Barrio

We were talking the other day about downtown St.Paul, and Lowertown in specific, and how we need to explore more of this area. Living here in the Twin Cities has a lot of benefits, one of them being the access and opportunities provided by both of the cities. Since we both love mexican food, I booked reservations for a late supper at Barrio in St. Paul.

My fiance has been the the Minneapolis Barrio in the past, and she really liked it, but I had never been, or really heard of many details about it. I pretty much went there with no prior knowledge or assumptions, and left having had a really positive experience. It was very busy, which is expected for 8 pm on a Friday. The atmosphere is very lively, with low lighting and some really neat decorations (huge wall mural, very cool bar with library ladders for the tequila shelves, Mexican wrestling masks, and a huge bull "statue"). We were seated with a great view of Mears Park, and placed an order for appetizers and a Nordeast and Fulton Lonely Blonde (a very good local beer, if you haven't tried it, you need to). We ordered the chips and salsa trio and the queso fundido (with roasted poblano peppers with warm flour tortillas).

Salsa trio

Queso fundido

 I forgot to write down what each salsa was, but they got progressively hotter as you moved to the left. They had very good flavor, but the medium one was already hotter than most place's hot. We mainly ate the mild one, and tried the hot once, which was all we needed. My only gripe was the chips, as they weren't that good. Some were really crispy, while others had soft spots on them. The chips and salsa trio was pretty inexpensive, but if you don't like really hot salsa, then you will only be eating one of the salsa's, so it may not be a good deal then. The queso was fantastic. Most queso I have had has been pretty "runny" (not the best term), with more of a nacho cheese consistency. I have never liked this, and typically don't eat very much queso. This queso was much thicker, more dip-like, and had awesome flavor. The poblanos in it were perfect, and it was actually a really filling dish, especially when using the grilled tortillas to dip into it. I would definately get it again.

beef barbacoa taco

Amish chicken enchilada

We ordered three tacos and an enchilada, which all had some unique ingredients and looked very good. We got the Amish chicken enchilada (al pastor with salsa verde and crema), the spiced shrimp taco (with tomato mint and pico de gallo), the beef barbacoa taco (with avacado and habanero pickled onion), and a grilled Amish chicken taco (with heirloom tomato pico de gallo and pineapple-mango salsa).  

spiced shrimp taco

grilled Amish chicken taco

The tacos were exceptionally good. The barbacoa had very good flavor and was super tender, and was definately hot with the habanero pickled onions on it. My fiance especially liked the crema on the enchilada, and the shrimp taco also had a great spiciness level to it. Our favorite was the grilled Amish chicken taco. The pineapple-mango salsa was very well balanced by the fresh jalapenos, and it was spicy, but in a really good way. Overall, the food was very good. The service was also good, as our server had a lot of tables to cover, but consistently checked in on us, and was very cordial. Even the manager served us one of our tacos and made sure everything was ok. This was a great first stop in our quest to explore more of downtown St.Paul, and we saw several more places while walking around that are now on our hit list.