Antojitos Mexcanos is the latest of a series of Mexican restaurants at this location (349 Maple Place; previously there was Diego’s, and before that El Pollo y La Oaxaqueno). The menu for Antojitos Mexicanos is much less ambitious than the previous restaurants–there are only four platters, and the menu is basically (a limited variety of) tacos, burritos, tortas, tamales, and so on.
However, they do have a few things I have not seen elsewhere. For example, I had a quesadilla with huitlacoche ($4.50). What is huitlacoche? The menu translated it as “corn smut”, which sounded highly unlikely, but no, it really is corn smut. Yes, that’s right, the main ingredient is a plant disease. More specifically, it is a fungus, and mushrooms are also fungi, so it is not really that strange, and was actually pretty good.
They also offer a side dish of grilled nopales y cebollitos ($7), both of which I love. Two pads and a half dozen spring onions are $7. (For whatever reason, the prices for some of the items are not on the menu.)
Mark had a burrito enchilada ($7), which was large, but the stuffing includes rice, which I do not like. The green salsa was very good, though, and it came with a fairly large side salad, as well as radish slices and lime wedges.
We also shared a large mango shake ($5)–and by large, I mean a quart-sized mango shake.
The biggest problem was that it was incredibly slow. The quesadilla came out first and was finished before anything else arrived. The side dish came out next, without flatware, and there was a fair gap before the burrito arrived and finally the shake. There seemed to be only two people working, and one apologized for the slowness, saying that there are normally two cooks, but the other cook had not shown up today. Whether this is a common problem remains to be seen.
(I wanted posole, which is on the menu, but available only on weekends, which information is not. Oh, and no diet soda.)
