just got runny food with only a moderate amount of flavor that was nothing to write home about. Drinks were so so. They were total assholes about our somewhat large (but polite) party paying them. And did I mention they're roach infested? Yep. My boss put on one of their Mexican hats, only to have us giggle and point when we saw roaches on it. We giggled until our food came... then we cried a bit.
The place opposite the Easstern Market (don't know what region they claim, but they left the previous owners' russian decor up which I think is pretty trippy. They have a bread stand on the weekends.) is GREAT! just order the beans & rice, and go home happy.
The real travesty on Mass Ave NE (one block from La Loma) is Union Pub. Very high profile corner, great outdoor dining area. Stunningly bad food, matched only by stunningly bad service. I guess we should have suspected this when the much-touted 'renovation' involved mostly plywood being stuck on the walls and painted to resemble real wood.
Yes, I know it's primarily a pub. But that doesn't mean the food, even pub grub, has to suck.
On a broader level, why does pub grub in DC suck? You go to a pub in NYC and the food is usually good, sometimes downright terrific. Here, almost never.
The typo in the title is driving me nuts. En espanol is right it's "bueno" not "buena".
As far as tamales, you can't compare Mexican to Salvadorian/Guatemalan. They are completely different but all very, very good.
Spanish-speakers: the headline has been changed.
Spanish speakers, should not the headline read something along the lines of 'La comida del restaurante La Loma es muy rica'? I'd learned that food wasn't 'good', it was 'rich'. But that may be a South American thing and not the general case.
nice proofreading in the second paragraph...
"Plus, and you'll be out $25, and you'll still hungry. "
???
joey zaza: It's been corrected. Thanks for alerting us to the copy error.
re: [39] hillman. AGREED! not to mention that the bartenders there are creepy. i'm glad i'm not the only one that feels that way about union pub.
Again, Salvadoran food that embraces its roots can be fantastic. Salvadoran food maquerading as Mexican just doesn't work.
Re: #46 - You hit the nail right on the head, the pork & cheese papusa is out of this world and I love the tangy & hot slaw/salad (is it jicama) they serve with them.
The Union Pub sucks, the renovation took all the character out of the place; I liked it much better back when it was the "Dead Liver Grill."
And while we're on the topic, what's the deal with the freaking enormous, unevenly cut chunks of onion in the salsas at most of these "Mexican" restaurants in town, including La Loma? No self-respecting Mexican restaurant would serve salsa like that. I remember the salsa at El Tamarindo tasting like it was spiked with onion juice.
I'm from AZ and I gorge myself on real Mexican food whenever I go back. My girlfriend is from Pittsburgh and she says she can't taste the difference. *Sigh*
hillman,
DC used to have some decent pub grub, but then Sign of the Whale and Stoneys folded. Ugly Mug used to be good, but now they're hit or miss.
The grub at Duffy's in Shaw is really good, if you're up for fish and chips. Beats the shillelagh out of Dubliner. Jambalaya at Red & Black is nice, along with whatever they're heating up and scraping off at The Argonaut.
Pub grub: Murphy's by the Calvert bridge has pretty good food, if a bit inflated due to the Wardman Park/Omni Shoreham hotel guests & conventeneers.
I've always been partial to the food at the Irish Times, the cod and shrimp basket is my personal fave.
Fiesta, I got caught up in the Fiesta DC congestion on my way to Crafty Bastards. I wanted to hit the Fiesta afterwards, but I just didn't feel like fighting through the traffic again to get over to Mt. P. Maybe I should've. Sounds like I missed a good time. Duly noted.
This is the worst Mexican food on the Hill. The food is bland, and the salsa and chips sucks. The wait staff is friendly, but they won't split your credit card checks unless you have a $20 balance on each. Overall, I'd rather take the hike to Tortilla Coast on the House side to get Mexican than pay for this bad food. Highly unrecommended.
