Midtown Lunch

Every Friday we go south of the ML boundaries in search of a delicious lunch. Sometimes it’s Murray Hill south or the Flatiron District, sometimes Gramercy and everything in between- but we just like to call it Flatiron Lunch.

When Mexicue announced they would be serving some brand new menu items this week, I realized we had never officially reviewed their brick and mortar location on 7th Avenue. Clay got a first look during their soft opening back in July, but we thought it was now time to get an official taste of the food.

I’m a big fan of the flavors at the truck and was excited by the prospect of their newest dish: a Bullet Burrito. Anybody who scored these puppies for free on Monday knows that they’re basically mini-burritos. They’re promoting them as a way to eat more than one burrito with different fillings inside and not enter a serious food coma. I definitely like this concept.

At the store, in addition to their usual tacos, sliders and bowls, they now offer any of their meats as two bullet burritos with chips and salsa for $8.75. Not a bad deal, but a drink and any side order will still push you well past the ML limit. For journalism purposes, I also had to try their two new side dishes and one of the cookies, so my bill was much higher than I had hoped.

The burritos were definitely petite, but they were packed to the brim with ingredients. I chose the Smoked Short Rib with molé sauce, pickled onions, and cotija cheese. This has always been my favorite taco on the truck and it was no different here. The meat is incredibly tender with a nice blend of smoky, sweet, and spicy flavors. It was a satisfying burrito that I ate in no time at all due to the pequeño size.

I thought the Alabama Chicken was good with the rich creamy sauce and the same delicious salty cotija cheese, but it lacked the smoky, spicy punch of the short rib burrito.

As for the side dishes, I ordered both of the new ones. Luncher SyanneLevovna complained about the Blistered Creamy Corn in the Forums recently and I tend to agree with her about it not being a true creamed corn. This was a bowl of sweet corn kernels, but the other ingredients listed – cream, pickled onions, and chili powder – were almost non-existent and really didn’t seem to add much. This is a case of the menu description being much more exciting than the actual dish. It could have used a touch more spice and acidity. Lime and that cotija cheese would have been great.

And then there was the lackluster BBQ Beans and Rice. These kind of seemed pointless to me. The beans themselves were a little mealy and too earthy for my tastes and the rice is the exact same lime paprika rice they use on everything else (including in the burrito bullets). I would recommend ordering these as a means to fill you up, but not much more than that.

Finally, they’re now offering a rotating selection of specialty cookies. I was very excited to try the Sweet Potato White Chocolate Chip, but all they had left when I arrived were the Root Beer Ginger Snaps which sounded equally as intriguing. The cookies are teeny tiny, but they sell them 2 for 99 cents. It definitely tasted of ginger with a very subtle note of root beer. It was soft and sweet, but not as interesting as I had hoped.

While I think the Bullet Burritos are an interesting concept and worth a taste, the new side orders leave something to be desired and the portions are now purposefully small. Yet there’s no question that Mexicue’s ingredients and fillings are still mighty tasty and that’s what will keep me coming back for more.

Mexicue, 345 7th Avenue, between 29th and 30th Streets.