This weekend, I decided to go back home to Dallas and had every intention to grab some good Mexican food but, I ran out of time. By the time I made it back to Wichita Falls, I was seriously craving for some so I decided to visit a place a coworker suggested, El Ñorteno.

I’m still not familiar with the entire city, so I used my GPS and found it close by the MPAC. At first, we were a bit confused on where the entrance was. My friend and I walked towards where the sign was above the door, but that seemed to be the kitchen, so I followed the painted arrows on the wall that pointed to a door that had some type of security bars on it and I realized that was still the wrong door.

Confused and hungry, we walked back towards where we parked and saw what looked like a house that was connected to the front building so we walked towards it and I wish I hadn’t gone all around the world for no reason because that was the actual entrance.

We walked in and it seemed so homey. Small tables and booths, real family oriented. There were a few beer signs and things on the wall, but nothing that screamed commercial or chain restaurant. We got to seat ourselves and a waiter came and gave us a menu and took our drink orders. He brought back the biggest restaurant sized cup I’d ever seen and was I happy because I was super parched. I perused the menu for a bit and knew what I wanted as soon as I saw “gordita plate,” but I kept looking and saw that tostadas were a menu item and I couldn’t decide, so I ended up getting the steak gordita meal with one chicken tostada; while my friend chose the barbacoa supreme burrito.

A lady came to our table with two containers of salsa and some chips while we waited.  I LOVE chips and salsa so I couldn’t wait to try it. It looked like it was a house salsa, dark green, and the chips looked like they were made in-house too. I took a chip and did a dip taste (I just dipped the tip of the chip into the salsa to taste it) and almost instantly, my entire mouth melted. The salsa was so spicy but it was too good for me to even care so I dipped more chips and kept eating until my food arrived.

Maybe 20-25 minutes had passed and all of our food arrived. My friend had the biggest burrito I’d ever seen. I mean the thing was huge and it filled the entire plate. It could easily be compared to the size of a newborn child.My gordita meal came with rice and refried beans and “toppings” (pico de gallo, onions and lettuce) on the side and my tostada was topped with shredded chicken, tomatoes, cheese, and shredded lettuce.

As always, I tasted my friend’s meal first. I let him take a bite and I pulled a piece of meat out of the burrito to taste because not all barbacoa is done right, but El Ñorteno’s was right on the target with their’s. Then I took a bite, and another bite, and another until I was made to unhand the burrito. It was addictingly good.

Now to my plate. I grabbed a piece of steak out of one of my gorditas and was extremely pleased. I’ve had good steak before, but this was premium, top notch, gordita-quality steak. Then I tore a piece of bread to taste it and that was good too. The refried beans and rice were good as well. Before I started actually eating the full meal, I decided to take a bite of my tostada. I was a tad bit disappointed because my shredded chicken was a little dry, but it was nothing a little Valentina Salsa Picante hot sauce couldn’t fix (which was one of the condiments kept on each table by the way).

I made sure to use some of their spicy green salsa on one of my gorditas and it was amazing without the pico and things, and the burrito was perfect,  large and in charge. My chicken needed a boost but was still good and I got so full that I had leftovers that I ate for lunch today and it’s safe to say that even day old El Ñorteno is still good as ever.

I found out that there is an El Ñorteno 2 somewhere close to MSU so a visit there sometime soon is a must.