LAFAYETTE, CALIFORNIA – When most people think of Mexican food, they think of a pretty standard spread of tacos, nachos, burritos and perhaps some little ramekins of salsa.
A new Mexican cuisine popup in Lafayette starts with those well-worn basics. But it takes them in a totally different direction, bringing in flavors (and spice!) that are new and unexpected.
Chef Rick Martinez, author of cookbooks like Salsa Daddy and Mi Cocina and a contributor the New York Times, just launched a new menu offering at Local Kitchens in Lafayette, California (and other locations around the Bay Area) featuring Sonoran cuisine.
The ingredients are sourced directly from Mexico, and they highlight the Sonora region specifically, with grilled meats, flame-broiled tortillas, lots of unique salsas, and more.
Local Kitchens sent me several items from Chef Rick’s new menu to try. I liked many of them, but the real star was a surprising dessert that unexpectedly stole the show!
Here’s my review–and more about that uniquely creative dessert.
Tacos, Burritos (and Lots of Spice!)
Let me get this out of the way right up front–Chef Rick’s new menu is extremely spicy. Everything from the tacos, to the salsas, to the street corn are loaded with chili and other spicy ingredients.
If you love spicy food, you’re going to love this place! If not, or if you’re dining with a group of spice lovers and spice-avoiders, you might want to choose another item on Local Kitchens’ menu (I got a Square Pie Guys pizza for my kids).
Chef Rick’s menu starts with a spread of classic tacos. Instead of simple meats and cheese, though, the tacos are topped with marbled carne asada and a smoked pecan salsa, and are served on California-sourced tortillas from tortilleria Mejorado.
In addition to the Carne Asada taco, there’s a chicken version with similarly bright and unique flavors, and a vegetable taco (Vegetable Adobada) with grilled portobello mushroom, nopales, poblano pepper, salsa tatemada suave, pecan salsa macha, white onion, and cilantro.
The tacos are also available in a “Carmelo” version–basically a fried hybrid of a taco and a quesadilla, with a crisped-up tortilla instead of the normal soft one.
All the tacos are fiery hot–those salsas aren’t messing around! The flavors are delicious–much richer and more complex than what you’d find in your standard taco truck fare.
Chef Rick also serves several burritos. We tried the Carne Asada burrito, which was filling and a bit less spicy than the tacos themselves. This would be a good lunch option on the go–the tacos had a lot of juice and oil, but the burrito format kept all that nicely contained.
There are several salads on the menu that we didn’t get to try. Many dishes are also available as a rice bowl, rather than a taco or burrito, with similar ingredients and sauces.
Sonoran Sides
Alongside the tacos and burritos, Chef Rick serves a variety of Sonora-inspired side dishes, as well as familiar classics.
There’s a Mexican street corn, served on the cob and topped with cheese and a smoky sauce.
Chef Rick also has a rotating lineup of unique salsas. You can add these to your meal for $1 each, in little side containers that helpfully come labeled so you know exactly which salsa you’re getting (in this photo you can also see the store-bought tortillas and Local Kitchens Square Pie Guys pizza that I served my spice-averse 4 and 5 year olds.)
I especially liked Chef Rick’s signature pecan salsa, and the tomatillo salsa was tasty too. And yes, all the salsas are spicy!
With the more complex sides, Chef Rick also serves classics like housemade guac.
There’s also a bean dip (frijoles) with chipotle and cumin which made for a nice, very filling side.
I appreciated that the meal came with a hefty portion of housemade tortilla chips. They were very fresh and nicely salted–perfect for dipping into the guac and frijoles.
That Dessert, Though
After a very filling meal from Chef Rick’s menu, I almost forgot that I had ordered the sole dessert on offer. I got it almost as an afterthought, and nearly left it on top of my microwave where I’d haphazardly placed it before the meal.
I’m glad I didn’t. It turns out that the dessert stole the show.
Chef Rick’s menu includes a dish called Summer Berry Nachos. They look a lot like a standard plate of nachos, except instead of savory ingredients, everything is sweet.
The chips are cinnamon sugar tortilla chips–strongly reminiscent of churros. The “salsa” is a delicious blend of berries that tastes like the middle of a cherry pie. And instead of melted cheese, the nachos are topped with sweet queso fresco–kind of like a cream cheese or mascarpone drizzle.
The dish felt extremely playful and creative, swapping out each traditional nacho ingredient for a fanciful and sweet alternative. And it was delicious! Again, “triangular mini churro” is what comes to mind, except with the delicious berry salsa substituted for the standard dulce de leche.
Everyone in the family descended on and devoured this dish before I was able to take more than a single photo. We all agreed that it was our favorite item on the menu.
The Verdict
I enjoyed the food on Chef Rick’s new menu. The flavors felt unique and well-executed, and it was cool to see the inclusion of many ingredients that are specially sourced and don’t normally appear on Mexican cuisine menus in the US.
It was also nice to have lots of choices–each core protein was available as tacos, a rice bowl, or a burrito, with different twists and flavors added to each version.
To enjoy the food here, you definitely need to like spice. Every item except for the guac and the dessert was spicy, and the tacos were downright fiery.
If you like spicy food, that’s a big plus. If you’re sensitive to spice, though, it might be a challenge. What I recommend is having some sour cream ready to slather on everything to moderate the spice a bit.
The nice thing with Local Kitchens, too, is that you can mix and match. My eight year old loved the items on Chef Rick’s menu, and treated the spiciness like a fun challenge. For my little ones, I could get a Square Pie Guys pizza in the same order so everyone was happy. It’s also possible that Local Kitchens will make the spice more moderate over time, which we’ve seen happen before as the restaurant tweaks menus for customer tastes.
The big star–and probably the most underrated dish on the menu–was the summer berry nachos. The creativity of creating a plate of nachos, but switching each item out for a sweet version, felt like something out of a Food Network cooking challenge or a Netflix special.
And although this could have been a gimmicky dish, everything was so well made that it was genuinely delicious to eat. I could have eaten a bowl of the pie-like berry salsa with a spoon. And the cinnamon sugar nachos felt decadent while still having a root (churros) in Mexican flavors.
You can order Chef Rick’s menu on the Local Kitchens website. or stop in at 3455 Mount Diablo Blvd.
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