Los Jarochos Mexican Grill

Update 11/18/12: Los Jarochos is closed.

In a word: Why? Why?

The specs: #0725  
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; reviews at Wisconsin State Journal, The McFarland Thistle, Menuism, Trip Advisor; Facebook, official web site,

Latest Los Jarochos Mexican Grill news and reviews

JM ate the #10 dinner with a chimi, a burrito, and two chicken fingers with a lemonade.
Nichole ate three tacos (arrachera, grilled seafood, and fish) with an horchata.
We split some queso fundido con chorizo.
The bill was $26, or $13/person, plus tip (thanks, Groupon!).
JM and Nichole gave Los Jarochos Mexican Grill a C+ (see our grading rubric).

We don't get it. We wanted to like it.

The salsa was like watery Campbell's tomato soup plus seeds, and the chips were deep-fried flour tortilla strips. The horchata wasn't, having zero fat content and the flavor of a melted Bomb Pop. But the queso fundido with sausage was hot, greasy, simple goodness.

Having looked up "jarochos" before heading out, we learned that it refers to residents of Veracruz, an area of Mexico renowned for tasty seafood. So that's one thing we tried. The tacos were decent. All came with cilantro and diced, sauteed-in-something-heavy onions but the tortillas were sort of mealy. The grilled seafood tacos featured octopus, shrimp and calamari. The fish taco was filled with chopped, unbreaded tilapia. The tender, well-seasoned arrachera (beef skirt steak) was probably the best of the bunch.

Dinner #10 (burrito, chimi, breaded chicken tenders, beans and rice) had smoky, pureed black beans, and red rice with peas. Also two chicken tenders. Parts of the plate were tasty, but most of it was a little warmed over.  It was hard to determine how filled the burrito was, even while eating it, and the chimi came out a little small. Did we mention chicken tenders?

Los Jarochos has sincere, good service, a flashy website and a deep menu, but we're not prepared to kiss all the frogs to find a prince.

Comments

[catwoman5]

I actually kinda liked this place. I can't remember which entree I got, or what I thought of it (which leads me to believe it must have been kind of average), but the queso fundido with sausage was pretty good. The interior of the place was very nice, I thought - minimalist but very clean. And the staff was super nice- we left a big tip. I'd go back.