Restaurant Review: Restaurante El Mirador

According to our favorite Spanish Dictionary, the Real Academia de Española, a "mirador" is a terrace or gallery often covered with blinds or shutters from which there is a noteworthy view. We appreciate the sentiment, but we're not seeing it in this picture.

Restaurante El Mirador
31 Corson Ave
Staten Island, NY 10301-2930
(718) 981-4223

When I moved east from California at the beginning of the 90s, one of the first complaints I had about New York (and one which I heard echoed by countless other western transplants) was regarding the dearth of good, authentic Mexican food here. All things being equal, if you walk into the average mediocre mainstream Mexican restaurant here, whether it is Fresh Tortillas (if you haven't had the steamed tortillas at this Chinese run Mexican fast food chain, then you haven't missed much) Mary Anne's in Manhattan (grocery store corn chips and canned salsa), Mezcal's or La Taqueria in Park Slope (their tacos don't hold a candle to what you can get on the street in East Harlem or at the corner of Victory and Corson), or the Burrito Bar or Adobe Blues (tex-mex, I know) in Staten Island, you'll find a quality of food which is far below the comparable run-of-the-mill Mexican places in Los Angeles (chains like El Torito and fast food places like Super Mex and Baja Fresh) that people make a habit of ignoring in Los Angeles. I'm leaving out the upscale places in New York like Maria's Mexican Bistro in Brooklyn (easily one of my top five favorite restaurants in NYC), and Mi Cocina in the meatpacking district because they are too New-Yorkified to be truly authentic. Even the Mesa Grill occasionally serves some traditional Mexcian dishes, but that's not really we're talking about. And to the folks I work with in midtown who rave about the burritos at Blockheads, Chipotle, and Cafe Europe, all I can do is roll my eyes.

I don't complain anymore, though, ever since I found a few places in Staten Island that provide scorchingly spicy, fresh Mexican food for Mexicans, stomach-linings be damned. By far the closest and most convivial is Restaurante El Mirador, where the patient, sweet-faced waitress only pretends to speak English until you stop speaking Spanish. There you'll get everything you can't find at the places I mentioned above, like tacos de lengua (tongue tacos) with lime and diced raw onions (no crispy shells here, nobody in Mexico eats those), fresh tortas (sandwiches) just like the ones you get off the street in dusty Baja towns like Guerrero Negro, and most entrees come with a container of steaming dishtowels wrapped around hot corn tortillas -- a presentation which I guarantee is hard to find north of the border. The clean kitchen is open for all to see, a jukebox full of latin accordian pop songs occasionally comes to life on its own, and the lastest Univision telenovela is always blaring on the television mounted above the front door.
Freshly fried chips (don't call them tortillas, they're simply "los chips") and spicy pureed pico de gallo make their way to the table in never-ending supply, and a bottle of beer comes with a little dish containing about 15 pieces of lime. In addition to the aforementioned tacos and tortas, the menu has other typical favorites such as green or brown mole (last time I had the deliciously tart and piquant roast pork in green mole, my mouth burned for hours afterwards), enchiladas, and an inoccuous traditional chicken dish (pollo mexicano) made with, among other things, diced jalapeno peppers. A small array of Mexican and American breakfasts are on the menu as well, and we'd bet the cafe con leche is probably very good.

Not your mother's beef soup: My Caldo de res flanked by CvB's enchiladas

Last night, however, I was attracted to the caldos on the menu, basically large bowls of soup containing the various meats and seafood of your choice. I ordered up a red hot steamy bowl of caldo de res (beef soup) which came, savory and delicious, with chunks of shank smothered in greenbeans, and accompanied on the side by diced onions, more lime to squeeze into the broth, and fresh tortillas. The meat was fatty and tender enough to cut with a spoon, and the broth was thick, salty, and flavorful. Washed down with a bottle of limed-up Negro Modelo, it was the best of summer and winter in one meal. Dinner for two with two drinks ran us about $24, but we've gotten out of there for $13 by ordering tacos.

Don't go expecting anything approximating a mainstream presentation, though, this restaurant is not for the faint of heart. Based on the criteria by which you can judge the authenticity of all ethnic restaurants -- the proportion of the clientele that belongs to the relevant ethnic group -- this place is 100% authentic (well, 90% when we're eating there). What's more, it's also friendly and convenient, and the food is delicious.

Editor's Update 5/11/06: As of their most recent NYC Dept. of Health inspection, El Mirador received a perfect score of no health code violations. Congratulations amigos! Lest you think that's an easy feat, check out violation listings for some NYC favorites:


The Metropolitan Musem of Art Cafe (35)
Pastis (20)
Nobu (25)
Union Square Cafe (13)

Yummy!