Momocho

 

We all know I'm not a food blogger or a professional critic by any means, but when I try a new (fanstastic) and local restaurant I kind of feel like it's my duty to share the experience with all of you. One of my favorite things about Cleveland (and really NE Ohio in general) is that there are positively gobs of outstanding restaurants to choose from on any given night. I'm always on the hunt for an exciting and delicious new place I haven't tried before, and as with the case Saturday night, I'm rarely disappointed. After many rounds of scheduling and plans falling through, and re-scheduling I finally made my way up to Ohio City for dinner at Momocho to celebrate the birthday of my sweet friend, Bonnie.

 

Momocho is a little mod mex neighborhood restaurant on Fulton. It's small in scale but heavy on atmosphere. It took a couple of tries to get Saturday night reservations and when we arrived at 6 the place was already packed and the night was in full swing.

 

We decided to go big on appetizers since it was a birthday celebration after all - so we started with the guacamole and salsa samplers. For the guac samplers you can choose any three of their specialty guacamoles (they have about 6 or so to choose from.) For the first pick we went with the goat cheese, tomato and chile poblano, the second was one with garlic, blue cheese and chile verde and finally the smoked trout, bacon and chile poblano guacamole. They were all really really good, but I especially loved the goat cheese offering. Somehow those flavors really melded together perfectly. The salsa sampler was equally delicious as you got to try all three of their house salsas, a sweet, a spicy and a mild. Plus the servings were huge and the chips were fresh and hot.

 

We honestly could have just eaten the samplers and been full, but we opted to save some room for entrees and had the leftover guacamole and salsas boxed up to take take home. For entrees I had the shrimp taquitos and Bonnie had the tuna. Neither of which were listed on their online menu so both were a welcomed surprise. The shrimp and tuna were each served in a bowl soaking in their respective sauces and accoutrements and you make your own taquitos with the little corn tortillas they bring to the table. They each also came with different sauces and marmelades on the side to add a little unexpected flavor into the mix if you should so desire.

 

Everything was so good and I have absolutely no complaints. As a lover of food, especially mexican food, I am super excited to have this little gem of restaurant so nearby. Momocho - try it.

(Just don't forget to make reservations!)