Thursday, December 5, 2013

Las Casuelas Terraza

My husband and I are in Palm Springs for a few days, and our first night here, we decided to try a Mexican restaurant near our hotel called Las Casuelas Terraza.  It sounded authentic, and we're always in the mood for Mexican food.

The restaurant seems huge!  We walked through multiple rooms to get to a room where we were finally seated.  Tip for the ladies, you may want to stay away from wearing heels that don't have a lot of traction.  I almost fell twice in my high heel boots.  The heel just couldn't find anything to grip on the slippery floor.  I would say I'm just klutzy or something, but I had no problem walking down the sidewalk.  On the way out of the restaurant, I walked on the ball of my foot to avoid sliding.

Anyway, the decor makes you feel like you're in Mexico.  The wooden chairs are very hard and uncomfortable, so we asked to move to a booth.  the padded seat and back was much better.

They brought out chips and salsa right away.  I prefer the salsa at Chevy's, but this had a nice spicy kick to it that kept me going back for more.  Otherwise, I would've said it was too tomatoey.

I ordered the Terraza Mexican Chopped Salad, which is described on the menu as "Romaine lettuce with grilled chicken, bacon, tomato, avocado, olives, red onion, bell pepper, jicama, cilantro and Monterey Jack cheese, topped with tortilla strips.  Served with crushed red pepper vinaigrette or your choice of dressing."  They had me as "crushed red pepper vinaigrette."  I asked for the dressing on the side, just to make sure it wasn't too soggy (see my review for Lala's), and the waiter said that it comes on the side.  Perfect.  I was surprised at the size of the salad.  I expected something about twice as big.  The flavor was amazing.  The chicken had a great char-grilled flavor, and combined with the bacon and the dressing, the salad was really delicious.  I guess it could've used more lettuce though.  There was one huge romaine lettuce leaf on the bottom of the small plate, which I ended up cutting up and eating with the rest of the salad.  I'm used to Cheesecake Factory-size entree salads at restaurants, so even though the flavor was great, I didn't feel like I got the value I expected for the price of the entree.


My husband ordered a 3-item combination plate.  He chose to get a shredded beef taco, a cheese enchilada and a carnitas tamale.  It was served with rice and choice of beans.  He chose something similar to refried, but they called them something else.  It wasn't the best Mexican food he'd ever had, but it was good.  The ingredients seemed like quality ingredients, but there just wasn't anything special about it.

If it were the only restaurant in town, we might go back, but since there are many more options, next time we'd try to find something a little more amazing.

Happy eating!

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