Fajitas Spanish & Mexican Restaurant / Oakland Park
Important: This article was last updated on May 1, 2009. Please call ahead to confirm hours, prices, dates and other information.
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3234 N. Andrews Ave., Oakland Park
954-563-8480
Cuisine: Latin
Cost: inexpensive
Hours: lunch, dinner daily
Reservations: not necessary
Credit cards: all major
Bar: full service
Outside smoking: prohibited
For kids: boosters, high chairs, menu
Wheelchair accessible: yes
First impression: The menu might be small and totally familiar to fans of Latin food, but everything from ropa vieja and picadillo to chimichangas and enchiladas is made from scratch.
Ambience: Still decked out in Tiffany-style lamps from the former diner that occupied the premises, you'd never guess this was an oasis for Spanish/Latin fare. Mexican melodies play softly in the background. Bring the family — there's lots of room for seating at booths, tables, or a counter where fairly priced food is dished out with gusto.
Starters: Tortilla chips are crackly fresh and warm, while the salsas are almost purees. The nacho platter ($7.95) offers a mini buffet of two each of cheese, bean, chicken and beef, highlighted by hand-pulled chicken and soft as butter-stewed beef. There's simple comfort in homemade chicken soup, loaded with white-meat chicken and veggies at $1.95 per cup, $2.50 for a big, steaming bowlful served with a wedge of lime. The Mexican pizza ($8.95) is hearty enough for a meal with its light, crispy flour-tortilla crust covered in refried beans, ground beef, onions, tomatoes cheese and taco sauce.
Entree excellence: The fajita crowd can fuel its cravings with the $15.95 Suprema rendition sporting decent-size shrimp, moist mahi mahi strips, chicken and sliced skirt steak, all perfectly cooked and coupled with scallions, fresh tomatoes and aromatic veggies. Pollo a la plancha ($10.95) is a thick grilled chicken breast with slightly puckery sauteed pickled onions on top. Or, sample a steak burrito ($12.95). There's no skimping on tender skirt steak with light brown gravy and melted cheese. It's served with yellow rice, refried beans, sour cream and guacamole.
Service: On-their-toes servers have such an emphasis on customer care and attention to detail that they even warm the milk for your coffee.
Sweet!: A cherry-topped slab of milk-soaked tres leches ($3.50) is worthy of admiration and not as cloying as most, while flan ($2.75) on a sea of caramel is satisfyingly dense yet melts in your mouth. Both deliver that wonderful homemade taste.
— Judith Stocks