Last night's tea; probably 8 on the CCS (cheese coma scale)

Last night Rich and I went out for dinner to a Mexican restaurant a bit further north on South Congress, in the heart of SoCo. It was the Mexican festival of Cinco de Mayo (5th May for you non-Spanish speakers out there) which is celebrated as the date the Mexicans obtained independence from France, I think. No need for too much historical detail, though, you just need to know it is an excuse for a party!

Unfortunately, the majority of the party had happened at the weekend while we were car shopping (SO dull, and hot, but on the plus side I think we are buying one today). But we had been told about this Mexican restaurant, El Gallo, and that it was lively and busy and has good food, so we thought it was worth a go. The restaurant is great, and they had a Mariachi band playing due to the festival, which added a good party atmosphere.

As any of you who have been to the US will know, they haven't really gotten a hold on portion control yet, and so I opted for the "Gallo Salad" which I thought looked the lightest of the "platos combinadas", being the options with a variety of authentic Mexican dishes. Rich unsurprisingly went for the most expensive thing on the menu, being the special of the house, stewed goat.

We were each brought a guacamole salad to start which was really good, and mine included a beef taco and some cheese. We were off to a great start! The next course was slightly more amusing, however. I had to choose between a cheese enchilada and a chile con queso and had picked the chile assuming it would be meat with cheese on top (my fave!) Unfortunately my Spanish is obviously not up to that much, because what I was brought was a corn tortilla covered in a cheesy soup, with a few chilis through it. How that much cheese could be sold under the banner of "Salad" I have no idea! Rich graciously split his goat stew with me and took a couple of ladlefuls of cheese in return.

I drowned my sorrows in a Margarita on the rocks - apparently Margaritas were invented in Texas, but picking crushed ice would be an obvious tourist error. Rich had a beer, which was also amusingly brought together with a glass decorated with salt and lime. He said it complemented the dark ale perfectly though!

So possibly this wasn't the Mexican fare we were imagining, but the food was good, the atmosphere was great, and the bill was v light on the pocket. If you come out to visit, I would definitely suggest taking you there, although I might order something different from the menu!