El Gato Negro

After my one and only previous meal at El Gato Negro, I left the restaurant without much of a reason to return. But if Ray Nagin has taught us anything, it's that everyone deserves a second chance. (Wait... that doesn't sound right...) Besides, according to the First Lady of Blackened Out, Lindsay, I didn't "order right" on my first visit.

So I went back a second time, and a third. Each meal a bit better than the previous one, but neither elevating my opinion of the restaurant to a higher level on the Blackened Out rating scale.

Fajitas (above) are served with a melange of multi-colored peppers, tomato, onion, mushrooms, garlic, and whole green onions dressed with a flavorful marinade and grilled on the flat top. Thin, long, wide cuts of filet mignon are served in large portions with rice, beans, sour cream, guacamole, and pico de gallo. At around $19, the portion is large enough to split two ways and is probably the best value on the menu.

Enchiladas are stuffed with a fair amount of chopped chicken or shrimp and covered with a heavy hand of cheese, but the sweet oregano salsa served on the side just isn't my bag. Same goes for the tomatillo and habanero salsas included in the sampler, and the gloppy and greasy consistency of the queso fundido is (to put it lightly) unappetizing.

My favorite item on the menu is the chorizo taco, whose flour tortilla can barely be wrapped around the overflowing amount of spicy ground pork. But here is my main grind against El Gato Negro. I can handle $3.75 per taco, especially because the ingredients are fresh and the portion size ample. But $1.25 each to add guacamole or sour cream to one taco? If you want salsa, it's an extra $0.75 per taco. With all of the nickel and diming, one taco with all of the above fixings will run you $7.00 altogether.

No doubt that the margaritas are excellent, but you pay for it: $11.75 for a top shelf version. The house orange and lime concoction is superb in simplicity, but other offbeat flavors are worth sampling, such as refreshing and herbacious combination of pineapple, cilantro, and lime. The only issue is that the chunks of fresh fruit proved to be a problem when sipping through a straw.

I know, my complaints may seem contradictory. Fresh ingredients cost more, and it's not surprising for the restaurant to pass the premium along to the customer. But $1.25 for a dollop of sour cream on a single taco? $9.75 for the guacamole appetizer? This is the French Quarter, but still.

El Gato Negro - Par

The Black Cat (a la Mexicana)

The Folk Singer was in the mood for Mexican the other day, and because we also wanted to walk around the Quarter, we decided to try El Gato Negro. We started the meal with a complimentary order of chips (which sadly were not fried in house) and a roasted tomato salsa that was very flavorful.

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But I have to say that the salsa was the probably the high point of the meal. The queso mixed with chorizo lacked the smooth consistency which makes for easy dipping. TFS ordered tamales (below) which, though cooked properly and jammed full of pork, were remiss of any depth of flavor or spice which I consider the hallmark of Mexican cuisine.

I had the enchiladas, which had more spice than the tamales, but still left me wanting more heat. Another strange part of the meal was the "sweet oregano salsa" (as explained by the manager) which accompanied our entrees. This thin, cold salsa did not pair well with either the enchiladas or the tamales.

Overall, the meal was no bad, but not great. For now, there is still no longer any reason to drive down Esplanade for Mexican. Though that might soon change because I heard a rumor that the original owner of Santa Fe may be reopening once again in his former location in the Marigny. Stay tuned for more details.