Mexican Food in Charlotte, NC

We are in Charlotte, North Carolina for the weekend to take more culinary classes at Johnson & Wales. For an early dinner today, we were extremely delighted that we stumbled upon Taqueria Guadalajara. We had never heard of it, but just had a gut feeling passing it that we needed to stop. We are glad we did!

This is the food we wish we were served at more Mexican restaurants in the United States. This is the real deal. I enjoy Tex Mex food once in a while. But usually when I want Mexican food, this is what I want. It is so simple, yet it is fresh and made with care. A bonus was that nothing came from a can, everything was made from scratch.

Look at all the salsas and condiments were were provided with, in the above photo. We were automatically served four of them with a basket of chips: the tomatillo salsa (green), the salsa made from chiles (dark red), the pico de gallo (the minced veggies) and a tomato sauce. We were also automatically given the bowl of lime wedges. Lime wedges!! I know I am in Mexico when I don't have to ask for lime. I asked for the chopped onion and the chopped cilantro. And the guacamole was a side dish we ordered.

Above is another side dish we ordered. It is such a typical dish in Mexico, and we rarely have seen it served in the US. Cebollinas. Roasted green onions.

Look, tacos with no cheese! Blessed delicious tacos! Most tacos in Mexico don't have cheese. I wanted mine with pinto beans, a slice of avocado, minced onion, minced cilantro, and some freshly made salsa on a corn tortilla. Was this exact taco on the menu? No! All I had to do was ask for what I wanted. No eyebrows were raised. This is a very normal thing to do, at least for me!

These are bean enchiladas rojas. The are topped with Cotija cheese and some cream. DH ended up pushing aside the cream, since he wasn't expecting it. But they were very good, the enchilada sauce was excellent.