George - A bit of info about why La Loma may not want to run CCs for less than $20.
Businesses generally pay somewhere between 3-5% to process their credit cards and some CC processors also have a minimum fee of $1 or 2 dollars. If La Loma is paying 5% with a minimum fee of $1 and they run a CC for less than $20, they are losing money on that transaction.
As far as going to Tortilla Coast is concerned, I just can't do it. Being around bunch of goony, testosterone drenched Hill staffers with popped collars and their flip-flop wearing compatriots makes me break out in hives and the food is about the same IMHO.
I'll second your suggestion of Cap City Brewery's pork tacos -- besides, if you go during happy hour (3-7?) they are HALF OFF! (That is, if you don't ask for the third taco and beans/rice option offered on the menu -- in which case they don't tell you you aren't eligble for the half-price discount until you get your check...kinda cheeky...)
Well at least they are finally getting reviews...
La Loma/Lomita/Lomita Dos/Placitas/ are all owned by a group of cousins from San Miguel in El Salvador... the newest of these being La Plaza, on the south side of the 600 block Pennsylvania Ave SE
Salvadoran food is disticnt from Mexican... no ground beef for instance... but like all imported experiences has to be toned downed a few jalapeno notches to keep the wimpier hill staffers and tourists among us from getting nosebleeds...
tex mex is refried beans...Salvadoran are known for their black beans... and all of these restaurants will gladly substitute their heavenly black beans in place of the refried...
My favorite of the group is La Plaza... Henry Mendoza goes the extra mile in buying better cuts of beef... Their Salmon can be spectacular... by DC standards... don't order it if you are from the Pacific Northwest...
Their consistently best dishes are... Pollo Ranchero... Lomo Saltado... Steak El Chivo... best appetizer... Nachos Al Pastor with black beans substituted...
but most of all He sells a mean Margarita Del Rey... and delightful
Y'all got it wrong. If you have a car, go for takeout at El Charrito Caminante in Arlington. The best, I promise (I'm from LA/Long Beach). The goat and chorizo tacos, chicken burrito supremes, and steak tortas are as good as it gets in DC. But don't take it from me (or the dozens of people I have gotten addicted to the place), here's some other folks saying the same:
http://www.washingtonian.com/dining/Profiles/elcharrito.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?node=cityguide/profile&id=1119906
http://dcsewer.blogspot.com/2006/04/best-restaurant-in-virginia-el.html
http://www.zagat.com/verticals/PropertyDetails.aspx?VID=8&R=104181&SI=BFWS
Oh, and did I mention that it is dirt cheap there?
Do it.
Oh, and La Loma sucks. Ditto La Lomita Dos on Penn Ave. I get the basics every time I go to a new Mexican-ish place. La Loma is bland and boring. La Lomita Dos can't even make a decent enchilada. Tortilla Coast is not good either; if that's a good representation of Tex-Mex, then I reject that cuisine entirely.
Mixtec is good, though. Very solid...just a pain to get to from the Hill. On the other hand, El Charitto Caminante is just a 10 minute drive once you get on 395...
Mixtec frozen margaritas are a surefire way of waking up sucked, fucked, and tattooed.
All these west coasters complaining about the Mexican just shows that ethnic food is best when made by/for people of said ethnicity. The closer you get to Mexico, the better the Mexican gets, no surprise there. Mex/Tex-Mex is crap in London but they do awesome Indian/South Asian. Chinese food is better in San fransisco, perhaps it's best in Shangai. As far as immigration goes DC has more in common with Atlanta than New York or California so it seems silly to expect to eat the same way everywhere you go. You want that, hit a McDonald's.
The same goes for regional food. it's not worthwhile to get crab cake outside Maryland or Barbeque outside the Southeast(BTW ribs/steak/chicken is barbeque, anything else is just grilling). Accept these thingss and travel, enjoy food tourism. As chains take over the world at places that are losing their local color to box at least are keeping their local flavor.