Lauriol Plaza

Posted by Edmund in Featured Articles, Mexican, Restaurants, Washington, DC | 0 comments

Nov 29, 10

Cuisine: Mexican.
Location: 1835 18th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20009-5526.
Price: Entrees range $9.50-$17.50.

Coming from LA, I’m loco for Mexican food. Thus, as soon as I came to DC for school, I began looking around for something that could compare to LA’s Mexican scene. After a full four years of searching, I think I may have finally found my Mexican fix in Lauriol Plaza.

Lauriol Plaza is the undisputed king of DC Mexican dining. Located right between Dupont and Adams Morgan, it’s one of the largest and loudest places you’ll see in DC, crowded with what seems like literally a mob of diners every single day. In fact, it’s probably the single most crowded restaurant I’ve ever seen in my life—and that’s no understatement.

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I’ll put it into perspective with my own experience. I went at 6 pm on a Saturday—the most crowded day, mind you, but still rather early. Even so, I had to wait in a 5 minute line just to give my name to the hostess, after which I was quickly notified that I’d have to wait about an hour and thirty minutes. An hour and thirty minutes for Mexican food? That’s no joke.

There’s no way to beat the rush, either, because Lauriol Plaza is crowded at every hour of the day, only worsening as the night draws on. By the time I left (about 8:30 pm), the line was nearly twice as long, overflowing out the door.

It’s all the more shocking because Lauriol is colossal. When they say plaza, they really do mean plaza. This behemoth of a building spans three full stories, with two large bars on the bottom and the top. And yet you’ll be lucky if you can even move around here, given how crowded it is.

Still, it’s worth the wait for two big reasons—the food and the value. Really, what more reason do you need to dine here? The dishes may not astound with their creativity, since you’re just getting the basics, i.e. what you’d get at any typical Mexican joint in America. What astounds, though, is not so much the concept of the dishes, but rather how well executed they are, to the point that I’d say the food easily surpasses what I can get at most places in Los Angeles.

This is, in fact, some of the freshest Mexican food I’ve eaten in years. The tortillas, for example, are wrapped in a napkin just to keep the steam inside so that when you finally do open them, they’re perfectly hot. The meats are all marinated for what seems like hours, considering how tender and succulent they all are. The guacamole tastes like it’s been mashed right before the order (and it has those delicious chunks of avocado in there for a bold avocado taste). The hot sauce for the chips has a slight BBQ tang that makes it irresistible. Best of all, regardless of what you order, you’re almost sure to find it delicious. For a Mexican restaurant that serves so many dishes, I was surprised that I couldn’t really find complaints with just about anything I ate, not even the tortilla chips (though the tamale might be the sole exception).

Now, you’d think that for Mexican food that good, you’d end up paying an arm and a leg, right? But not here. Remember, this is a three-story-high restaurant serving up traditional Mexican fare to normal people. And that’s what you should expect—just a normal, cheap Mexican place with a very down-to-earth, consumer-friendly, and even low-brow eating environment. You get unlimited tortillas and chips, huge dishes, and most importantly, a price that beats out even most of the normally priced Mexican restaurants. Still, it’s not the fact that you get such huge dishes that you’ll end up thinking you got such a good value, but rather that everything is so well-prepared even though the prices are so low.

By now, you’d probably think I’d love to recommend this restaurant, and to an extent I would. Unfortunately, Lauriol has a few problems that keep it back from true greatness, which is a shame because this is probably some of the best Mexican food I’ve had in a long time, and the value just can’t be beaten.

The first of those problems is the service. You have to understand—this is a huge place, with so many people running around that you just can’t expect quick service. At this price point, that’s fine. But bad service has its limits, and Lauriol crossed the line beyond redemption. Normally, I don’t rant about service problems, but this one was just ridiculous, and it needs to be noted.

We were seated in a little three-person table at the very corner of the restaurant, blocked from sight by a pillar, so it was rather difficult for any of the waiters to see us. Needless to say, I got quite thirsty while eating all of my spicy dishes, and I kept on trying to get my waiter’s attention to get a refill. It’s understandable that it took quite a bit of time. What was really surprising, though, was that waiters did see that I was waving my hand and just about all of them ignored me. If I wasn’t their customer, they just didn’t give a damn and looked away. Once I finally got my waiter’s attention after waiting for about 10 minutes (during which time my food just kept on getting colder and colder), he nodded at me, signaling that he’d come. And yet, he then proceeded to turn around and move a table for another party that wasn’t even there. It was only when my friend asked another waiter for some water that our waiter rushed back and apologized. Regardless, after being neglected for 15 minutes, it’s hard to accept an apology.

