My wife and I were down in Muscatine recently and as it was around the lunch hour we decided to find one of our favorite little Mexican restaurants. As we pulled up in front, we noticed another small place that appeared to be attached to a automotive repair shop. Now, there are a lot of great Mexican places in Muscatine and we've been to many of them, but not this one. We decided to go in and try the food at La Morelia.
La Morelia is a family-run restaurant that got its start over 15 years ago in Muscatine when Maria Guzman originally opened the restaurant. The Guzman family was from Morelia in the state of Michoacan in Mexico - the same place where hundreds of thousands of monarch butterflies migrate to each year, hence the monarch butterflies on the La Morelia logo. Like many Mexican restaurants, the family was urged to open a restaurant by other family members and friends. Maria Guzman's son Julio and his wife Carmen head up the restaurant today and are helped out by many other Guzman family members.
Michoacan cuisine is one of the most diverse in Mexico - because of its location along the Pacific Ocean, you'll find a number of seafood dishes. However, because of its rural inland, you'll find chicken, pork and beef dishes in many variations. Michoacan regional cuisine is one of the more authentic Mexican types of food that you can find.
Well, it actually turns out that we had probably eaten at La Morelia before. Years ago, we found a little place that was in the back of a Mexican grocery store in a strip mall along Oregon Street on Muscatine's south side. We absolutely loved the food there, but when we went back a few years ago the store and the restaurant were gone. In doing some research for this blog entry, I found that La Morelia was located in the same building on Oregon Street before they had moved to their present day location on Mulberry Street near downtown Muscatine. (see map) I'm not certain when they made the move, but we had eaten at El Olmito next door a couple times and I had never noticed La Morelia before. (Then again, my wife says I'm not very observant.)
La Morelia is not very big. It seats - maybe - 30 people in its small dining area. The walls were painted an earthy pastel orange and colorful paintings of the Michoacan region hung on the walls.
We took a seat at a table along the wall and our server, a pleasant young lady who said her grandmother started La Morelia, came over to drop off menus along with a basket of warm fresh chips and salsa. We asked her if she had any salsa verde and she brought out a large squeeze bottle full of the green salsa. The red salsa had a sweet tomato taste, but the salsa verde had a sneaky spicy taste on the back end that we liked tremendously.
The menu was basic, yet interesting with a number of taco and enchilada plates, burritos and tortas. They also had Carne al a Tampiqueña on the menu - grilled skirt steak topped with grilled onions and jalapeños, and served with rice, beans, a quesadilla, an enchilada and guacamole. I was told that if a Mexican restaurant serves Tampiqueña in the U.S., it's the real deal.
We decided to go with tacos for lunch - always a safe bet when you're trying a Mexican restaurant for the first time. La Morelia featured a number of different meats from steak, beef, pork, chorizo, chicken, lengua (beef tongue) and tripe. On the weekends, they also have braised beef barbacoa and carnitas. They also make all their own corn taco shells in house, as well. My wife got al chicken taco and a barbacoa taco topped with chopped cilantro and onions with rice and beans. While she really liked the taste of chicken taco, she wasn't too whippy on the barbacoa taco.
I also got a barbacoa taco that I thought was outstanding. In fact, it rivaled the braised beef barbacoa tacos that I love so much at Los Primos in Davenport. (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Los Primos.) It had a bit of chopped cilantro along with chopped onions and Chihuahua cheese on top of the taco. I also got a pork taco - they marinate the pork and slow roast it. The pork taco was also very good. About the only thing I would have done different would be to get it without the white Chihuahua cheese. But they were both very good.
Something on the menu caught my eye and I wanted to try it - the Taco Costeño. It was a pressed quesadilla-like corn taco that was filled with steak, poblano peppers, sour cream and a white queso sauce. Now, THIS was absolutely outstanding! The flavors that melded together were wonderful. Out of the three things I had I'd say the Taco Costeño was the best, but the barbacoa and the pork tacos were certainly close behind.
We were talking with the young lady for a moment before we left. She said they were probably going to open a second and larger location out toward Park Ave. in Muscatine. I asked if they were going to keep this location open and she said she didn't know for sure. I said, "Whatever you guys do, you HAVE to keep this location open." The small cozy atmosphere was on par with how great the food was. (See update below.)
As I said earlier, Muscatine certainly does have some outstanding authentic Mexican restaurants and La Morelia was absolutely no exception. Don't be fooled by the location next to a garage, La Morelia serves some of the finest and most authentic Mexican food that we've come across. While my wife loved her chicken taco, I thought the braised beef barbacoa and the pork tacos were outstanding. But topping those was the Taco Costeño that was basically a flat pressed steak taco with poblano peppers, sour cream and a queso blanco sauce. We're hoping that they keep this location open when they open their larger location sometime this year, but if they don't we'll still go to the new location as I'm sure the food won't be any different from what we experienced on this visit.
(Update - Closing their small restaurant, La Morelia moved from their small location to a new - and larger - location in early April of this year. Their new location is 810 Park Ave. in Muscatine (see map). Same great food and they now have a liquor license for margaritas and beer! They are open Monday thru Saturday, closed Sunday.)
Comments