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To me, it's mandatory for a Mexican restaurant to serve menudo on weekends, as I consider that the most important benchmark to judge a Mexican restaurant by. OK, that's must me... but when I stopped by at Adalberto's Mexican Food in Rocklin, and was told they didn't served menudo at the Rocklin location - they serve it at a couple of Sacramento locations - I was sadly disappointed. I had to settle for Huevos Rancheros... But, I survived...
Photo: Adalberto's Mexican Food is a small chain of Mexican restaurants, located in the greater Sacramento area. The food is good, very basic, and in my opinion, rates a couple of notches above fast food restaurants, but well below most taquerias. They are open 24/7, and feature a very busy drive-through operation. On this rainy, late Saturday morning, February 8, 2014, I was in the mood for menudo, but, sadly, I didn't find it at the Rocklin location.
Photo: Like most taquerias, the menu is posted above the order/serving counter. You make your selection, pay for it, and within a couple of minutes, your order is ready. Adalberto's in Rocklin features lightning-fast service, as my order of Huevos Rancheros was ready within about three minutes. At the extreme right of the counter, they have a complementary chips and salsa bar, that features extremely fresh chips, several varieties of salsa, including fresh, in-house salsa cruda, and runny avocado-tomatillo salsa, just like you'd find in Tijuana! I give them an "A" for their salsa bar, as it's one of the best that I've seen in the area. The photo doesn't show it, but many of my fellow diners, including the gentleman at the counter with the pony tail - who arrived in the rain on a bicycle - and a group of diners sitting behind me, out of the photo, looked like "People of Wal Mart" people, and were using some colorful language. Interesting...
Photo: The counter staff today was a guy and a gal, who seemed friendly, but quite busy, and I really didn't get good "vibes" to take photos, or to give them my business card, so I kept a very low profile. There were two people in the very spacious kitchen, which can be seen through the window. I love the order wheel, which reminds me of a 1960's diner. I give Adalberto's Mexican Food the award for the fastest order-to-table Mexican food that I've ever seen, as my order was ready in about three minutes. I barely had time to help myself to chips and salsa before my order was ready. Now, that's FAST!!! As can be seen in the photo, the menu selections is vast, to say the least...
Photo: Good things and not-so-good things about today's lunch. Good things first: Good food, albeit basic, amazingly-fast service, and at $5.75, my Huevos Rancheros represented an excellent value. The foundation is two corn tortillas, with two eggs perched on top of the tortillas, and then covered with ranchero sauce, and fresh salsa cruda, which included cilantro! Refried beans, covered with shredded cheese, and rice, covered with shredded lettuce round out the meal. Two gigantic flour tortillas are rolled up in the paper. The fresh chips and avocado-tomatillo salsa came from the salsa bar, and were among the best I've had. Now the "not-so-good..." I "assume" that the majority of Adalberto's business is "to-go," as my order came in a styrafoam "to-go" box, complete with a few napkins - there were napkins on the table - and a couple of little plastic containers of red and green salsa. My order was presented to me in a bag, which sort of surprised me. Utensils are located next to the chips/salsa bar, but they're flimsy, cheap plastic affairs, which break when you attempt to do anything. During the course of my meal, I went through exactly four, cheap, plastic forks. OK, that was the "not-so-good." On to the bad... During my meal, most of the customers had left the restaurant, so the counter gal took a break from her counter duties, and proceeded to mop the floor. The mop bucket solution reeked of pine-something, and the fumes from it made my food taste like whatever was in the bucket. I mentioned to her the fumes were spoiling my meal, and she apologized, and wheeled the mop bucket away. However, the damage was done, and I had lost my appetite. Thank goodness that I was almost finished with my meal before the mopping started! Today's dining experience was nothing particularly special, as the food was good, albeit basic, the staff friendly, and at $5.75 for a complete meal, Adalberto's Huevos Rancheros represented an value. It's a shame the Rocklin location doesn't serve menudo on weekends, but that's something that I'll just have to live with. Adalberto's Mexican Food Copyright(c) 2014 eRench Productions. All rights reserved. This site has been on the web since December 22, 2002.
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