We had houseguests from the UK this past week, and before they set off in their rental car up through the Mojave, we thought we should stoke them up with a good Mexican breakfast. (Don't bother with jokes about fuel efficiency and gas-powered vehicles -- we already made 'em all.)
Pomona has several options, of course. Guasalmex, unfortunately, doesn't open until 11am on saturdays, so that was right out. K. turns up his nose at Casa Jimenez, although I'm pretty fond of the place (except for the margaritas -- they truly blow).
While I was walking back from downtown with our visitors, we stopped by El Molcajete, which is the new name of the place on Palomares and Holt that I always thought of as Osama (it was really Osana). It looks pretty good, and the breakfast menu had a number of tasty-looking offerings. What time do you open on saturdays? Eight am. Exxxxcellent!
Saturday morning we got up and moseyed down to El Molcajete, only to find it shut up tight. After enough door-rattling, we got someone to pantomime to us that they didn't open till 10am. Doh!
In the event, we ended up at El Merendero, the new location of which we hadn't tried yet. Three of us got eggs 'n' chorizo, and one had Mexican eggs (a scramble with peppers, tomatoes, and onions). Everything was good, although I like Casa Jimenez's huevos con chorizo slightly better. And the selection was definitely slim, compared with the rich offerings of both CJ and El Molcajete. But our guests were amused by folks coming in bearing pots from home, to fill with caldo de rez to go, which I've never seen at Casa Jimenez. (I'm fairly sure they weren't getting menudo, because the sign said "No menudo until 11am.")
6 comments:
Where is El Molcajete?
It's on the corner of Palomares and Holt, walking distance from our house.
Why even consider anyplace but
El Merendero? My favorite is the one by the fairgrounds (technically La Verne, I guess). It is simply the best, hands down.
Have you been to El Molcajete, Anon?
We haven't tried the El Merendero by the fairgrounds -- we'll be sure to check it out. But I'm still gonna try El Molcajete, in the interests of science.
Hard to get use to the new name after eating at Osunas for more than I care to admit. I speculated that being a Seattleite, my endorsement of the food probably wouldn't carry any weight, so I vainly looked for the positive newspaper review I read some time ago, but came up empty. It does exist, trust me!
We try to regularly patronize Osun.....oops, El Molcajetes, and after reading the comments on El Merendero, I guess I should slide some money in that direction, too......"in the interests of science," of course!
Meg--
You've got a real El Merendero partisan here. Why waste money and a hankering for Mexican on a second-tier joint when El Merendero is right there? ;-}
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