Don Gusto PJ is a tiny Mexican sandwich shop and bakery on the northeast corner of the intersection of Meridian Street and Hanna Avenue. You can't see the name until you get close to the windows, but there is a none-too-big sign on the front of the roof that says "TORTAS" and "PASTELERIA". I'd like to call it a boutique Mexican restaurant, but that might imply the place is fancy and expensive, which it is not, although the chef and the proprietor both wear chef tunics like you see on Iron Chef. The menu offers about 10 different sandwiches but also has other traditional Mexican entrees like quesadillas, sopes, and burritos. They only have 6 tables, so much of their business is to-go orders, but when I went in to order to-go the first time, the inside of the place was just so neat and tidy that I had to come back and have a sit-down meal. The first time, I ordered a steak quesadilla, and it was unlike any I'd had before. Instead of being wrapped in a papery flour tortilla, it was encased in a fried pastry-like corn tortilla shell like a big empanada only it was flaky and tender, and it came with sour cream and lettuce spread across the top. It was big enough that The Little Woman and I split it for lunch, and it was sooo tasty it almost didn't need the green tomatilla salsa and red pepper sauce that came on the side. The tomatilla stuff lit me up a little bit, it was so spicy, but it was also so GOOD I wanted to take a gallon or so home. The steak quesadilla and a bottle of Lipton iced tea came to $4.35, WHAT? WHAT??? The pennies in my pocket almost stopped screaming because I'd let up so much on pinching them!
On Saturday we both went there and ate-in: she had two tacos and a side of refried beans, and I had a steak burrito which wasn't as big as La Bamba's, but it was pretty darned big. It was reeeeally tasty, I think because there was a bunch of sour cream mixed in with a bunch of cheese along with the beans and tomatoes and rice and lettuce and cilantro. Her tacos had an even lighter, fluffier version of corn tortilla than our quesadilla had. TLW said she thought maybe they fried it in oil in a shallow pan and then folded it into a taco shell while still hot. It was light and crispy, and the steak bits were well seasoned and accompanied by fresh onion and cilantro. She had a can of Diet Coke and I had ice water for which the waiter/proprietor provided fresh lime wedges. Altogether it was $11.71! I was in shock-- my pennies fell silent and breathed a sigh of relief. !Increible!
You know my theory: if an ethnic restaurant has a lot of customers of that same ethnicity, it's likely to be good, right? (A certain Asian place proving to be the exception as I reported some time ago, but that was probably only because the dishes it served were foreign to my dumb-American palate.) Well, Don Gusto had a constant parade of Latino patrons while we were there, which ranged from scruffy working men to somewhat well-to-do-looking families, and they all looked satisfied, if that tells you anything. I thought my quest for the non-cookie cutter Mexican restaurant was at an end with Taco Meats Potato, but alas, that went sour. I must say that Don Gusto is unique, or at least different from any other I've experienced. !Vamanos a comer!
