Juanito's- Homemade Mexican Eats

Another great place for Mexican food.

It was about noon and it was feedin’ time. My belly was grumblin’ so I moseyed on down to Juanito’s.  The murals and potted plants have an ‘out on the terrace’ theme. There is ample seating  and clean bathrooms which is always a nice bonus.

The service has never been bad. I see the same young waitresses on every visit. They are always willing to help and are quick to give suggestions and share their own personal favorites from the menu. I’ve never ordered the shrimp but I hear that they are giant and grilled to perfection. There is actually a lot of shrimp on the menu and my waitress tells me that its a best seller and local favorite.

The chips and salsa get a solid thumbs up. My meal came out very quick and was piping hot. I was writing notes and had some questions, my usual questions…

“Do you make your own salsa here?”

“Yes, everything is homemade”

“Everything, everything?”

“Every single thing is made from scratch”

“Even the tortillas?”

“We don’t make the tortillas here because we just don’t have the time.”

(HA! I knew it was too good to be true!)

“We drive them from La Espiga De Oro in Clovis, they make them from scratch there.”

(Damn, they are serious.)

Of course every meal comes with FREE all you can eat chips and salsa.

The salsa is made fresh and tastes uh-mazing!

Great cheese enchiladas! (I love me some cheese enchiladas)

I browsed the beverages and was told they didn’t have horchata. I was curious about something referred to as a ‘wine margarita’. Since Juanito’s can’t serve liquor they opted to substitute the hard stuff for wine. Interesting. I had to try one! It came out looking like a regular margarita. It’d be able to fool me for the real thing if I wasn’t actually drinking it. Salt rim, cactus glass, murky yellow, ice cold  and delicious looking… It had thus far all of the familiar symptoms. In the first sip I immediately noticed it was missing that tequila bite that makes a margarita the coveted summer refresher that I know and love, but, it wasn’t bad. Its better than nothing! Its also only a couple bucks. It may not be for everyone but I suggest you try it at least once.

Different but not terrible. Try a ‘wine margarita’ since they can’t serve the hard stuff.

 Don’t forget to leave some room for your complimentary sopapilla with honey. Just like the chips- it comes FREE with every meal.

All in all, this is another good Mexican place to go if you are burnt out on your usual dives. Its got a lot of freebees and great service. I’d give it a thumbs up. Not a crazy enthusiastic one, but, they still get one.