A couple of weeks back I was presented with a reel dilemma. It was my birthday and my wife was kind enough to let me choose where I wanted to eat. My first thoughts were to go somewhere familiar, but on this day I wanted to do something different and I was craving Mexican food.
Now, I have to be upfront and honest about the fact that I am a 100% certified Mexican food snob. I take the subject way way way to seriously and because of that I generally end up disappointed with my dining experience. To make matters worse I always compare the food to what I used to love back in my days living in New Mexico, which is honestly just not fair. The food served in New Mexico and what you get in the rest of the country is simply two very different things and what passes for Mexican food here in Louisiana is something completely different yet.
Despite all of this I was willing to roll the dice and go for it. A quick check of the internet for the best Mexican food in Lafayette produced Agave Mexican Grill & Cantina as the top result. Trusting that result and the fact that it had a name that sounded like a restaurant you would find in California. I plugged the name into my Google maps and we were on our way.
Yes, I chose my birthday lunch based on the words agave and cantina.
I have to make another admission, when I walked in and saw the words "... with Louisiana Flair" on the sign my gut instinct was to turn and walk out. It has been our experience that anytime that you see anything with the subtitle "Louisiana Flair" you are taking a real gamble. It is a common practice down here to take traditional food from other regions and alter it by adding Cajun spices so that people used to crawfish and boudin will eat it.
On a basic level I understand that providing food that people will eat is a sound business model but as a purist from the southwest it makes eating out a rough experience.
In other words, if I was going to enjoy my birthday meal I was going to have to get over myself.
I know that was a very long introduction to what will be a rather short review but I thought that adding context to what I was about to write was important.
Now on to my different but surprisingly good birthday lunch.
As a rule you can pretty much gauge what kind of Mexican food you are going to get from the first food item to hit the table. I am of course talking about the chips and salsa. If you get a bowl of store bought corn chips along with a bowl of Pace-like salsa you know you are in trouble. What I got at Agave was nothing like that. The chips were fresh and the salsa was flavorful and mildly spicy.
Agave had passed the first test.
Still being on guard and not knowing what to expect I went for something basic off the menu in the enchilada meal. I figured that would be the safest bet.
When my food arrived I was puzzled by what the folks over at Agave interpreted as enchiladas. In this case chicken wrapped in a flour tortilla covered in cheese and their red sauce that wasn't red. This wasn't like any enchilada that I had ever seen.
I took a deep breath, checked my attitude, and dug in. The food may not have been what I had expected - but it was really good. The beans and rice were spot on and those unconventional enchiladas were very flavorful.
I was pleasantly surprised by the whole meal and I ate every bit of it.
Now came time for desert. When I looked over the menu I spotted something from my days in New Mexico - sopapillas. Not being able to help myself I ordered them without hesitation.
When they arrived they were, again, not what I was used to. These sopapillas were small, croissant shaped and over cooked. For some reason the folks down here don't get the concept of frying something til it's a flaky golden brown so what else could I expect? That being said, these were also surprisingly good. The addition of white chocolate as well as honey to dip then in was also a nice touch.
Here is the low-down. Agave is by far the best Mexican food that I have had in the five years that I have lived here in Louisiana. I strongly recommend searching this place out if you are in Lafayette and are craving something tasty and different. I will be coming back again guaranteed.
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