In about 4 months, I have to go to a family wedding in Taiwan. In an effort to not be the fat American cousins, we are trying to lose weight. In a very small effort. Sigh. We <3 food. 😭😭😭 I just get very hangry when I don’t eat. So, after a day walking on my treadmill desk and a hunger headache, I was in a fine mood when my boyfriend came home.
Me: What do you want to eat for dinner?
Him: I don’t know. Whatever you want?**Long suffering sigh of annoyance from me.**
Me: WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR DINNER?!
Him: Uh…**backs up**…Mexican?
Me: Fine!
And thus, we ended up at Maderos, the New Mexican restaurant on PCH in Redondo Beach that took over the old Hostaria Piave space…also, not coincidentally, the closest non-fast food Mexican restaurant to us.
Maderos has a convenient parking lot with lots of spaces. Upon arrival, a very nice gentleman opened the door for us; I think he was the proprietor. We were seated quickly…mostly because it was 5pm and we were eating on old people dinner time. We’re cool with it. 🤷🏻♀️
Luckily, they brought chips to us asap and a trio of salsa – all of which were very flavorful if not spicy.
We quickly put in an order of queso fundido. Interestingly, they put goat cheese in the queso dip. I didn’t NOT like it but at the same time, when I’m eating Mexican, I want the flavor to hit me in the face and goat cheese is very subtle. Everything about this dish is subtle including the chiles poblanos they used. Plus, I prefer my queso fundido a little scorched on top and piping hot underneath. This was a little lukewarm. But, like I said, it didn’t offend me but I probably wouldn’t get it again.
We also ordered the elote or Mexican corn. The menu only has a cream corn soup “elote” and I didn’t even know they had the regular style. Our very nice waitress, hearing me mangle her native language while ordering our various dishes probably realized I wanted the traditional style and was intuitive enough to ask me. Thank goodness! This was so delicious. I could just eat a giant vat of it and be happy.
For our entrees, he chose the chile verde and I chose the molcajete. The online photos of the chile verde were not impressive but it’s his preferred dish so far be it from me to dissuade him. The bad news is we didn’t do much better with our blurry ass photo; you’ll just have to wait for the YouTube video! The good news is that his dish was phenomenal. It was very flavorful and the pork still had some bite to it. I found myself eating his more than mine!
My meal followed closely after. They just needed both hands to carry it all. It came with rice, black beans and some guac as well as flour tortillas! Let me now pause to mention that the waitress felt the need to warn me off how much food we had ordered and that the molcajete was quite large. We were like, we got this.
The star of the show had to be the impressive, sizzling molcajete. The salsa in it was very garlicky and flavorful! There wasn’t enough cheese for my liking and I wish they used the Oaxacan white cheese quesillo instead. It’s chewier and doesn’t melt into nothing like the queso fresco they used. Altogether, the dish lacked some acid. I wanted limes. The shrimp and sausage were both amazing while the chicken and carne asada desperately needed a hit of acid.
Overall, we really enjoyed the friendly service and the elevated menu options. I’m going to have to try a few more dishes before I make an ultimate judgement on execution. Some things were really yummy and others were easy fixes or purely preference; so, I’ll just order something else next time!
No matter what, my hanger was assuaged and really, that’s the most critical part of this whole story.