REVIEW: PALENQUE COCINA MEXICANA

Last night, after receiving several requests to write a review on this restaurant I finally gave Palenque Cocina Mexicana a shot. It was a pleasant surprise.

Palenque is located right next to Gatsby's Diner at 2598 Alta Arden Expressway, Suite #1.

When I first walked in the first thing I noticed was how clean the place was. The walls were painted "tequila sunrise" orange & the floors were spotless. I walked up to the counter to place my order. Do you have Steak Tacos I asked? "Yes we do" the man behind the counter responded. I said OK then, I need two steak tacos, a side of rice & some sour cream. I was told that they had a special on beers for $2.50 a bottle. I decided on a diet Coke instead.

It appeared that Palenque was a family owned business. The staff was very polite & courteous. They were happy to see me & asked how I had heard about their place. I told them that I had read about it on the Internet. The man behind the counter said that there were reviews on Yelp.com & he was interested in reading anything else posted on the Internet about the restaurant.

Little did he know that he had the editor of Sacramento Blog Uncut standing right in front of him. He had no idea that I was going to review his restaurant & post it on the Internet for the entire world to see.

This is what I like about being a blogger.

With my order placed, I took a seat at a small table and was offered some chips & salsa. As I waited for my food I kept looking over the little restaurant. It was a nice clean place to eat. The vibe was casual.

After a few minutes of enjoying my chips & fireball salsa my food was brought out to me. The tacos were "street style" in other words they were small. Put it to you this way, picture the base of a 40 oz beer bottle. That was the size of the tortilla.

In all honesty, I was expecting bigger tacos. But you know what? It really didn't matter. This was probably the best taco I have ever tasted! It wasn't a nasty mess. There was no grease, cheese or hot sauce dripping all over the place. It was just grilled steak, with onions & cilantro. I added a little sour cream to the mix & it was just perfect. The rice was pretty good. I munched out & quenched my thirst with my diet coke.

One of the staff came out to see how I liked the meal and wanted to know if I wanted more chips & salsa. I told her the food was excellent!

Palenque Cocina Mexicana has a decent selection of Tacos, Burritos, Tostadas & Fajitas. Everything on the menu is affordable.

In closing, it was an excellent meal at a good price. The food was fresh & well prepared. The staff was great. What more can you ask for?

The total for my meal was $8.20.

When I was leaving, I walked up to the counter, put a couple of bucks in the tip jar & thanked the staff for an excellent meal.

Will I go back to Palenque Cocina Mexicana? Oh yes, I will be going back!

I give Palenque 3 3/4 stars out of 4 stars.

***