La Casa Brito

La Casa Brito 6618 Westminster Blvd Westminster, CA 92683 (714) 891-7513 Listing at Cortera Business Directory Listing at What's Good Here? Official Site(?)

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Our written review for La Casa Brito comes from Steve T.:

If you’re looking for a great, low-key Mexican restaurant in North OC (Westminster), check out La Casa Brito, an unpretentious little sit-down in a strip mall; tile floor, wooden tables and booths; never too crowded, but never dead either.

I’ve eaten their hard shell tacos (deliciously crispy), Baja Fish (soft shell), Enchiladas, Machaca and Eggs (one of my personal favorites), Huevos Rancheros, Chile Verde, Chile Relleno, Wet Burritos, Camarones and Carne Asada plates and have never been disappointed. The Combo plates are all great and come with the traditional chips and salsa, rice, beans, and corn tortillas. As an additional bonus, unless you’re a huge eater, you’ll probably end up taking some home for later.

La Casa Brito offers a traditional Cal-Mex menu… you won’t find Cuervo Gold margaritas but you can order your choice of cerveza, wine, and/or wine margaritas. What you will find though is good portions of tasty, old-fashioned family-style Mexican food at an affordable price with enough depth in their menu to keep you coming back again and again.

La Casa Brito is kind of like an old standby; I give it a solid Four Star Rating.

Steve T.

Click here for the full flickr photo album (21 photos so far).

Rodrigo's - The UnReview

Date of Visit: December 8, 2007

Rodrigo's 15101 Goldenwest St. Huntington Beach, CA 92647 (714) 839-4950 Review at SqueezeOC Official Site

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Whenever I get ready to go to a Mexican restaurant as part of a big group event I always get revved up thinking I'll be able to get tons of pictures of different dishes and everybody's opinion on the dishes they each got but at the end of each such occasion I realize that the focus of the event was more on socializing than on food.

My recent visit to Rodrigo's was just such an event seeing as how it was for two different birthdays in the family. Rodrigo's is in the spot at Goldenwest and Bolsa that used to be a Don Jose's Ricardo, then was torn down and a completely new building arose in its place that is now Ricardo's. Oddly enough, during my first visit to Rodrigo's I ordered the exact same dish, the Arroz con Camarones y Pollo, that I ordered during my last visit to Don Jose's Ricardo.

The food at Rodrigo's is not a lot different than the food from the place that used to be there but the decor is definitely a little snazzier. Here are some pictures from my family's dual birthday party visit to Rodrigo's:

The Botana Platter: "Rodrigo’s finest combination of Nachos, a grilled Quesadilla, Taquitos, Mexi-Wings, and Potato Skins stuffed with Chunky Chicken and melted cheese, garnished with guacamole, jalapenos, and sour cream. $9.99":

My Arroz con Camarones y Pollo, "Marinated tender shrimp and grilled chicken breast sautéed with peppers and chiles in a mild Jalapeno garlic butter. Served on a bed of Mexican rice and topped with our Red Chile sauce and olives. $12.49":

Carnitas

Deep-fried Ice Cream

Flan

Got this great rainbow shot before heading in. If you look close you can see that it's actually a double rainbow:

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Alerto's on Brookhurst

Here we have something like a double review, which is really a reprint (with permission) of ElmoMonster's review of Alerto's in Westminster, then my thoughts on the one in Fountain Valley. These locations are both on Brookhurst, perhaps two miles apart from each other so they should each be the same but apparently one is a good bit better than the other (as borne out by numerous comments in ElmoMonster's original post).

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Alerto's Mexican Food 15681 Brookhurst St Westminster, CA 92683 (714) 775-9550 Listing on Yahoo! Local Listing on Ask.com's Citysearch No known official website.

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Just say: "half order carne asada nachos" and for $4.68, you get the quintessential fuel for all-nighters, food for the nocturnal munchies, the harbinger of heart-burns, the anti-Lipitor, and my favorite item at Alerto's, a Mexican food pit-stop famous for enormous burritos stuffed with nothing but meat.

There are two Alerto's outposts on Brookhurst Street, and although they are a few blocks from each other, each are technically in different cities. One is in Fountain Valley, while the other, Westminster. The Westminster branch is cleaner, more consistent, with a dining room that's open until 12:30 a.m. on most nights and a drive-thru that never closes.

But at either one, when ordering the nachos, always specify "Half Order", because since the quantity served is the same, the only difference between the full order and the half is two bucks.

In any case, by the time your styrofoam container of food is ready, you should probably have done fifty sit-ups to offset what you're about to consume: a pile of freshly fried and greaseless tortilla chips smothered with the culprits of an unhealthy diet, including:

• Refried Beans
• Guacamole
• Pico de Gallo
• Sour Cream
• Grated Cheese
• Cubes of Carne Asada

The first bite is always the best, simply because guilt hasn't set in. You revel in the hearty corn crunch of real tortilla chips; the pleasant mushiness of refried beans; the chewy/tender morsels of seasoned steak; the slobbery green goo of the guacamole; the tang of cheese; the coolness of sour cream; and the oniony bite of the pico de gallo. It all makes sense and feels so right, especially when it's way past your bedtime.

Remorse always follows the last chip, not because of all the fat and calories, but because you want another one.

Thanks, Elmo.

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Now as a postscript I have to admit that in the comments on his blog I mentioned not really liking the Fountain Valley location, or at least having had a bad experience there. I'm willing to give any place a second chance and when I went back with a group of people, my one visit since my bad experience, the food was better. Comments left by other people there clarify that the Westminster location is still definitely the better of the two, with no dissenting or contrary opinions. It goes against the credo of my blog (which is to have an overall positive tone) to tell people to not go to a certain restaurant but hopefully the FV Alerto's can put a little effort into catching up with the Westminster location.