Laredo’s Grill
555 Aloha Street #100
Seattle, Washington
(206) 218-1040

Mexican food is great if one can handle the spiciness in some of their dishes. But when it comes to gulping down a jalapeño whole to kickstart my meal, it felt like I walked into Hell’s Kitchen, and I mean that with the highest regards.

Back home, Hernande’z in Yates Street mall does a good job for meals on the cheap, but when you start paying more for a more filling soft taco, there’s a better value for the buck.

At Laredo’s, I tried a combo platter ($8.95) with a sampling of each of their meaty flavours. I had slow cooked Achiote pork (Carnitas), steak from Harris Ranch (al Carbon), cumin flavoured black beans and even more pork, marinated (Al Pastor). They were served on a soft but lightly crisped tortilla, and the chefs here don’t skimp in the portions.

These were almost quite filling on its own, and if that didn’t get my heart pumping faster to knock down my waist line, the second part to my meal did.

The Carmarones a la Diabla ($8.95) was even more of a firestsrter. The chile de Arbol brought out the flavour of the white mushrooms and peppers, but what sold me was the shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico. These were beautiful nuggets of soft juicy meat had a lot more substance to them when compared to local shrimp I’ve had elsewhere, and I can easily imagine what they’d taste like if popcorned up.

And in a perfect world, the Gulf of Mexico will hopefully soon be cleaned up so more of this juicy shrimp can be harvested.

4 Blokes out of 5