This new cantina in the Galleria is the second St. Louis spot owned by the restaurateurs who brought Canyon Café to Plaza Frontenac years ago. Based in Arizona, they have only five restaurants total: two here, the rest in Arizona and Texas.
The food is generally authentic-tasting, albeit a little on the spicy side. The guacamole ($11) is made tableside by your server, who asks your consent before mashing a dozen or so ingredients into the ripe avocados. It was creamy and delicious, filled with jalapenos, bell peppers, red and white onions, spices, tomatoes and more.
The Tortilla Soup ($5) also packs a punch. It looks innocent enough, with its slightly creamy broth, queso fresco and tomato bits floating around, but there is heat in there. What I did not see, however, were any tortilla strips!
An enchiladas platter of Carnitas Ranchero ($12) was overall quite tasty, its two corn tortillas filled with shredded pork. On top was a delicious ranchero sauce, tomato-based but with good layered flavors, including cumin and hot pepper. A drizzle of queso fresco was on top, and as a base, sautéed Mexican rice and beans, which were rich and flavorful.
A standout dish was the Chile-Rubbed Shrimp Skewers ($18), which were decent-sized shrimp heavily rubbed with a blackening spice—with the emphasis on spice. The shrimp were sweet, and the rub was spicy. Also on the skewers were some grilled onion chunks and grilled tomatoes. The skewers (two of them, holding six shrimp total) lay atop Cabana rice, white rice dotted with a medley of oven-roasted veggies, including bell peppers and zucchini. A nice touch was the mound of fruit salsa on the plate, which provided an acidic complement of marinated pineapple and cantaloupe.
Also good was a special called Adobo Shrimp ($12), a tortilla filled with small shrimp in the flavorful red adobo sauce (chilies, herbs and vinegar) and cheese. It tasted something like a cheese quesadilla flavored with shrimp and red chilies. A side of beans and rice was tasty; I especially liked the beans, which were saucey and sat in a fluted corn tortilla cup.
Alas, an order of Street & Beach Tacos was disappointing. Each of our three tacos ($11) came with too much cabbage/lettuce and not enough of the featured protein—or anything else, for that matter. The Lobster taco’s bits of cold lobster were totally lost in shredded ‘slaw,’ and the Blackened Mahi taco offered only a couple strips of fish, well-seasoned, atop a taco jammed with greens. Although each had a tiny bit of spicy mayo or some such ‘sauce,’ the abundance of shredded greens completely cancelled any benefits the sauce might have provided. And the Mole Chicken taco came only as a clump of shredded white meat stuck together with a pasty sauce tasting way too much of chocolate. Where were the diced tomatoes, avocados and salsa?
A dessert of Mexican flan ($6) hit the spot. One thing I must mention is the service, which, while very courteous, simply fell short. Our server kept forgetting to bring items we asked for: an extra spoon, more water, etc., and he did not fully understand the food, hence was unable to answer our questions. Poor training or just plain inefficiency? Hard to tell which.
[amuse bouche]
the scene | Mall-based cantina
the chef | Sandra Banchs
the prices | $8 to $11 starters, $8 to $18 platters
the favorites | Tableside Guacamole, Tortilla Soup, Chile-Rubbed Shrimp Skewers
pedigree | Working in restaurants for the last 21 years
favorite ingredient | Garlic or oregano
favorite restaurant | I always go to Wok Express on Dorsett; I love that place!
favorite cookbook | Cocina Criolla, by Carmen Aboy Valldejuli. It’s Puerto Rican.
most memorable dining experience | In Mexico, a small place in Puerto Vallarta; the service and food were amazing. In Rome, Alfredo’s, home of the original fettucine Alfredo
guilty pleasure food | Pecan swirls. I like to unroll them.
Photos: Bill Barrett