Eat The Menu: Mexico on the Lake

Leave “Where’s Waldo?” to the kids. The local foodies’ version is, “Where’s Jorge?”

Opportunity-hopping Chef Jorge Guzmán (past James Beard finalist and most recently running Petite León) has claimed the popular restaurant site in the Calhoun Beach Club for his newest dining venture, and named it Chilango (slang, Google tells me, for residents of Mexico City, where the food scene is one of our continent’s most vibrant). And he’s brought in a muralist from there to endow the new digs with verve and vibrant color.

Behind the mural stretches a vast (but windowless and anonymous) seating area, wiggling, on this visit, with lots of energetic kids. Seeking more serenity, we pleaded for a seat in the bar and scored a window-side table with a calming view of the lake formerly known as Calhoun.

I nursed a straight-arrow margarita (cocktails $13-15) and stole a sip of my companion’s Sueño (reposado, bourbon, lime, ginger, turmeric and sage — a more savory concoction) while studying the neatly-composed menu that sticks with Old Reliables, Mexican-style, punctuated with a culinary twist or two here and there. (In other words, familiarity and comfort reign, rather than high-wire kitchen feats — and that’s fine).

It leads off with nibbles to accompany drinks (guac, wings, nachos, etc.), then proceeds, as we did, to taco-based concoctions. We wolfed down a come-hither pair of the brisket numbers ($14), rich with meaty, juicy, tender beef laced with onions and cilantro, then wrapped in handmade blue corn tortillas: perfection. Next up, a pair of fish tacos saluting a juicy, sweet and lovable finger of white fish dressed with slaw, cilantro and — ahem — chipotle cream.

I’m a fan of “hot-and-spicy,” but this sneaky squiggle of cream sauce made me grasp a life-saving glass of water and hope the paramedics were on the way. (There’s no warning on the menu, nor does one’s server provide one.)

Our next choice, the enchiladas de camote — sweet potato — had also been everybody else’s, too, so the kitchen had run out. We were happy with our alternate selection, the enchiladas verdes ($25) — a trio of cigar-shaped roll-ups encasing smoked chicken flavored with a salsa verde, painted with a stripe of crema and festooned with a flutter of queso fresco. Standard. And fine.

Progressing to entrees ($29-49 plus a cheeseburger, $19), we debated: Grilled snapper? Shrimp al Diablo? Strip steak? Lamb birria, which I’d loved in Mexico last winter? (But here it bore a $49 price tag, so … no.) Fajitas?

We settle instead on what I’ve always sneeringly castigated as the Cautious Diner’s Fallback — okay, the chicken. But this dish had won diners’ votes in web-fabricated feedback.

No regrets. The bird’s white meat had been cleaved off the bone in gutsy chunks, displayed alongside the usual suspects rice-and-beans (both comfortingly delicious) plus onions, ribbons of sweet green peppers and a smoky, layered, tomato-rich piri-piri sauce. We would have ordered a side of the way I love to eat corn — esquites-style, its charred kernels dusted with crumbles of Manchego and a squirt of crema — but it proved difficult to catch a server’s eye.

Five desserts are on offer, three of which are scoops of sorbet or ice cream. Or choose a Basque-style cheesecake or pistachio-topped rendition of tres leches ($14) — which I’d be tempted to summon next time. For now, a stroll around the lake as the sun bids us adios.

Chilango
2730 W. Lake St.
(952) 582-4337
chilangomn.com
Validated ramp parking plus valet