Cantina Cinco de Mayo, a new Mexican restaurant in west Little Rock, is not Cantina Laredo (a Mexican restaurant in Midtown).
Also, it’s not related to the Cinco de Mayo in Conway.
And it’s not Blue Agave, a previous Mexican restaurant once housed in Cantina Cinco de Mayo’s current casa - a pleasant second floor space with pendant lighting, a few Mexican paintings and a patio in The Village at Rahling Road (also formerly Gaucho’s Grill and Palio’s Pizza Cafe).
And it’s not any number of Mexican restaurants we’ve reviewed during this the recent mini-boom (Local Lime, Chuy’s, The Fold: Botanas & Bar, Mamacita’s Mexican Bar & Grill, Lupita’s Original Mexican Food, and so on).
Cantina Cinco de Mayo is yet another independent, authentic Mexican restaurant, a nice one run by nice folks with a daunting task ahead: drawing customers in a competitive climate to a tucked-away space with a spotty restaurant record.
We enjoyed much of our meals during three visits (two when the restaurant was barren; once when it was busy), as well as the friendly service, but little we experienced stood out as extraordinary - something we couldn’t have had at any of the many Mexican places we passed to get there.
Wait, take that back. We did get something special - a seat without a wait! If we lived in this part of town, we imagine we could be regulars.
Then again, our least favorite item at Cinco was the most significant of Mexican restaurant staples: cheese dip ($3.50 small, $5.50 large). While we liked the thick chips, the mild and milky white cheese dip didn’t quite cling to them.
The guacamole ($3.50 small, $5.50 large), with a bitey allium presence balancing the avocado, was a better buy. For those who’d rather save their calories or coins, the complimentary salsa, though not standout, is satisfactory.
The best appetizer we sampled from Cinco’s limited list was the Nachos Supreme ($7.99). Substantial enough to be a meal (and it actually is a meal on the lunch menu, $6.99), the plate was a pile of chips, layered with melted cheese, lettuce, pico de gallo, sour cream, guacamole and lots of flavorful meat (offered is a choice of beef or chicken, but our server volunteered we could - ole! - choose both). “Perhaps the best I’ve ever eaten,” raved a tough-to impress foodie friend.
Cinco’s drink inventory of beers and margaritas (sold individually or by the pitcher) and cocktails fills two menu pages. The sangria ($3.99 glass, $14.99 carafe) of burgundy, rose, brandy, fruit punch and orange juice, though touted as homemade, did not strike us as special and was served plain without any floating fruits. We preferred afruity and slushy frozen mango margarita ($4.75).
The four-page dinner menu is divided into combinations, chicken, vegetarian and seafood plates, quesadillas, enchiladas, burritos, tacos and specialties. With entrees ranging from $3.99 to $13.49, a Kids Menu ($3.99) and items sold a la carte ($1.99-$6.50), there is something for every budget and appetite.
Also on the menu are some confusing and amusing typos and discrepancies. Like in the vegetarian section, a Vegetable Plate comes with “carrots, brocoli, coliflower, rice & cheese.” The real kicker is that the vegetarian plate is “topped with chicken or steak fajita” (or shrimp for $1; the picture of the Vegetable Plate has shrimp in it).
Under specialties there’s the Chimichanga with Shrimp ($10.29) “with steak or grilled chicken with shrimp.” Um, huh? On the next page under seafood, there’s a separate listing for Shrimp Chimichanga at a different price ($9.89) with no mention of other meats. What we ordered and received was the second one: a plump fried tortilla bundle packed with succulent seasoned shrimp, topped with cheese sauce (but no lettuce as the menu mentioned), and served with sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo and pea-dotted rice and cheese cloaked refried beans.
From the specialties section, we tried two dishes: Costillas Marinadas ($10.89), or “ribs,” and Parrillada Cantina ($12.29) or “mixed fajitas.”
The ribs included four slightly tough marinated beef short ribs (think thin strips, as opposed to the pork ribs we Arkansans are accustomed to), not unlike Korean kalbi, served with rice, refried beans, salad and tortillas. The Parrillada, an all-meat skillet of nicely seasoned chicken, steak, shrimp, pork, chorizo and beef ribs that could be rolled in provided tortillas, was a carnivore’s delight. But while it arrived with a separate plate of rice and beans, it did not come with sour cream, guacamole or pico de gallo. It would have been boring, had I not pilfered toppings from my companion’s plate.
When we couldn’t decide which of nine enchilada plates to try, the tasty and varied Enchiladas Supreme ($8.99) - one chicken, one bean, one cheese and one beef enchilada dressed up with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream - almost covered all bases (except for the spinach and the chicken with mole sauce versions).
Another case of indecision at lunch led to us ordering the filling No. 2 ($6.19), which includes two richly sauced items - a burrito and enchilada - on one plate and a crisp taco on a separate plate (choice of beef or chicken or mix; I hastily chose all beef as indecision was setting in again). Other lunch items range from $4.89 to $7.29.
For dessert, we shared a sopapilla ($2.99), that instead of puffy pastry was just a flat fried tortilla, though the kitchen gussied it up with cinnamon sugar, whipped cream, ice cream and chocolate sauce. We probably should have listened to our server, who recommended the cheesecake ($3.50).
Or perhaps we should have tried the “fied ice cream.”
Cantina Cinco de Mayo
Address: The Village at Rahling Road, 3 Rahling Circle, Little Rock
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Saturday
Cuisine: Mexican
Credit cards: AE, D, MC, V
Reservations: Yes
Alcoholic beverages: Full bar
Wheelchair accessible: Yes
Carryout: Yes
(501) 821-2740
Weekend, Pages 29 on 07/18/2013