« « Previous | Review: Blair Q Heat Wasabi Green Tea » »
On a ski vacation over New Years, I had the good fortune to visit the Red Mesa Grill in Boyne City, MI. Red Mesa specializes in Latin American food, offering “Traditional Mexican dishes as well as unique specialties from Peru, Brazil, Costa Rica and other Latin American Countries.” They also boast a very large wall of
Since Red Mesa Grill doesn’t take reservations, and was swamped with a big holiday crowd, our small group of 15 had a long wait. Fortunately, spots opened up at the bar. I spied a bottle of El Yucateco Green at one table, which bode well for our eventual meal. A Mesa Margarita went down very nicely with some chips and salsa. I then ventured into the braver stuff, getting a glass of Chinaco Anejo. I asked the bartender if she had anything hot to put on the chips. “How hot?” she responded. To which calls of “DA BOMB! DA BOMB!” broke out amongst my companions, who had obviously experienced the heat before.
The bartender gave me a skeptical look and said, “I don’t have time to run for sour cream or any other dairy product. So try it at your own risk.” She brought it over with some napkins, put a bottle of Da Bomb: The Final Answer in front of me, and the whole bar staff stood watching as I took a drop on a chip, looking not unlike a crowd of gawkers at a particularly nasty car crash.
I put the drop in my mouth, and the burn came on in a second or two. For being 1.5 million scovilles, the heat wasn’t nearly as intense as I thought it’d be. Don’t get me wrong, it was hot. I skipped over the sweaty forehead and running nose straight to feeling a misty tingle in the corner of my eyes. I didn’t eat or drink anything, but the burn completely passed in about 5 minutes. Needless to say, the waitstaff was disappointed. And since the only other person in the group who’d try it was a pretty serious
I had a few more Bomb Chips, and was again surprised. The heat seemed to get significantly less intense with each I ate. That’s a marked difference from my experience with other extract sauces, where each drop fuels the fire hotter and hotter. I asked the bartended if she had anything hotter, which prompted a response of “no, that’s it Mr. Big Balls.” Sheesh.
We finally got seated after almost two hours at the bar and hit another round of Mesa margaritas. I selected the Roasted Chicken Black Bean Burrito. At our table were a bottle of Red Mesa’s house Chipotle sauce, jalapeno sauce, and another watery jalapeno sauce that I hadn’t heard of. I called for their basket of hot sauces, which was rather disappointing. Nothing of note except for Endorphin rush and Da Bomb: Ground Zero; I sampled a few I hadn’t heard of and didn’t find what I was looking for.
In desperation for a tasty sauce to douse my burrito, I ventured back to the area where I had spotted the El Yucateco Green, thinking of how to broker a very one sided hot sauce trade, and good fortune struck! The table was unoccupied. I grabbed the green nectar, and also spotted a bonus. There sat a welcome surprise in the form of a bottle of Marie Sharp’s BEWARE! sauce, ripe for the plucking. I scurried back to my table with the treasures in hand, and didn’t have long to wait.
The food arrived, and everything looked great. The burrito was one of the better that I’ve had. The chicken was high quality, the flavor terrific. I alternated between sauces on each bite.
As always, the El Yucateco was the perfect blend of taste and heat. I definitely buy into the theory that you can tell usually a good Mexican restaurant by the presence of El Yucateco on the tables.
I was highly impressed with the Marie Sharp’s BEWARE!. The flavor was robust, fresh, and immediate. The sauce burst through heavily on each taste, accentuating the flavor of the burrito rather than dominating it. The habanero flavor was intense, and the heat was significant and concentrated; I could feel the tingle wherever the sauce hit my mouth. I think I have found a new favorite sauce for Mexican food.
Another favorite at the table were the wings, which were some of the tastiest I’ve had. They were so good that our hosts ordered a few dozen for the New Year’s Eve party the next night. Acceptable heat, and one of the best spice blends in a Southwest style, non-sauced wing that I’ve had.
Overall, I was extremely please with Boyne City’s Red Mesa Grill. The service was acceptable, the food was exceptional, and how can you possible argue with 100 varieties of tequila and 1.5 million scovilles waiting behind the bar? On top of that, the prices were reasonable, running between $8 and $12 a plate, with top shelf tequila around $8 for a generous pour. Red Mesa Grill is a place I will certainly return.
Chilehead Comments:
Posted by: John - Categories: Hot Food Reviews, Hot Sauce Reviews, Hot Sauce Stuff, Restaurant Reviews, Reviews
Permalink: Restaurant Review: Red Mesa Grill, Boyne City, MI
One year ago: Entrepreneur knows that some like hot sauce
- Related Posts:
- Grill It!
- Firecracker Pizza
- Hot Shotz Ale & Grill
- Tabasco Restaurant Being Sued By Hot Sauce Maker
- BBQ Rubs Get Political This Summer
19 Comments »
Excellent review, wish there was one in my area. Btw you have some balls to try 1.5 million scoville units with no yogurt or cheese around.
I’ve never been very impressed with Da Bomb: Ground Zero. Kept it in my fridge for two years then threw it away. Sure it boasts heat but flavor is seriously lacking. I wouldn’t think that Final Answer would have much more to offer. More the sort of item that non-chiliheads would purchase thinking that they have truly reached superior levels of badass. Heat is a muse, but it takes more than that to make a song. Although 1.5m is still something to be respected.
