Yesterday, my husband took myself and the kids to El Vaquero. It's a Mexican restaurant that one of his supervisors had raved about. This supervisor comes from California (like myself) and said that this place is the most authentic Mexican restaurant in Columbus. (And I would think that he should know, being from California!)
I ordered the Chimichanga, which is #126 on the lunch menu. It was alright. It comes with a "guacamole" salad on the side, along with spanish rice and beans. The chimichanga itself wasn't what I'd call fresh. It seemed like it was re-heated. And the cheese on top reminded me of processed cheese (think of Velveeta, only white). It was a thin coat of wax, basically. Had that not been on there, it might have tasted better. It certainly didn't seem like it just came out of the oven.
My husband ordered the Pollo a la Diabla. Basically, chicken strips served in a hot sauce, and served with tortillas. I honestly thought this was like eating pieces of chicken in spiced up tomato sauce. It was spicy, yet bland. If you can imagine that. Tomato sauce has very little taste to it.. very tomatoey, but that's it. Then it was like they threw in some red pepper to burn your mouth. I didn't like it at all.
We ordered a Child's pepperoni pizza for the kids (which I did not try), but they ate very little of it. Just to let you know, if you have kids who like milk with their meal, you might want to bring along a kid-friendly cup. They served my kids' their milk in HUGE styrofoam cups. I half expected either of them to dump it all over the place- thank goodness they didn't.
I will say that the salsa they serve with the chips is very good. The servers are very friendly, and all wait around feet from your table, in case you need something. And they do offer a kid's menu they can color (not much on it, but better than nothing). And if you want to watch a friendly game of soccer, you can view it on their plasma tv way up high on the wall.
Edited to add that I felt bad for my husband's supervisor, if he thinks this is the best Mexican (or most authentic) in town. I would recommend Don Pablos or On the Border, if you want tastier cuisine.
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