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Fiesta Azteca
Jul. 12th, 2009 09:09 amIt is somewhat of a mystery to Femme de Joie as to why there are so many Mexican restaurants in the Redding area. A quick count in the Yellow Pages shows 33 establishments easily identifiable as serving Mexican food in the Redding-Anderson-Cottonwood area, not counting Taco Bell (there may be others disguised behind an nom de cuisine, such as the Giant Orange did). Mlle. de Joie does love her some Mexican food, but still, this seems excessive. Redding is almost completely bereft of, say, Middle Eastern food (save for the efforts of Downtown Market on Placer Street, where an incredibly dedicated woman serves up spanakopita and gyros to an appreciative lunchtime crowd). There is no soul food, no French food, no Eastern European food. The list goes on. In time these deficiences will presumably be addressed; in the interim, we make do with what we have.
Fiesta Azteca is one of the newer entries into this crowded field, opened five months ago in a space that has housed an infinite number of standard-order coffee shops. In the late 1960's The Jolly King Restaurant was a partner to the motel it shares a parking lot with, across Highway 44 from the then-new Civic Auditorium. It was presumably the hope of the City Fathers and promoters that this shiny motel/restaurant was where the endless cavalcade of performers at the Civic Auditorium would stay, and perhaps they did for a while (a newspaper interview at the time caught Jeannie C. Reilly sitting at the counter of the then-new restaurant). The parade of entertainers never really got started, and then Hilltop Drive was developed into what it is now, so when Tony Bennett and Mikhail Barishnikov had the presumable delight of performing at the now-Redding Convention Center, they stayed and dined elsewhere.
Mlle de Joie and her consort, Amico del Signore, recently visited Fiesta Azteca for dinner.
.
A complimentary dish of bean dip with pico de gallo.
.
Clockwise from left: refried beans, chile rellano, fish taco, Spanish rice, chicken enchilada.
.
.
Clockwise from left: ground beef taco, rice, ground beef enchilada, refried beans, chile rellano.
The interior is attractively painted in sharp orange, blue, and white, with black vinyl booths that run parallel to Park Marina. It's very clean: when we walked in the overwhelming smell was Pine-Sol - so much so that we walked a little further than necessary to get away from the disinfectant. We were seated promptly - there was only one other party in the place, a group of about eight - and handed menus. The menus are about 12" X 18", laminated with the menu on both sides, and are very colorful. They are also hard to read, not well organized, and difficult to follow).
The complimentary bean dip was good: assertive cotija cheese was sprinkled over and a scoop of pico de gallo gave the creamy-but-bland beans a nice contrast of piquancy. It went well with a draft Dos Equis and a tequila margarita on the rocks, which, if consumed on an empty stomach, will lower one's I.Q. a few points. Be warned - they mix a strong drink.
Our combination plates arrived on very large round platters, both of which had sizable chips on the rims. M. de Joie does not believe that germs lie in waiting on chipped plates, but she does believe it does not make a good impression to put a lot of effort into decorating a restaurant and then serve dinner on plates that should be thrown out.
The fish taco was delicious: a creamy chipotle sauce and finely shredded cabbage (not lettuce, as most fish tacos are tented with) covered deep-fried fish on a corn tortilla. Messy but the sauce was worth licking the plate for. The chicken enchilada was likewise good, jam-packed full of shredded dark-meat chicken - not the tasteless chicken breast many places use. It could have used a more flavorful enchilada sauce.
The ground beef filling was delicious and not overly greasy, and had a fresh taste that M. de Joie first thought was fennel or anise, but the waiter identified as cloves. This was not a Schilling spice mix; care had been taken to season the beef to enhance it, not overpower it with burning chiles or too much salt. Again, the enchilada sauce was lacking.
Our very helpful waiter advised us that the chile rellanos were stuffed with a mixture of mashed potato and cheese, which sounded interesting. Unfortunately, neither M. de Joie nor her consort particularly cared for the filling: it had a somewhat sour, off taste that may have come from whatever cheese was used, or perhaps the filling had passed its expiration date. It was a shame because Fiesta Azteca went to the trouble of using fresh pasilla chiles (which were definitely at the high end of the Scoville scale).
The salsa looked delicious but was sadly bland, tasting mainly of liquidy canned tomatoes. It needed a strong infusion of chiles, cilantro, and a good squeeze of lime. And the refried beans and rice that are ubiquitous to every combo plate were average at best.
Customer service was unflagging: we were asked approximately every two minutes if everything was all right.
Fiesta Azteca has a lot going for it - near downtown with lots of parking, eager-to-please staff, very clean premises, and reasonable prices. A surprising and disappointing blandness and unevenness in the kitchen will, we hope, be reconciled in time.
