La Parada

I love that you can live in this town for years and find new places that turn out to be little gems.  This place is one of them to me.  And it wasn’t perfect, but there is just something about it that makes you just like it as soon as you walk in.  Hubby might say it is the Mexican t.v. shows playing some show depicting scantily clad women that warmed his heart, so to speak, but I like the pure charm of the place.  It is a little tiny, almost diner-like place (anyone know what it originally was?) but it is super clean, and just a sort of a darn cute dive, if you know what I mean. 

I asked around (wow, people are pretty into this place) about what to order and got a lot of different answers, but probably 80% of them included some form of tacos so we knew we had to get several flavors of those ($1.99 each).  Because it sounded good (even if hubby thought I was potentially crazy), I also ordered a shrimp ceviche tostada ($3.75).

But first, they bring you chips and salsa—there is a mild very tomato saucey kind of salsa for dipping and then two hotter salsas for seasoning with.  One red, one green.  I really liked the green one right away, but it was pretty hot just by itself on a chip.  The chips themselves are nothing special, a little thicker than is my preference.

So the first thing they brought us was the tostada.  It was simple, with basically just chopped shrimp, cilantro, tomato and onion with a nice amount of lime juice and a couple of slices of avocado on top.  And it was a pretty generous portion for less than $4.  I really quite liked it.  Again, it wasn’t complicated, or particularly spicy, but the shrimp was tender (seriously, they can get it right but like 75% of Indy restaurants can’t?), and it was super fresh and light.  Turned out it was nice that they brought it first, because the tacos were spicier and would have really drowned out the flavors here if you ate them together I think.

So I tried to get a tongue taco because so many people recommended them, but as it turned out, it wasn’t to be because there was some miscommunication between me and our server.  But I can always make the best of what is offered (and I look forward to getting one the next time).  So we ended up with pork, spicy pork, and chicken (I am using their designations and not the traditional names just to avoid confusion because that is how they designate them on their English menus).

By far my favorite was the spicy pork (same for hubby).  The meat was exceedingly tender and had a nice amount of heat to it and lots and lots of flavor.  The corn tortillas (2 per taco) were also soft and you could really taste the corn flavor.  They were simply topped with onions and cilantro with lime wedges on the side.  They were good just like that, but when you topped them with some of that salsa verde.  Wow, it was amazing. One of the best tacos I have had.

The regular pork was also good.  If I didn’t have the spicy pork, I might rave about it more, but it was much milder in flavor.  The meat was also tender, but with some nice little crispy bits, and again, once I topped it with more of the green salsa, I was a happy camper.  The chicken was probably the least impressive, but it was still good—some of the better grilled chicken I have had in a Mexican place.  It was well seasoned and cooked and wasn’t tough at all, although it was a little dry.

So with this much food, a soda and a bottled beer for hubby, our bill was like $15.  The server was really super nice (even if we didn’t communicate with each other very well) and I wish this place was in my neighborhood.  The menu is huge and I want to try pretty much everything on it.  A bunch of you guys responded on twitter about what you recommend here when I asked, would love you guys to post a comment here telling everyone again (and anyone else too). I need a sub list of things to try at this place.  But no way will I not be ordering that spicy pork taco. Wow.

La Parada

1638 East New York Street

Indy   46201

317/917-0095