Mundial Cocina Mestiza

Ratings Guide:
Half handshake, half chest-bump hug – 5 stars
Chest bump – 4 stars
Fist bump – 3 stars
High five – 2 stars
Handshake – 1 star
Manly ass slap – ½ star
Fone and fone – 0 stars


Restaurant: Mundial Cocina Mestiza
Location: 1640 W. 18th St.

Good things seem to come in threes. Three’s Company. The three-toed sloth. My fat rolls. The Three Stooges. The Three Wise Men (and not the Jim, Jack and Johnnie kind). The three pointer. Three Dog Night. Tricycle. Three strikes and you’re out. Babe Ruth. The Holy Trinity. Bulls’ championships. Michael Jordan’s draft position. Ménage à trios (the kind with three chicks, or two chicks and a guy. Not the kind with two dudes, or three dudes (not that there’s anything wrong with that)). The Dahm sisters. Three sheets to the win. Three Amigos. Amazing Grace Smith. The chefs at Mundial Cocina Mestiza.

Katie and Eusevio Garcia and Jorge Hernandez are the three-headed brain-trust behind Mundial Cocina Mestiza (please don’t be confused. This isn’t actually one person with three heads; it is, in fact, three different people. “Three-headed brain-trust” is just a figure of speech.). They all have different backgrounds from different restaurants around the city, so the food is a mix of Latin and Mediterranean and goodness.

The night we headed there we had our choice of tables, so we took the table by the window. Mundial is located in Pilsen, which I love. There are a ton of great restaurants down that way that I don’t explore them nearly enough. There was actually a surprising amount of people out walking around, so the window seat doubled as some good people watching. The restaurant itself is very simple and down-to-earth. Nothing fancy here. Just some tables, chairs, and a couple things hanging on the walls. There are two rooms, a front room and back room. The back room has a little more going on, but I like sitting in front where you can see people coming and going.

Because of the diverse menu we wanted to try as much as possible, so we ordered lots of appetizers. They included:
- Queso flameado con chorizo (basically a cheese dip) which was really, really, really cheesy. Of course I loved it. And stabbed anyone with a fork who tried to steal a taste.
- Nopales empapelados (it had cactus in it). I’ve never eaten cactus. It tastes like cactus, which is surprisingly good. For sure worth trying.
- Sopa del dia (soup of the day). I can’t remember what it was, but it was creamy and spicy and good.
- And I think somebody got a salad, but who cares about salad?
So, the apps were really good. And really filling. The portion size was great, especially for the money. We didn’t really even need to get entrees after the apps, but of course we did anyway.

Allison got a pasta, which was a ravioli in a red cream sauce. It was really good, which I didn’t expect. You feel like the place should really be a Mexican/Latin food place, but the Mediterranean mix adds a great flavor to all the dishes, especially the pasta. Matt got the jumbo shrimp. It was cooked in garlic and butter. I’ll let you guess what I thought of it. Now, when it was time for me and my wife to order, I couldn’t decide. She insisted I get the house-cut grilled ribeye. She said she read it was their specialty. I asked the waiter what I should order, and he said the same thing. Know that I HATE ordering something similar to anyone else at the table, especially when trying someplace new. I like everyone getting something different so you get a good feel for how the place is as a whole. I asked my wife to order first, but she didn’t know what she wanted, so I had to order. And guess what? I went with the ribeye. My wife told me to get it. Something she read told her to tell me to get it. Our waiter told me to get it. So I got it. What choice did I have? Then my wife was ready to order, and you know what she got? The carne asada. The other steak on the menu. Basically the same thing I got. I wasn’t happy about it. She didn’t care. Something about me being a child. Or a baby. I forget. And normally I really wouldn’t care, but hers was MUCH better than mine. I really didn’t think the ribeye was anything special, but the carne asada was fantastic. If you go there, and you want meat, get the carne. And it’s not that mine was bad, it’s just that hers was better, and frankly I should have gotten the fish I had my eye on. Next time.

And while we all contemplated heading to the bathroom to purge ourselves like Meredith Baxter in Kate’s Secret the dessert menu came. Everyone decided they were too full to try anything. So I ordered the sampler platter. I was expecting nothing from the dessert. It was fantastic. Get it. As an appetizer.

The service was great (they let us sit there for over two hours and never made us feel rushed, yet they kept coming by to check on us and make sure we were doing OK). The prices were fantastic (nothing over $16, and most things around $12). BYO. Total bill was $50 a couple (in comparison to $150 a couple at Más a couple of weeks ago). I liked this place much better than Más but not quite as much as May Street Café. So, if you’re heading down to Pilsen, I would say check out May Street Café first, but go out of your way for a second trip down there and have a seat at Mundial Cocina Mestiza.

All things considered I have to give it a chest bump.


Got a question? Send it to born2fork@yahoo.com.