Trying New Restaurants: Mezcal
Apr. 5th, 2023 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerI've started a series recently about trying new restaurants in the area. It stems from our New Years-ish resolution to try new restaurants & revisit old ones we haven't been to in almost forever. Already I've written about a few in the "revisit" category. Now it's time for one that's genuinely, completely new to us!
Mezcal is a Mexican/Oaxacan restaurant in downtown San Jose. We don't go to downtown SJ a lot. In fact we almost never go. There's... not exactly a lot there that's a draw. But part of exploring new restaurants is exploring new or rarely visited places.
The restaurant is sort of like an overgrown cantina/bar. There are a few small-ish tables in the bar area then a bunch more tables in a semi-outdoors area next door. The evening we visited was a bit chilly outside. The dining area was only tolerable because we sat next to a heat lamp and brought sweaters because we expected it would be cool at night. I could see it being more fun on a warm summer evening.
As a restaurant that specializes in regional dishes from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca (pronounced Wah-HA-ka, if you're curious) Mezcal is a bit different from the northern Mexican and Mexican-American styles of cuisine served at most Mexican restaurants in the US. With Oaxacan style cuisine they have a few different takes on mole. I like mole so it was fun to sample different types.
The food at Mezcal was solidly good. Prices seemed too high, though. Food was a notch too expensive for the area, and alcohol was, like, two notches overpriced. I chose not to sweat the prices in the moment and instead focused on enjoying my meal and drinks. But in the overall analysis I would not go back as I felt it was more expensive than it was worth. And it's in downtown SJ, which seems like a fuss to get to just for dinner— even though the city is generally deadsville after 7 on weeknights and all day on weekends.
Mezcal is a Mexican/Oaxacan restaurant in downtown San Jose. We don't go to downtown SJ a lot. In fact we almost never go. There's... not exactly a lot there that's a draw. But part of exploring new restaurants is exploring new or rarely visited places.
The restaurant is sort of like an overgrown cantina/bar. There are a few small-ish tables in the bar area then a bunch more tables in a semi-outdoors area next door. The evening we visited was a bit chilly outside. The dining area was only tolerable because we sat next to a heat lamp and brought sweaters because we expected it would be cool at night. I could see it being more fun on a warm summer evening.
As a restaurant that specializes in regional dishes from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca (pronounced Wah-HA-ka, if you're curious) Mezcal is a bit different from the northern Mexican and Mexican-American styles of cuisine served at most Mexican restaurants in the US. With Oaxacan style cuisine they have a few different takes on mole. I like mole so it was fun to sample different types.
The food at Mezcal was solidly good. Prices seemed too high, though. Food was a notch too expensive for the area, and alcohol was, like, two notches overpriced. I chose not to sweat the prices in the moment and instead focused on enjoying my meal and drinks. But in the overall analysis I would not go back as I felt it was more expensive than it was worth. And it's in downtown SJ, which seems like a fuss to get to just for dinner— even though the city is generally deadsville after 7 on weeknights and all day on weekends.
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Date: 2023-04-06 09:42 am (UTC)Usually we get an order of it to-go, and both have it for dinner and then both have it for lunch the next day. And sometimes for a snack later that day. It's a lot of food.
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Date: 2023-04-06 02:26 pm (UTC)