Viva Jalisco #5

We decided to try the latest Tex-Mex place in our neighborhood. Viva Jalisco has moved in where most recently Sona Glocal Cuisine was located, next to Sprouts grocery store. We got the enchiladas Suiza and the carnitas, and followed with sopapillas for dessert.

Service was OK but there were several small issues that took away from the experience a bit. When we ordered drinks, we ordered an iced tea and an Arnold Palmer--half tea, half lemonade. I usually explain that to the server and she repeated it back to me. She then said "OK, two tea". And that's what we got. When my wife ordered the enchiladas she asked for charro beans instead of refried. She got both, and we got charged extra for the charros. So a rough start.

We started off with chips and salsa. The salsas had a different, less complex flavor than we're used to. The green salsa was the one with the kick. The chips were heated so they were nice and crisp.

The enchiladas were OK. The green sauce was on the thin side and formed a pool that surrounded the rest of the food on the plate. But they ate fine. The charro beans were very much a bean soup, but quite a good bean soup, perhaps the best item of the evening.

On the menu the carnitas say it is deep fried pork. Our pork was not deep fried, it was a smoked pork shoulder. Not a huge thing, I like them either way. The tender bits were quite delicious but about half of it was tough and dry. The tortillas that came with it had been warmed up a bit too much, they were also on the dry and chewy side. The rice and beans were fine.

The sopapillas have lots of sugar on them and are drizzled with chocolate sauce. We also got honey, not quite sure why. The sopapillas were pale, done just enough not to be raw. But they were good with the chocolate sauce and sugar and we ate most of them.

The interior walls are painted an appetizing yellow, no decoration except over the bar. And there's a world map left over from Sona Glocal in the hall to the bathrooms, which were clean and ready. The furniture is quite impressive. The wood tables are polished to a high shine. The chairs and booths are also polished wood and are very comfortable. Every piece of furniture has a router depiction of the restaurant logo, and the booths have different Mexican icons and scenes. They spent serious money on that furniture.

The restaurant has a large menu of all the usual Tex-Mex favorites for breakfast as well as lunch and dinner. I don't think this would displace any of our regular Tex-Mex places. Might be worth a visit to see that furniture, then you can decide if you like the food enough to come back.

My Yelp Review