Plaza Garibaldi

Today we're reviewing Plaza Garibaldi, a BYO restaurant in the Italian Market that came highly recommended from a Californian coworker. Despite the location and paradoxical name, this quaint restaurant is supposed to serve up authentic Mexican cuisine. Its categorized as a taqueria, but the extensive menu, clean floors, and charming atmosphere make it a full-fledged Mexican restaurant in our books.

As always, one of the markers of a good Mexican restaurant is the quality of the initial (free) chips and salsa. The chips were awesome; they were crunchy, seasoned, fresh, and had a hint of smokey, almost grilled flavor. The salsas, though watery, grew on me as the meal progressed. I couldn't decide which one I liked better, the salsa verde or chipotle-based salsa. General Tso's note: we had to add a bit of salt to the verde for the flavor to come out.

Chips and Salsa

For entrees, I had the enchipocladas, which is just a combination of chipotle and enchiladas. Oh, those clever Mexicans. These enchiladas were bathed in a fantastic spicy chipotle sauce, which got hotter as I ate more. The beauty of the sauce lay in the subtle sweetness, however. General Tso's note: Although Napoleon doesn't think so, I thought the chicken was dry and overcooked.

Enchipocladas: Best. Name. Ever.

General Tso got the Bistek Xocimilco, another awesome name, although we have no idea what it means. Although there were a ton of components, including guacomole, rice, beans, and salsa fresca, the portion of rib-eye was generous. It was topped with mushrooms and melted cheese, but unfortunately we never found out what kind of cheese it was. The rib-eye was slightly overdone at the periphery, but the cut was so thin that this was bound to happen. The cheese and mushrooms didn't really add too much to the dish. The steak really could've stood alone and been fantastic.

Bistek Xocimilco

To top the meal off, we had tiramisu. The only options were flan and tiramisu, so we had to pick the latter. Yeah, we know it's not Mexican, but it was pretty good, although the lady fingers were a little grainy.

Plaza Garibaldi is a good restaurant, especially for the value, but unfortunately it's overshadowed by all the surrounding taquerias in the vicinity. I'll definitely be making a return visit because I want to sample some of the unique dishes they have in their menu.

General Tso's note: Overall, the meal was great, and the value made it even better. We took home plenty of leftovers, which will last us the next couple of days. The flavor-to-value ratio was off the charts, but alone, the flavor was just above average. Also, I will say that the service was somewhat disappointing. We usually don't comment on service, but this meal's was notable. Despite the restaurant being completely empty, we had to wait a long time in between visits from our waitress. When she came, she had very little knowledge of the menu. I usually ask our servers what they prefer from the menu, but our waitress did not seem to know much at all about the restaurant's offerings.

Rating: 3.0/5.0 enchipocladas (I love that word)