Hubby and I had a quick lunch at the new Broad Ripple place
La Chinita Poblana the other day—I have been noticing a lot of people talking
about it online and wanted to give it a try. It is in the old Boogie Burger
location (and I think there was another restaurant there for like 5 minutes in
between). They have opened up the space
inside. It seems roomier, although there is nowhere to sit inside, you can only
stand. Currently, you can sit at the
patio tables next door, but I am wondering how their lunch business will be
after the weather gets cold (if it ever gets cold again). The man at the counter (assuming he was the
owner) was really nice and clearly enthusiastic about his food. I asked him
which were his favorites and he told me that would be like choosing between his
children.
The tacos were good though—really good on the whole (they’re
all $3 each). We shared the crispy shrimp taco, the tilapia taco, the carnitas,
and the beef tongue. We also got an
order of chips and salsa ($2.99). I love all the different flavors they are
putting into the tacos—they aren’t just Mexican flavors—there is a lot of Asian
influences as well. At first when I read
the menu, I was a little suspicious of the combos, but generally they are
pulling it off.
The chips and salsa were really good—the chips are homemade
and are nicely salty. The problem with
homemade chips is that they are often too greasy (see Pancho’s)
but these were not. Nice and crisp and
the salsa was delicious. Hubby said it
was more of a “sauce” than a salsa and I think I agree. It was pureed very smooth but had a ton of
flavor and some different spices than a lot of salsas have. It had a very
pleasant building heat—by the end you could feel it on your lips, but you
weren’t in pain or anything. The portion
is a reasonable size for two people to share. Usually they give you way too
much, but we ate all of these.
Our favorite taco of the four was the tilapia taco. It was blacked fish with yellow curry and
chipotle mayo, pickled cabbage slaw and herbs.
The cabbage was really nice and tangy, but you got a bit of depth and
smokiness from the chipotle too. I also
like that they just use one tortilla on the tacos—sometimes the doubled up
tortillas make the flavor too much of the tortilla and not enough of the
insides. I would get this one again for
sure (hubby and I have decided we might each have to have our own of this
flavor).
The next favorite was the carnitas. Hubby and first disagreed about it because
the pork had a lot of crunchy bits to it—he wasn’t so sure he liked it that
way, but I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t
dried out—just fried a little crispy on the edges. It was topped with avocado cream, onions and
herbs. We also had one of the fried
shrimp tacos—the shrimp were done in a salt and pepper crust (it was a dry corn
meal kind of crust) and then topped with a chipotle sweet and sour sauce and an
herb mixture. The shrimp themselves
didn’t wow me here—they were a little dry—but I really liked the flavors of
everything else. You could taste that
smoky and deeply spicy chipotle and then there was a really nice tangy
kick. I added a little more of the salsa
from the chips to moisten the whole thing up a little more (hot sauce may work
well here too) and it was better.
My least favorite by far was the tongue. The tongue itself was cooked well—it was very
tender, but the taco on the whole was really bland. It also had the avocado cream, onions and
herbs, but there was just nothing that made this one stand out at all. More salsa and hot sauce would probably help
some, but with all the other delicious options, I would take a pass on this
one. In fact, we didn’t even finish it
between the two of us.
Honestly though, I am really excited to go back—I want my
own tilapia taco and I am kind of itching to try a couple of the other
flavors—maybe the red curry marinated skirt steak or the crispy Japanese
eggplant (please let me know if you have had them). Also, a friend recently told me the peanut/noodle
salad ($5.25) was really good as well.
Nothing like some tacos and noodles right?
La Chinita
Poblana
927 East
Westfield Blvd.
Indy 46220
317/722-8108
