Midtown Lunch

It had been a while since I enjoyed the 2 course, $10 week day lunch special at El Rey.  My recollection was that it delivers affordable, yet fancy, Mexican interpretations with smaller sized portions. Its accessible to a wide variety of Philadelphians, making it a good spot, for example,  for  lunch meetings of all sorts, which is what I happened to be there for.

I must have subconsciously remembered not loving the tortilla soup, because I tried the mushroom soup to start this time around.  Reading my old review, it looks like the hearty, earthy mushroom soup is the way to go over the murky tomato soup.

For the 2nd plate, I ordered the gorditas. I was served the cutest, gordita sliders I ever did see. Tangy pork pibil, a hard boiled egg slice, and picked red onions are sandwiches in a corn masa bun with some micro greens for garnish. For me, the smaller portion was refined and visually pleasing, and I had eaten a TON of tortilla chips so being full was not going to be an issue, but for someone expecting a hearty plate, you might be disappointed. The enchiladas I had last time were a bit more substantial, though unlike the South Philly Mexican experience, here it is more about presentation than giant plates.

El Rey, 2013 Chestnut St (@ 20th St), 215-563-3330