Dave’s View: I should have been drunk before I went to La Chinita Poblana in Broad Ripple. I might have enjoyed the food better. Maybe it was the time of day. It was about one o’clock in the afternoon and the day was bitterly cold. Andrea and I were walking incredibly fast to get inside the yellow building, which is La Chinita Poblana. Inside the place, the walls are just as bright as the outside of the building. An array of light neon rainbow colors adorn the walls followed by countertops. Countertops you say? Yep, no chairs. You order your food and eat at the counter standing. No problem. The voice in my head goes like this: “If I was just drunk, I wouldn’t mind this at all. I need to stand so I can get some of the alcohol out of my system.” But that wasn’t the case, I was cold and I was hungry.
I ordered the Beef Tongue and Chicken Taco and Andrea and I shared a side of guacamole and chips. Let’s talk about the guacamole and chips. The guacamole was fresh, but lacked any “kick” to it and the chips were hard and borderline stale. Again, the voice in my head, “If I was drunk, I wouldn’t care.” I proceed to the tacos. The first one being the Beef Tongue Taco. Actually, I enjoyed the Beef Tongue. It was a bit heavy on the cilantro, but I could easily taste everything and the portions evenly balanced out the cilantro. Beef Tongue has the meatiness you expect in any cut of meat, but there is a taste of earthiness that is accompanied with it. Nice and tender and it delivered well.
Now to the second taco. The Chicken Taco. Way too much going on here. I couldn’t taste anything. All of the mint, basil, onions, and chicken were just a conglomeration that didn’t bode well. It’s like they took the ingredients and mixed them too well. Just like when you’re mixing oil paints, if you over mix, you get brown. Again, the voice in my head, “If I was drunk, eating this taco, my taco goggles (AKA beer goggles) would be saying, you’re good-looking taco, yes you are.” The next day I would be saying, “What have I’ve done?”
Generally, if you’re in the Broad Ripple area and you’ve had a hard night of clubbing, this place is for you. I really want this place to succeed because they take risks with their food and you’re probably saying to yourself, “Dave, you didn’t give them a glowing review here?” Well, you’re right. I like restaurants that take risks. I just think that some of their food needs to be tweaked in order to be successful and hopefully the voice in my head will be: ” I don’t need to be drunk to go to this place. The food is damn good!”
Service: 7 Food: 7 Ambiance: 8.5 Total: 22.5 out of 30
$20-$30 without adult beverages. They do not serve adult beverages.
Andrea’s View: As I may have mentioned in previous blog posts, I am obsessed with tacos. So imagine my excitement when Dave and I decided to visit La Chinita Poblana, a fusion taqueria, in Broad Ripple. What is a fusion taqueria you might ask? Your guess is as good as mine. The website claims that it’s Asian meets Mexican. Okay, sounds good to me.
This restaurant is super tiny, even by foodadventure standards, and even though it is brightly painted, we drove right by it. I was even amused by the fact that this place has no seats. You literally walk up to the counter and order your food, and then stand at a counter that wraps around the entire place. Dave and I shared guacamole and chips, and I ordered the red braised pork taco and the tilapia taco. The chips and guacamole were good, and I kind of liked my pork taco. It was pretty messy to eat, it had a lot of unidentifiable sauce on top of the pork and it was overall quite greasy. The tilapia taco on the other hand, I did not enjoy at all. It was not the restaurant’s fault. The tilapia was well cooked, but it too had an unidentifiable sauce poured on top that I am only assuming was some sort of sour cream or creme fresh. I have an aversion to sour cream and my whole body revolts against it the moment I eat it and this was no exception. I could only take one bite. Again, it’s not the restaurant’s fault, it’s just an “Andrea” thing.
All in all, this isn’t a bad place, it’s just not a taqueria that I will frequent often. If ever. I prefer my tacos to be simple, with no sauce on it, unidentifiable or not. I love Asian food and I love Mexican food, I just don’t think I care for them fused together.
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