Cancun Mexican Restaurant
937 8th Ave
New York, NY 10019
View the Menu Here
So last night, the wife and I finally made it to Cancun, a mexican restaurant that’s about two blocks away from our place. We chose to go on a Tuesday night since we figured the bar would be dead. Most nights when we walk by the bar at Cancun is spilling out into the streets, but last night the place was virtually empty.
I walked in wearing shorts and a Yankees hat and they didn’t turn us away, so the dress code is fairly casual. The waiter was prompt to bring us our waters and the complimentary chips and salsa. FINALLY a restaurant that serves a decent sized bowl of salsa. I hate it when you go to places that give you the tiny condiment cups with a few drops of salsa in them. I always ask the waiter for more before I even start, so they are just wasting dishes on me. 🙂 Anyways, the salsa at Cancun was pretty tasty, the heat level was hot enough for me and just slightly too hot for the wife. She ate a few chips and then gave up. The one downside of the salsa was that I could taste the bell peppers they mixed in. At first I thought they had put celery in there, but confirmed it was plain old green bell peppers by fishing one out. I never put bell peppers in my salsas, makes the flavor too bland.
So, in tune with my lastest kick of trying new things, I decided to get an item called “Chorizo Casserole” which on the menu sounded fabulous. Spicy sausage, eggs, tortilla, beans and cheese. What more could a fat guy want? The wife went with her usual, chicken enchiladas. The food took quite a bit of time to arrive, considering how empty the place was, but that could of been because of the time it took to cook the casserole. Which was way overcooked anyways.
The casserole arrived in a metal tray, atop a plastic plate. Classy. There was bits of sausage on top, but they were so overcooked they reminded me of our dogs Beggin’ Strips. Same consitency and everything. They must have put the sausage on top before baking the entire thing, instead of adding them at the end like they should have. So even before I actually got my fork into the food, I knew it was not going to be good. And I was right, the only thing that turned out good was the excessive amount of cheese. Every bite was like eating spaghetti, having to twirl the cheese strings around my fork before getting it into my mouth. There was no flavor at all, mostly because the sausage wasn’t spicy at all. And I’m mean, it literally was not spicy sausage, neither the wife nor I could taste one bit of spices, so I guess they ran out and decided to use regular. Yuck! I ate about 4 bites before giving up, and I rarely give up on food. I think the only time I’ve ever stopped eating anything was at another restaurant close to our place, the wife and I had gone for brunch and I ordered Corned Beef & Hash, thinking it was going to be like my grandma used to make. Nope, once again the food tasted like dog food. Wet dog food.
Back to Cancun, even though I stopped eating the casserole, I filled up on chips and salsa, killing 3 large bowls by myself. The wife enjoyed her enchiladas but said Chevy’s was better (WTF???) For those of you under a rock, Chevy’s is a national chain mexican-american place. It’s okay for the basics, but I think they miss a lot of the fresh flavors since they’re ingredients are bought in bulk.
I got my money’s worth by eating all the salsa in reach, the total bill was $30 including tip (we didn’t drink anything). The wife and I decided that we would return for margaritas and chips & salsa, since it’s so close to home, but we’d rather walk down to the tourist trap that is Times Square to go to Chevy’s then eat another meal at Cancun. The dogs enjoyed my leftovers.