A La Brasa Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Madison

Please note, as of September 2013, A La Brasa Latin Cuisine is under new ownership and has switched their menu to Mexican cuisine, with a focus on the foods from the Mexican state of Puebla. The restaurant still offers a full bar, including Mexican tequilas and the standard cervezas of Corona and Modelo.

The menu has changed to a variety of standard Mexican dishes including tacos, burritos, sopes, quesadillas, huaraches and tamales. It also offers some more unusual dishes such as their Chicken a la brasa, mole poblano and pipian verde chicken (chicken with green sauce). Chicken strips and grilled cheese sandwiches are available for the little ones that my not be as adventurous. Prices are very reasonable as is to be expected.

There is a great variety of meats available for the dishes including beef, pastor (pork seasoned with chilies and pineapple) and chorizo. I have so far tried the steak and pasture tacos, steak burrito and chicken tamales.

The tacos arrived served on two corn tortillas each with a good helping of onions and cilantro and a side of mild salsa consisting of roasted tomatoes rather than the standard chopped uncooked tomatoes, onions and cilantro. The pastor taco was delicious. It was not overly seasoned and the taste of the pineapple was evident. The steak taco was even better. Once again, not overly seasoned, but enough to enhance the flavor of the sautéed steak rather than mask it. Both meats were cooked properly, neither under done nor dried out from too much time on the grill.

Likewise, the tamales were excellent. The masa in these were steamed to a very good consistency, neither mushy nor dried out. Tamales unfortunately tend to be on the bland sides. These were not as they were either flavored with a green sauce (salsa verde) or a red sauce (salsa rojo). The red sauce was the spicier of the two; both with an unexpected flavor for tamales.

The burrito was also very good. I am generally not a fan of burritos stuffed with rice and beans, the steak meat was of a much greater quantity than the plant food. The steak was the same flavor as the steak tacos and the rest of the mixture was pinto beans, rice, cilantro and onions. The tortilla was also heated on the grill, rather than steamed like in many other places, which added another layer of flavor.

A La Brasa is conveniently located on North Broom Street, between West Washington and Capitol Center Foods. While at times it could take a little bit of hunting, there is street parking available. The new owners are now also offering delivery service through a third party service. With the convenience of the location and reasonableness of the prices, it will become my “go to”...

A La Brasa serves up basic but unremarkable Mexican fare.

During my last visit, my server dropped off a basket of standard-grade corn chips and a bowl of pico de gallo. The chips were heavily salted and were nothing to write home about. The pico de gallo was excellent - it was loaded with fresh onions, cilantro and tomatoes along with a healthy dose of jalapenos. My only problem with it was the bowl was too small and every time we tried to use a chip to scoop some out, most of the contents ended up on the table. Because of this, we soon ran out of pico de gallo, but our server was too engrossed with a cell phone call to notice that we needed a refill.

After adjusting to the new menu, I decided about the beef version of the Cemita Poblana sandwich ($10). The sesame-encrusted bun was a disappointment; it had the texture of a hamburger bun from the local Piggly Wiggly. Also disappointing was the beef cutlet - too little beef and far too much of the greasy breading. I did enjoy the rest of the sandwich, which included loads of buttery oaxaca cheese, slightly sweet caramelized onions, spicy chipotle peppers and perfectly ripe avocados.

The $7 cheese quesadilla ordered by my daughter became a comedy of errors. She is a vegetarian and the first version of her cheese quesadilla was peppered with small chunks of chicken. We flagged down another server (our initial server was still busy on his cell phone) who apologized for the error and promised to make a cheese-only version. It came ten minutes later, but this time, the thick corn tortilla was a soggy mess. (I wonder if it sat on the counter too long, since the first quesadilla did not have this problem.) The replacement quesadilla also lacked a serving of the salsa verde that added some much needed zip to this dish. We again flagged down a server, and after another wait, we received the green salsa. By then the whole thing was getting cold - ugh. While my daughter did enjoy the melted oaxaca cheese, she stated she strongly preferred the $3 Los Gemelos version of this dish. With no sides, this dish was a poor value.

The interior of the restaurant was extremely clean, flooded with natural light and nicely decorated.

Overall, the negatives of my visit (spotty service, lackluster food) outweighed the positive (superb pico de gallo). With so many other great, local options for Mexican food, I doubt that I will be paying A La Brasa a...

Boy oh boy what an experience I had here.

Our server was either the manager or owner, and he was the only person working the front. He sat us quickly and took our orders shortly after. He was a perfectly nice dude.

The problems started early. Any Mexican restaurant worth its salt sets out fresh, warm tortilla chips and salsa. A La Brasa delivered...sort of. The tortilla chips were cold and stale. God knows how long they'd been sitting out. Salsa was good, but nothing special.

I got the 3 amigos combo. The al pastor taco was dry and flavorless. Just dreadful. No amount of green salsa could make up for it. The pork tamale was OK but had a very unpleasant, bitter/burnt aftertaste. Enchilada was genuinely tasty!

My boyfriend ordered a plate of nachos. Imagine our surprise when the nachos were made with the same cold, stale chips we had earlier. They didn't heat the nachos up. These folks slapped stale nachos on a plate and added toppings. I could make better nachos in the microwave.

Our server/manager didn't talk to us again after giving us our underwhelming meals. He sat at a table in the dining area on a phone call. It sounded like a business call, but I wasn't paying close attention.

The issue is the manager was the only person working who spoke English. I speak Spanish, so I didn't run into any communication issues, but more customers came in and the manager forced one of the kitchen workers to take their orders, even though she didn't speak English. I helped interpret - doing work for a manager who couldn't be bothered to support his own staff. He sat two feet away focused on his phone call, which I'm hoping was important, while I helped his poorly run restaurant. The woman from the kitchen was very sweet, and I felt bad that she had to work at such a train wreck of a restaurant. The manager needs to respect and uplift his staff - shameful.

And then my boyfriend spent the latter part of his day vomiting up those terrible nachos.

I saw a lot of reviewers claim this place has some of the best Mexican food in Madison. Either I caught A La Brasa on an off day, or this city is seriously lacking in Mexican food. I won't be returning...