Lap Child Diaries: Guajillo's The Shortcut to Mexico

On Thursday night, we were in the mood to get some regional food while we were in Texas. Saving our BBQ meal for Friday lunch, we decided on some Mexican.

Letting my father take a break from doing all the research/planning, my dear mother decided to get on Yelp and search for something kid-friendly that had tasty food, reasonably priced and located nearby. And she succeeded on all fronts!

Guajillo's The Shortcut to Mexico was a homerun for what we were looking for. The place was just down the road on I-410 from our Four Points hotel and had ample parking right in front.

Upon walking in, we saw a group of Mexican customers leaving very satisfied, so we knew we had a found a legitimate place to eat. Walking in, you were definitely not impressed with the decor, but in my father's mind, that fact actually validated that the food must be very good.

We were seated right away by a highly energetic young server. He was super friendly and helpful. Whenever we go to an ethnic restaurant (if you can call Mexican food ethnic), my father always likes to ask the server if there's anything he recommends. Most of the time, you get a bland non-committal response like, "Well if you like beef, you should get the beef..." Thanks, James Beard.

But our server was confident and suggested the Chilaquiles (corn tortilla chips with a tomato serrano pepper sauce) which my mother ordered. My father went with the Google Reviewers and ordered Tacos Alambre (flour shells with sauteed steak, pork loin, bacon, onions and poblano peppers). Now we waited for our delicious entrees were being prepared.

But no Mexican meal would be complete without the appropriate beverages to wash down the refried beans. So we ordered a frozen margarita (pre-made) and a michelada (a concoction of Mexican beer, lime juice and spices) to start. While the margarita was just OK, the michelada was just awesome and massive. Guess everything is bigger down in Texas.

After some complimentary tortilla chips and homemade salsa (very spicy!), we were ready for our main course.

As we were happy to find out, Guajillo's was more authentic Mexican food (think Chipotle), not the Americanized Tex-Mex (think Taco Bell) that has become popular in the U.S. Definitely no chalupas on this menu.

I have to warn you in case you come here, everything we had was pretty spicy, but the visual of my father's brow sweating profusely only added to the experience.