- Femme de Joie
NOTE: Fiesta Azteca is closed. Tortuga Bay Grill is in its place as of late 2011.
Fiesta Azteca, 1815 Park Marina Drive, Redding, CA 96001, 530-247-7268. Open seven days a week, 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM, breakfast, lunch and dinner. On-site parking. Full bar. No checks. Cash and credit cards. See website and menu at
http://www.fiestaaztecamex.com/
Fiesta Azteca is one of the newer entries into this crowded field, opened five months ago in a space that has housed an infinite number of standard-order coffee shops. In the late 1960's The Jolly King Restaurant was a partner to the motel it shares a parking lot with, across Highway 44 from the then-new Civic Auditorium. It was presumably the hope of the City Fathers and promoters that this shiny motel/restaurant was where the endless cavalcade of performers at the Civic Auditorium would stay, and perhaps they did for a while (a newspaper interview at the time caught Jeannie C. Reilly sitting at the counter of the then-new restaurant). The parade of entertainers never really got started, and then Hilltop Drive was developed into what it is now, so when Tony Bennett and Mikhail Barishnikov had the presumable delight of performing at the now-Redding Convention Center, they stayed and dined elsewhere.
Mlle de Joie and her consort, Amico del Signore, recently visited Fiesta Azteca for dinner.
.
A complimentary dish of bean dip with pico de gallo.
.
Clockwise from left: refried beans, chile rellano, fish taco, Spanish rice, chicken enchilada.
.
.
Clockwise from left: ground beef taco, rice, ground beef enchilada, refried beans, chile rellano.
The interior is attractively painted in sharp orange, blue, and white, with black vinyl booths that run parallel to Park Marina. It's very clean: when we walked in the overwhelming smell was Pine-Sol - so much so that we walked a little further than necessary to get away from the disinfectant. We were seated promptly - there was only one other party in the place, a group of about eight - and handed menus. The menus are about 12" X 18", laminated with the menu on both sides, and are very colorful. They are also hard to read, not well organized, and difficult to follow).
The complimentary bean dip was good: assertive cotija cheese was sprinkled over and a scoop of pico de gallo gave the creamy-but-bland beans a nice contrast of piquancy. It went well with a draft Dos Equis and a tequila margarita on the rocks, which, if consumed on an empty stomach, will lower one's I.Q. a few points. Be warned - they mix a strong drink.
Our combination plates arrived on very large round platters, both of which had sizable chips on the rims. M. de Joie does not believe that germs lie in waiting on chipped plates, but she does believe it does not make a good impression to put a lot of effort into decorating a restaurant and then serve dinner on plates that should be thrown out.
The fish taco was delicious: a creamy chipotle sauce and finely shredded cabbage (not lettuce, as most fish tacos are tented with) covered deep-fried fish on a corn tortilla. Messy but the sauce was worth licking the plate for. The chicken enchilada was likewise good, jam-packed full of shredded dark-meat chicken - not the tasteless chicken breast many places use. It could have used a more flavorful enchilada sauce.
The ground beef filling was delicious and not overly greasy, and had a fresh taste that M. de Joie first thought was fennel or anise, but the waiter identified as cloves. This was not a Schilling spice mix; care had been taken to season the beef to enhance it, not overpower it with burning chiles or too much salt. Again, the enchilada sauce was lacking.
Our very helpful waiter advised us that the chile rellanos were stuffed with a mixture of mashed potato and cheese, which sounded interesting. Unfortunately, neither M. de Joie nor her consort particularly cared for the filling: it had a somewhat sour, off taste that may have come from whatever cheese was used, or perhaps the filling had passed its expiration date. It was a shame because Fiesta Azteca went to the trouble of using fresh pasilla chiles (which were definitely at the high end of the Scoville scale).
The salsa looked delicious but was sadly bland, tasting mainly of liquidy canned tomatoes. It needed a strong infusion of chiles, cilantro, and a good squeeze of lime. And the refried beans and rice that are ubiquitous to every combo plate were average at best.
Customer service was unflagging: we were asked approximately every two minutes if everything was all right.
Fiesta Azteca has a lot going for it - near downtown with lots of parking, eager-to-please staff, very clean premises, and reasonable prices. A surprising and disappointing blandness and unevenness in the kitchen will, we hope, be reconciled in time.
- Femme de Joie
NOTE: Fiesta Azteca is closed. Tortuga Bay Grill is in its place as of late 2011.
Fiesta Azteca, 1815 Park Marina Drive, Redding, CA 96001, 530-247-7268. Open seven days a week, 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM, breakfast, lunch and dinner. On-site parking. Full bar. No checks. Cash and credit cards. See website and menu at
http://www.fiestaaztecamex.com/
