Final post on my noming adventures in DC area (for now). I was super excited when my boyfriend wanted to take me to a Tex-Mex restaurant. He doesn’t usually like this type of cuisine, so we rarely go to these places. However, he went once before and I guess he liked it, so he wanted to bring me here. I was very touched, haha.
Such a typical Tex-Mex store front
There are apparently a few Guapo’s located around DC area, and their website claims that its a family business. Their menu looked excitedly Tex-Mex too, or maybe all the Spanish is just throwing me off. My boyfriend recommended the Carne Asada sizzling fajita, which was a 10 oz. marinated skirt steak, and he himself got the Camarones Brochette sizzling fajita, which was “Jumbo shrimp stuffed with cheese and jalapeno peppers, wrapped in bacon.” It was a promising meal.
Chips, salsa, and some sort of cilantro(?) spicy green sauce.
The chips and salsa were complimentary, which was awesome. The salsa was very watery but had lots of chunky tomatoes. The green sauce was hot, but flavorful.
It was sizzling indeed!
See the smoke in the picture? Our entrees came out sizzling hot with oil cracking, smoke and smells drifting, and butter in the air. It reminded me of the “hot plate pepper beef” dishes you could order in Taiwan, which was also sputtering with butter and came out sizzling hot. The food made a spectacular entrance, which I loved.
Shrimp!
The shrimp came sizzling too, although not as exaggerated as my steak. The shrimp look really, really big in the picture due to it being wrapped in bacon, which was also awesome. Both entrees came with melted butter in that little metal cup, onions and pepper beneath the meat, guacamole (which I swear they added cream to it), sour cream, and some chopped up tomatoes that can barely be called a salsa.
Pinto beans and Mexican rice
Each fajita came with a bowl of delicious pinto beans, Mexican rice, and 3 flour tortillas (not pictured). The flour tortillas were kind of thick, in my opinion, but super soft and fluffy so I liked it. I got to taste one of the shrimps, and they were fat, juicy (from the bacon), crunchy, and exactly what I would want from my shrimp. It was GOOD. However, it was lacking in cheese or jalapenos… I could only taste the bacon and shrimp.
Tastey, tastey steak fajita
So about the steak… man, that was a good steak. Marinated to the core, tender and juicy, I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. Also, there were some grilled jalapenos on the side and we cut those open and put it into our fajitas too.
However, after finishing my meal, I noticed that the meal was not very… Mexican, or Tex-Mex. Maybe I don’t know what Tex-Mex is supposed to be like, but in terms of flavors the meal was mostly salty, buttery, and meaty. In fact, I almost feel like the steak was marinated in soy sauce or something. The onion and peppers and tomatoes didn’t really have any flavor. I imagine Mexican food to be salty and sour, and tastes like cilantro, lime, or tomatoes. Another complaint is that despite the fact I loved the sizzling part, I hated the oil pooling at the bottom, covering my onions and peppers in oil (butter?) too. I guess one can’t ask for too much.
Overall, despite not being what I expected it to be, the meal was amazing and tastey. That’s probably why my boyfriend like this place, now that I think about it. I would definitely ask him to bring me back here again. =D
the life of a eating monster 