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.