La Mestiza has right flavor twists for south Louisiana
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Even diners who aren’t very adventurous can appreciate a restaurant that takes a new spin on an old favorite. And La Mestiza in Prairieville is just such a place.
Tucked into the Oak Grove Shopping Center on Airline Highway, La Mestiza has some Mexican and Tex-Mex favorites, but many of them have a different twist. That includes an interior that looks identical to the location’s former incarnation as K Michael’s, with Louisiana-themed artwork on the brown walls. On a lunch visit, modern rather than traditional-sounding Spanish background music gives diners the only sensory clues other than, of course, taste. On a weeknight dinner outing, a jazz guitarist provided the mood.
The menu is small, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Better a restaurant limits itself to what it does well than offer a wide selection of mediocre dishes. And this isn’t the only way La Mestiza charts its own course.
In addition to the complimentary chips and salsa, the starters include a good chili con queso ($6) and an even better crawfish and spinach con queso ($8) that has the same cheesy goodness with plenty of crawfish tails to give it a more interesting flavor. One supposes this isn’t served south of the border, but it’s another reason to enjoy living in south Louisiana.
Also, in most restaurants, the lunch specials are slightly smaller and less expensive helpings of dinner entrees. La Mestiza’s seven lunch specials — all designated by a Spanish number — include a few items we couldn’t find elsewhere on the menu.
“Quatro” is a chicken chili relleno ($9) served with rice and beans. We expected to get one stuffed with cheese and chicken and smothered in sauce. Instead, we got a surprise, but a good one. The batter-fried chili stuffed with cheese was crunchy, instead of being soaked in a sauce, and was topped with a mix of shredded chicken meat and sautéed peppers with some tomato. The combination of flavors and texture was satisfying and filling.
Another interesting item only on the lunch menu is “Siete,” a pork stew ($9), something we’ve not noticed on other Mexican restaurant menus. That’s a shame: This is good stuff. The sautéed chunks of pork are tender and flavorful and come in a brown sauce accented with sautéed onions, bell peppers and tomato over yellow rice and served with refried beans.
The Louisiana flavor of La Mestiza extends to its entrees, including the Cancun: a crawfish and spinach enchilada and a crawfish taco ($13). Our waiter suggested eating the taco first, because it was hot from the kitchen and would taste better that way — and it was quite good. The enchilada was light and flavorful.
The chicken fajitas ($16) offered plenty of seasoned chicken accented with sautéed onions, pico de gallo, a chunky and apparently homemade guacamole, cheese, rice and refried beans. Our only complaint was that none of it was particularly hot. We’ve never been that impressed with the whole sizzling hotplate serving style of fajitas in many restaurants, but there’s no question your food is hot. This wasn’t.
The dessert options included sopapillas, tres leches cake and the molten cake ($5), and we chose the latter — a moist, hot chocolate cake topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Very good.
The service was attentive and helpful on both visits.
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