For the past couple of years, my wife and I would drive past a Mexican place on Brady Street just north of downtown Davenport - Los Compadres Taco Shop. We were intrigued enough when it actually stayed in business for more than a year as it was located in a spot that seemed to change restaurants once every six months or so. One night not long ago we decided to stop at Los Compadres and check the place out.
It turns out that Los Compadres is owned by the Garcia family who owns the La Flama restaurant that moved from Moline to Davenport nearly a year and a half ago. (Click here to see the Road Tips review on La Flama.) Before opening the new La Flama, brothers Alex, Martin and Juan Garcia found the building at 512 Brady Street (see map) that used to house a Thai restaurant and another Mexican restaurant in the past. They opened Los Compadres in February of 2016.
My wife and I have two gold standards for Mexican food around the Quad Cities - El Mariachi in Moline for full menu Mexican food, and Los Primos in Davenport for simple street tacos. We were hopeful that we could add Los Compadres to our rotation of Mexican restaurants when we went there. We found a parking space just outside Los Compadres and went inside just around 8 p.m. on a Friday night. The place was about half full and we were able to sit at a booth in the main dining area of the restaurant. There were some whimsical signs in the main dining room such as this one - "I'm in shape. Unfortunately, that shape is a tamal."
There is a second dining room that is much more staid than the main dining area. Compared to the main dining room, the second dining room looks a little dated.
We were given menus along with a small basket of chips with salsa served in a small bowl. However, a small pitcher of salsa was brought out with the margaritas we ordered. The margaritas were a little too sweet and somewhat syrupy for our tastes, but they were definitely packed with tequila.
It's your typical Mexican fare at Los Compadres - tacos, burritos, enchiladas, etc. We ended up going with enchiladas for our dinners - I got the ground beef with the chili verde sauce, while my wife got the chicken enchiladas with the chili verde. The enchiladas were drizzled with sour cream and finished with fresh chopped cilantro. A side of Mexican rice and beans came with the enchiladas. The beans weren't your usual kind of refried beans - these hadn't been mashed up like you'll find at most Mexican restaurants.
The enchiladas were fine, but the we determined the salsa verde was very salty. I usually don't salt much of anything - my wife likes to salt up her food from time to time. But even she thought the enchiladas were too salty thanks to the salsa verde. That was too bad as it detracted from what seemed to be a pretty good enchilada.
I wanted to try one of their tacos and I got a carnitas taco topped with chopped onions and cilantro. It was good - maybe not as flavorful or as juicy as the carnitas that they have up the hill at Los Primos. But it was still good for what it was.
My wife and I were never huge fans of the La Flama restaurant over in Moline, but we thought their food was good. But we will say that we liked the food at Los Compadres Taco Shop much more. The only complaint was that the chili verde sauce we had on our enchiladas was too salty. And maybe the other quibble was that the margarita was a little too sweet and syrupy for my taste, but it probably had to be sweet to offset the enormous amount of tequila they had mixed in. The carnitas taco I had was good, and we liked their house salsa, as well. While we may not put Los Compadres into our regular rotation of Mexican food places around the Quad Cities, it will still warrant a visit or two from us in the future.
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