05.05.05

In honor of Cinco De Mayo [did you know that the Mexicans defeated the French to gain independence? Another reason to love this holiday] and my affinity for Mexican food, I decided to grace you with my list of top five Mexican restaurants here in Cincinnati. I sure do love the Mexican food. So here we go, in reverse order.

5 Taco Bell- paying homage to the patriarchs, TB created the Mexican food market in the US. Interesting fact: Larry Collins, a guy from our church, used to work for Taco Bell and invented the Double Decker Taco. Good idea.

4 Don Pablo's- Until the recent explosion of authentic Mexican restaurants, Don's was the place to get your fix. The probably win the prize for best tortilla chips anywhere. I always order the dang quesa-dilla.

3 Qdoba- I decided to chose just one of the burrito places and Qdoba is my choice. Honorable mention goes to Chipotle who just missed out because of the absence of nacho cheese from their menu. How can you do Mexican without even the possibility of nacho cheese? Seriously Chipotle, add the nacho cheese and you're on the list. These new burrito places are my favorite new fast food-like restaurants.

2 Fiesta Bravo- authentic Mexican food done fast and well. They have great salsa. one time Kelly and I caught them before a holiday and they gave us a whole container of their salsa that I ate for three days. This is the closest Mexican place to our house but, even if it wasn't, I'd go out of my way to eat Fiesta Bravo.

1 El Rancho Grande- Yes, by far, the best Mexican place in town. You know it's good when we could be at Fiesta Bravo in two minutes, but we'll drive almost twenty minutes to get to El Rancho Grande. Located right off the Sharonville exit off I-275, the quality of the food and speed by which they get it to you makes it the ultimate dining experience. True, the ambiance leaves something to be desired, but the food is so good you don't even notice. You're loco if you don't try their burrito loco. Currently El Rancho holds the title of my favorite restaurant. If you've never been here, you need to go- today. El Rancho Rocks!

Olé!