El Molcajete Mexican Restaurante and Bar

Reviews about El Molcajete Mexican Restaurante and Bar

• 4 / 5

  By Robert Gaida
  My, what an interesting little place this is. The walls are filled with Mexico-themed optical illusion-style pictures like the one shown. Lots of skulls and Day of the Dead stuff. So, I immediately like this place.
  
  Let’s talk about the menu. It is large, and replete with Mexican-sounding dishes, as you might expect from a restaurant named El Molcajete. But, more specifically, let’s talk about the Token White Guy hiding in the middle of the menu at #50. The Token White Guy is Jerry, and let’s face it, Jerry does not sound very spicy.
  
  Surprise! Jerry is not who you think he is, and #50, Jerry’s Special, turns out to be what is surely the hottest thing on the menu, especially after your brain is good and addled by the surrounding optical illusions and you find yourself answering, in a confused stupor, the question, “On a heat scale from 1 to 10, which would you like?” with, “Let’s try 10!”
  
  Happily, it was Happy Hour. Margaritas, I was told, could be ordered either Small or Medium. Not sure where Large went, but it’s probably a good thing, since based on the size of the Medium I ordered I would have received a container the size of a pony keg, perhaps wheeled out and set on the floor beside me, and consumed via tapper. The Medium, it turns out, is a beer mug. I don’t mean a 12-oz mug, I mean the one where when you order a beer and they ask if you want a small one or a big one and your first thought is of course I want the big one but then you start having second thoughts and wonder whether it’s wise to drink that much beer and then drive home but you order the large anyway. I had two of those, and they were not only delicious, but absolutely necessary to provide the cooling and numbing effect upon the area of concentrated, localized pain and swelling that used to be my mouth before I started eating the Level 10 Jerry’s Special.
  
  I spent much of the meal sniffling and wishing I had brought a box or two of tissue. I fear the other patrons thought I had some sort of terrible contagion. Nope, just the Jerry’s Special.
  
  I ate half.
  
  I would add for the benefit of any other foolhardy 10-talkers that the leftovers are probably at about a 7 on the heat scale. Which is probably what I’ll order (a 7, that is) when I return, which will definitely happen.
  December 30, 2016