Best Sonoran-Style Restaurant
Mi Nidito Café
READERS' PICK: Mi Nidito has been a local treasure for about 40 years--great food, friendly people and a festive interior. There's usually a wait at peak times, but don't let that stop you. The food is consistently excellent. Try the green chile enchiladas, or the carne seca, or one of dozens of other Sonoran dishes. A personal favorite: a birria burro, green-enchilada style. It's spiced shredded beef in a paper-thin tortilla slathered in a green sauce that brings to mind New Mexican food. With a squeeze of lemon it's as close to perfection as food gets. Mi Nidito can't be recommended too highly, so go--but not on Monday or Tuesday. This is a family-run place and even the hard-working Lopez family deserves a break, so they take those two days off.
1813 S. Fourth Ave.READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: For more than 70 years, El Charro, 311 N. Court Ave., has served up delectable Mexican food to an appreciative Tucson community. Here you can find all of the staples you've come to expect--chimichangas, burros, tacos, enchiladas, chile rellenos-- but El Charro's version of traditional Mexican food is often unlike anything you've tasted. A friend visiting us from Texas begrudgingly told us El Charro's Mexican food was the best she'd ever eaten: "Lots more veggies; I like that." She was particularly intrigued with the chile rellenos stuffed with squash, which she pronounced "exquisite" after her first bite. For those individuals who've been avoiding Mexican food because of health concerns, El Charro offers an extensive "Heart Smart" section that promises less fat. From all reports, these healthier renditions are just as delicious as the rest of the menu. El Charro's range of selections is huge, so be sure to order a margarita or beer to suck on while you peruse the menu. We highly recommend any dish that uses El Charro's carne seca--a meticulously prepared concoction of dried, shredded beef, green chiles and onions. Que bueno. If you have any room left after finishing a heaping plate of food, try the flan with a little kahlua poured over the top. It's the right touch to end another perfect meal at El Charro.
STAFF PICK: El Minuto Café, 354 S. Main Ave., is your basic no-frills-just-good-food approach to Sonoran cooking--rich and spicy enough to shock an unsuspecting midwesterner. (We do so love watching their pasty, bland faces contort, often for the first time in their lives, as their taste buds stand up and shout "Fire!") It's well worth the risk of coronary occlusion those east coast health prigs prattle on about. What do Puritans know about good Mexican food anyway? This place is a beacon of comfort for those of us who develop cravings for burritos and enchiladas, chimis and topopos.
CAT'S MEOW: La Hacienda, located a stone's throw from the Veteran's Administration hospital, does what most Sonoran-style restaurants do, with the usual run of chiles rellenos, chimichangas, enchiladas and seafood dishes. It does them unfailingly and uncommonly well, and with some nice touches, including a fine vegetable-studded soup to open the meal and a simple, delicious rice-and-cinnamon pudding to close it, both brought to you unbidden and without charge. La Hacienda is at 4207 S. Sixth Ave.