Adam - small world! I visit up there quite a bit (I live downstate), though I hadn’t been to Red Mesa before. I think the food’s much better than most of the Mexican places around like La Senorita, and it’s certaily a better place to eat hot.
Daniel - thanks for the compliment.
Danielle - you’re right about the flavor or the Final Answer, not much to speak of other than the taste of extract.
On food, I certainly prefer sauces with good flavor and heat. If I had to choose, I’d select the Marie Sharp’s over Da Bomb for dinner any day of the week.
But as a snack, I love eating chips with extract rather than salsa - you just can’t compete with the capsaicin rush that comes from that.
The Final Answer that I have at home is killer hot!!!
Feels every bit like 1.5 Million!
Nick,why is it everytime I read a review, I have this strange craving for mexican? The pictures are killing me. I need a burrito!!!1 
eric
I’m glad you liked Red Mesa, for the real deal you need to try Taqueria Margarita located in Traverse City. Don’t bother asking for bottled hot sauce - they make their own and it’s hot and tasty. This place is as authentic as you can get.
Love the Red Mesa, go there often. Had a bottle of Damnation blow up on me the other night, just wanted to try it and it sprayed all over. Stuck with the Beware and No Wimps. Both go very well with the jerked salmon.
tim on 4/2/2006 at 10:00 pm said:
Love the Red Mesa, go there often. Had a bottle of Damnation blow up on me the other night, just wanted to try it and it sprayed all over. Stuck with the Beware and No Wimps. Both go very well with the jerked salmon.
Tim - next time skip the Mesa and come over to the Dilworth Inn! I’ll hook you up with some Defcon1 wings!
The comment from Adam2 about people hating the Mesa food is just laughable- they have lines waiting all summer long and the Dillworth is just sad.
Adam on 1/4/2006 at 9:38 am said:
John, I live and work in Boyne City right across from Red Mesa! We sneak bottles off of the hot sauce wall all the time - and still haven’t got caught! I think the food is great, but everyone around here hates it, though I’m not sure why.
Adam on 1/4/2006 at 9:38 am said:
John, I live and work in Boyne City right across from Red Mesa! We sneak bottles off of the hot sauce wall all the time - and still haven’t got caught! I think the food is great, but everyone around here hates it, though I’m not sure why.
Colby Moore on 7/8/2006 at 6:20 pm said:
The comment from Adam2 about people hating the Mesa food is just laughable- they have lines waiting all summer long and the Dillworth is just sad.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one
Adam on 1/4/2006 at 9:38 am said:
John, I live and work in Boyne City right across from Red Mesa! We sneak bottles off of the hot sauce wall all the time - and still haven’t got caught! I think the food is great, but everyone around here hates it, though I’m not sure why.
What is really sad about his (I never noticed it before) is that Adam is admittedly a thief. Bottle of hot sauce from a wall, a piece of gum or a car.
Stealing is stealing, if it isn’t yours, don’t take it.
That is sad.
pmac on 7/8/2006 at 6:47 pm said:
What is really sad about his (I never noticed it before) is that Adam is admittedly a thief. Bottle of hot sauce from a wall, a piece of gum or a car.
Stealing is stealing, if it isn’t yours, don’t take it.
That is sad.
Agreed.
“and still haven’t got caught! ”
That show you have no respect for peoples belongings, enthusiasm.
I don’t know why everyone started bashing me all of the sudden on this six month old thread - I never said anything bad about the Red Mesa, in fact, I said I liked it a lot - And when I said we sneak bottles off the wall, it’s to use on the food we just bought, not to take home, and “all the time” was an exaggeration. Don’t blow anything out of proportion here. Don’t just start insulting me and my restaurant! That’s just silly.
Well I don’t see anyone insulting your restaurant first off.
#2. If you mean something you should be careful how you word it, as that comment clearly inferrs you take sauces from a store and don’t get caught.
#3. We were bashing Adam not Adam2 :). Clearly a case of mistaken identity! LOL
i c i guess the dillworth is a restaurant, i had a hard time trying to figure that out. The comment makes more sence now i guess.
Adam2 on 7/8/2006 at 9:43 pm said:
I don’t know why everyone started bashing me all of the sudden on this six month old thread - I never said anything bad about the Red Mesa, in fact, I said I liked it a lot - And when I said we sneak bottles off the wall, it’s to use on the food we just bought, not to take home, and “all the time” was an exaggeration. Don’t blow anything out of proportion here. Don’t just start insulting me and my restaurant! That’s just silly.
Sorry……ROFL
kinda funny now
Ate at Red Mesa for the first time last weekend. OMG! We loved it. I need the recipe for the Armadillo Eggs. They were so good. Our next trip we will definitely go back there. We’ve been telling everyone about it. Our waitress was awesome too.
Vickie
The statement about people who live in boyne dont like the food is probably correct but directed at the long time residents who have lived up there all their life. Small town people who dont know whats good because they never had it before.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Smilies - HSB Rules & Regs - Spamtastic?
John, I live and work in Boyne City right across from Red Mesa! We sneak bottles off of the hot sauce wall all the time - and still haven’t got caught! I think the food is great, but everyone around here hates it, though I’m not sure why.