Growing up in a household where one parent was raised in a small, Texas border town I came to know Mexican food as what is more commonly called Tex-Mex. Fried corn tortillas, beans, potatoes and beef (lots of beef); that’s what a typical Sunday meal for me consisted of. While I know that’s not typical Mexican cuisine, it is what I think of when I visit restaurants such as Luisa’s Mexican Grill. As a matter of fact it’s what I think of when I go to most Mexican restaurants. My travels to Mexico have been limited, to say the least. All of my experience came from my stint in San Diego when friends and I could cross the border into Tijuana. But aside from the drinking what I remember are meals that were reminiscent of those weekends in the Eighties when my mother would spend all afternoon in the kitchen. So it is between my mother’s cooking and Tijuana street food that I feel I have a good grasp on what’s good Tex-Mex.

I ordered the Flautas ($10.25) as I had high hopes that Luisa’s would be able to recreate those heavenly, cigar-shaped treats I’d indulged in on my few excursions South of the border. What made me think that this was possible is that, as a filling, shredded beef was offered. Unfortunately instead of fine, long-threaded, slow-roasted beef the meat was chewy, dry and interspersed with diced potato, which I can only assume was added for bulk since there was little in the way of added flavor. As a matter of fact there was little flavor at all in the meat filling. Most of what I tasted was the overly think corn tortilla that had been wrapped around the filling and then deep fried. In an effort to disguise this log of hardened corn shell the kitchen drenched the two flautas in sour cream and guacamole. Not that their mild flavors would do anything for the overall taste of my meal. Aside from the flautas the beans and rice were passable; the beans having an overall smooth texture and topped with copious amounts of melted cheese. The rice was fluffy and speckled with diced onion and carrot, flavorful but nothing to write home about.

All in all Louisa’s was unexciting. As far as Tex-Mex Mexican restaurants in Seattle go it’s not someplace I would seek out as a place to eat. Of course, at the same time, if I lived in the neighborhood, I wouldn’t discount it as an option, as something other than Taco Bell ™, for some quick tacos or burritos.