I have cheap tastes when it comes to Mexican cuisine. I either want a really nice red salsa or burrito sauce to spread over my earthy food OR I want to be told that I have queso in my beard at least twice before I leave and if I order queso to go with my chips, it’s a mandatory five times. Queso, for those of you who don’t know, is the equivalent of cheese fondu. It is regularly soupy mozzarella cheese with some diced jalepenos stirred in that way you aren’t just eating cheese and, for the uninitiated, it is good. It is VERY good. For a long time, that with a little bit of pulled chicken topping some nachos was all that I ordered from Mexican restaurant. Since learning that such a diet could lead to scurvy, I have mended my ways and now ask them to put some onions or peppers on there.
The classiest way to amend my queso cravings is to order a taco salad. A taco bowl is a bed of lettuce with some meats, some veggies, and some beans, typically some rice too, served in a deep-fried tortilla bowl. My mother hears “salad” and I hope this eases her heart, but what she doesn’t know is that the dressing on this salad is QUESO.
Well, the taco salad at Poblanos has so much queso that at the end I was literally trying to eat around it. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well, it’s a bit of both and if you love queso it is too good to be bad. At first bite, I was in queso heaven. I really predicted that I would finish the bowl and move on to desert which would be a bowl of queso dip (let’s pretend I’m kidding). Truth be told, I have never left queso on a plate before. Even after it hardens into what may be recognizable as cheese, I am still picking at it with my nacho crumbs, but halfway through this meal, it started sitting heavy on both my conscience and my stomach. The other plates that I saw did not seem to over indulge like mine and I would never complain about this, because I don’t get mad at too much queso, but if I don’t get enough queso, my eyes start twitching.
I hate that I had to go on the queso rant first, because I want it to be clear that this was the most fun I have had at new a Mexican place in over a year. It had a salsa bar that I really enjoyed and I got to try a lot of my table’s food. The stuffed pepper was really good and I would lie to you and say that’s what I’m going to order next time, but I hear the chimichanga calling my name.
I was there with my parents, but after I walked in, I knew this was the place that I wanted to bring my friends. The food was good and well portioned, my waitress was very cute, and the bar had margarita and beer specials that could make me stay a little longer than I probably should. A lot of people go with their family, but to me this place screams hangout, but don’t stay too long, because I will want a table eventually.
<a href=”http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/179/1655040/restaurant/Gray/Poblanos-Mexican-Grill-Bar-Johnson-City”><img alt=”Poblano's Mexican Grill & Bar on Urbanspoon” src=”http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1655040/biglink.gif” style=”border:none;padding:0px;width:200px;height:146px” /></a>