The other main complaint is that the restaurant can get so crowded and so noisy that you won’t be able to hear yourself speak. On the one hand, it’s ideal for rambunctious groups or for huge family dinners, but it’s not the best place to enjoy an intimate evening or go on a date. Moreover, when a restaurant is this large, there’s always the possibility that there will be that one family that just annoys the whole restaurant, which is exactly what happened to me.

All in all, then, Lauriol Plaza is the rare exception to DC dining: phenomenal food and value, but just an overall horrible service and ambience that drag it down. I’m sure part of it was random chance, but if a restaurant prides itself as being the “best” of its kind, then it really should make sure that it acts like it, too.

What I had

1. Tortilla Chips (Not scored): These were quite amazing. They came out freshly baked and perfectly oily, to the point that they were practically transparent. They were on the thin-side, too, maximizing both the satisfying oiliness and the delicious crunch that you get. The salsa was also a knockout, falling somewhere between a mix of barbecue and salsa, with a good chunkiness.
2. Tortillas (Not scored): Another knockout. Like I said, the tortillas are wrapped (in sets of three) in napkins so as to keep the steam inside. So when you take them out you’re amazed by just how fresh they are. Also, they have a very slight thickness to them, which gives them a great chewiness and a slight heaviness that I find satisfying. And you get as many as you can eat—now that’s value!
3. Beef Quesadilla: This is the dish that I just couldn’t resist ordering—in fact, it seduced me after I laid eyes on it sitting on another table. For good reason, too, because this was delicious in all ways. The beef was in large, chewy, succulent chunks and was very well-marinated and well-peppered. The cheese, on the other, hand, was overflowing, stuffed in a gooey mess into the small tortillas. The ingredients were cut very small, making it easier to guarantee that every single slice had a ton of meat and cheese. Also nice was that the tortillas were slightly crisped on the outside, adding a good crunch and slight toastiness. 4.5/5.0
4. Cantina’s Superior: A combination of some of the best creations Lauriol has to offer, all served in a delicious, savory hot sauce.
   • Beef Taco al Carbon: You can’t get any simpler than this—just a soft tortilla filled with a whole slew of beef. The ingredients were right on, though. The tortilla was fluffy, warm, and it had a nice slight thickness that gave it an added chewiness I found satisfying. Even better, the beef was tender, marinated practically to perfection. It had a good slight redness on the inside, so it was overflowing with its natural juices and a very bold flavor. I also liked that it was well-seasoned/-spiced, though I’m sure it was mostly some pepper. 4.5/5.0
   • Chicken Tamale: This was the one slight disappointment, not because it was bad per se, but because it just didn’t live up to the standards of the other dishes. The tamale itself was well-made, with a nicely firm corn-mash shell surrounding the chicken. The only problem was that I didn’t really get much of the chicken, which, as with the other meats was succulent, flavorful, and well-marinated. Instead, the corn-mash shell was very thick, almost overpowering the chicken with its very heavy, neutral starchiness. I also found the corn to be somewhat on the bland side, even though I liked its consistency. 2.5/5.0. Well-made, but not quite so flavorful.
   • Chicken Enchilada: This one was another success, largely because of the quality of the chicken. In terms of the dish itself, it was really quite similar to the taco, except that it had a bunch of cheese melted on the tortilla, along with hot sauce. Again, the tortilla was spot on, and the cheese and sauce only added some more spice and a nice gooeyness. The star, though, was the shredded chicken. When I eat shredded chicken, I’m typically offset either by its dryness or by its lack of flavor, but here it was just the opposite. It was extremely succulent, and because it was in such thin slices, it could really soak up the marinade, which gave it a slightly spicy, chili, semi-BBQ taste that was very nice. I still prefer the beef, but this was excellent. 4.2/5.0
   • Cheese Chile Relleno: Probably the best thing on the plate, even though it was, more or less, another two ingredient affair. First of all, the cheese was delicious. I think it was mozzarella, which suited the chili with its slight smokiness. And it was perfectly melted throughout so that in every bite you got a huge taste of it. Even better, the chili was almost flawless. It was incredibly crunchy, contrasting with the gooeyness of the cheese. It also had a killer spiciness to it, which, combined with its fresh veggie taste and the oiliness of the cheese, made for a very satisfying complexity. 4.6+/5.0
5. Swirl Margarita (Mix of Frozen Regular and Strawberry Margarita): I wasn’t overly impressed by this is any way, but it was refreshing nonetheless. The strawberry helped add a nice sweetness, while the regular margarita gave it a sour punch, making for a nice contrast. Moreover, while it was very easy to drink, it packed a lot of liquor. Expect to feel this one.

Scores

Taste: 4.5/5.0
Value: 4.5/5.0
Ambience: 2.0/5.0
Service: 0.0/5.0
Overall Score: 3.0/5.0