At a Glance:
Price: $
Food: [rating=5]
Staff: [rating=5]
Feel: [rating=5]
Price range:
$0-$3: $
$3-$12: $$
$12-$25: $$$
$25-$50: $$$$
$50-up: $$$$$
The Feel:
This is where expats come for lunch.
There’s nowhere for faster food in town, and depending on what you order, you can have a super healthy meal of fill your meat-and-carb craving.
More importantly though, it’s a community. Everyone hangs out here and catches up.
The Food:
Fresh, fresh, fresh. All ingredients are fresh picks of the day. The fish, meat, and vegetables are then flavoured and ready for your mouth.
When it’s in season you can mango salsa on top of everything, which leads me to the secret menu.
See, most tourists come here because they heard this place has great fish tacos, and while that’s true, there’s a lot more hiding behind that counter than what you previously might have seen.
One of our favorite “secret menu” items isn’t so so secret in that sometimes it’s written on the whiteboard as a special, but you can always get it.
The Chimichanga:
A regular Gordito’s burrito, filling of your choice, deep fried and served with rice, beans, and pico de gallo, smothered in cheese, guac, and sour cream.
Hold on, let’s take a closer look:
Oh yeah, you know you want it.
Next up, the Nachos.
Most seasoned regulars don’t actually know about the “cold” nachos, but Gordito’s will fill a plate full of chips and top them with your choice of meat or veggies, add beans, and cheese, smothered in guac and tomatoes, and topped with veggie sauce. “Cold” because they don’t go in the oven.
Then there’s the quesadilla, everyone knows what quesadillas are I’m sure.
Also, one of the employees used to work at McDonalds, so you can drizzle “Big-Mac” sauce on pretty much anything, or get the special “Big-Mac” Burrito.
If they’re not slammed when you come in, you can also ask for the chicken/guac salad special, with strips of toasted tortilla. It’s a little more labour intensive, so they won’t make it for you during the lunch rush.
Besides the wall of varied hot-sauces, there are also sauces behind the counter. The “Big-Mac” sauce mentioned above, sour cream, a veggie sauce, and a deliciously mysterious green sauce.
Did I mention the Mango salsa? It’s do die for, but only available seasonally, so you have to ask for it.
The Staff:
As I already mentioned when we reviewed their other restaurant, the owners are the main reason we eat here. (ok ok, the nachos also get us pretty bad)
Deadra has mentioned to us before that this is mostly a community endeavor, and I’ve seen her give away a lot of food to good causes while we’ve been here, we like to support this kind of thing.
Other than the awesome owners, you’ll be served mostly by local surfer boys, which, I know, is such a shame for all the ladies out there. ;)
The Whole:
When you forgot to get groceries and are running late for your 12:45 margarita appointment, come get your Gordito’s. You’ll probably run into everyone you know and their mother here, and will be even later. Welcome to Dominican Time.
