El Mictlan Restaurant — Restaurant in Philadelphia

a year or 2 ago I left a 5 star review without any description, but I love this place so much I have to say more - and I have a lot to say. it's actually my favorite restaurant in the city. I've been going to this restaurant semi regularly for the past 2 years, both dine in and takeout, and I have never gotten a bad dish. some weren't my favorite, but it's just a personal preference thing - not an issue with quality or preparation. my absolute favorite dishes are the shrimp tacos and the spicy camohtli. shrimp can be tricky to cook perfectly, but I've ordered those tacos dozens of times at this point and every single time it's perfect. the spicy camohtli has a perfect blend of flavors and textures. if you're sensitive to the spice I'm sure you can request them without the chili pepper. I genuinely don't know how they keep the potatoes so crispy even with the amount of sauce on them. if you're quite hungry and on a budget I'd recommend the chicken enchiladas. in my opinion it's the best value for your money and is also delicious. I want to take a minute to comment on the 3 star review I saw, referencing poor service and issues with the food. I have literally never had a problem here. I've been here so many times over the years and the staff has ALWAYS been incredibly kind and accommodating. that person must have caught them on a bad day and there was an issue with adding modifications to the online ordering system they used. I also don't understand why someone cared so much that the enchiladas didn't come with rice and beans for it to affect their review. even iwhen I'm real hungry I'm stuffed from the portion size (4 enchiladas). rice and beans on top of that would be an unnecessary amount of food, and they'd have to raise the price of a relatively affordable item. it also wouldn't match the vibe of their menu. if you want that much food just order the rice and beans on the side! another person said the quesabirria tacos had too much cheese for their taste. it has quesa in the name! I've had them before and they're great, I just like other options more. I thought they could use a bit more flavor, but not in a bad way. I wouldn't want them to change it based on my opinion, and I recognize it could hide some of the subtleties that are important to the dish. but yeah, if you want tacos without a lot of cheese there's obviously so many other actual tacos that aren't a quesadilla hybrid. I truly can't recommend this place enough. the decor feels welcoming and makes you feel at home. the staff are amazing. most importantly, I have great respect for the chef in this neighborhood joint. you can tell they put a lot of thought and effort to both the curation of the menu and also the textures and balance of flavors in each of the dishes. it's the perfect blend of traditional dishes and more modern offerings that are influenced by other cultures. if they ever close I would cry more than I did when my dog died. I'm not even engaged, but I'm already imagining my wedding being catered by them (idek if...

I wanted to give this place five stars but some atmosphere issues definitely affected the experience, and so are worth mentioning. I’ll start with the food though.

I came here for dinner and tried a variety of dishes with my party. We started off with chips & guacamole. The chips were good, and the guacamole was very tasty as well, fresh & spicy. The Burrata Cactus Salad was unusual but very creamy, tasty and useful for balancing the spiciness of other dishes. We tried the Tacos de Bistec which were really good. The steak was pretty tender and the red pepper sauce that goes with them is quite spicy. For an entrée, I had the Chile de Nogada which was unusual, amazing and for a limited time, so I hope they bring it back eventually. It’s a roasted poblano stuffed with picadillo that includes pineapple and I forget what was in the sauce on top (walnuts?) but it had a light creaminess to it that was lovely. I also tried a Tortolita Tostada which was very tasty as well, with the same steak as the taco. The kitchen took care to serve it raised on a bed of dry blue corn kernels to prevent the tostada from losing its crisp. Then for dessert I tried Jericalla which is a light custard similar to crème brûlée and was very tasty.

The service was good, the server did his best to quickly provide for everyone’s needs and he seemed to do his best to rectify the issue with the air conditioning that came up, but the issue was not rectified.

This leads into the atmosphere. The decor lends itself to a comfortable vibe but the air conditioning blasting cold moving air at me was incredibly uncomfortable. When I asked the server to change the direction of the air flow (which should be possible on their minisplit unit), he only turned the temperature up which didn’t solve the issue of it blowing on me. I asked again and he just turned it off. The room remained comfortable at first but then it got too hot. At this point it was time to go though. Ideally for the future, the restaurant will figure out how to balance these extremes of temperature so the dining experience can be...

This place is a cute little restaurant located on the corner in South Philly. There’s street parking available. It’s also BYOB! I think it slipped my mind but I would’ve definitely brought some alcohol! However, their margarita mix did just the trick as well. I went here with a group on a hot Saturday day and we were seated immediately. I 100% recommend the elote. It was so good. The margarita mix with tamarind juice was so good as well. That hint of tajin chili/lime seasoning gave it that little kick! The bang bang fried shrimp is to die for! The pollo tacos I didn’t get to try, but they looked great. Quesabirria tacos were so good as well as the sauce. The Tinga empanadas - I also didn’t try but it looked appetizing. The guacamole and queso fundido were soooooo goooood! They were hot and we may have mixed them together for that zesty flavor. I also like that they offered bottled water. Overall, the price wasn’t bad and the food was actually really good. I would definitely come back here because the prices were decent for the food that we had and they were good portion sizes that we didn’t feel bloated afterwards. This was a great place and I would recommend it to anyone who loves trying out new foods! I also liked that it was family owned and our waitress was friendly as well....