Adam & Eats: El Lorito

Editor’s note: Adam Brandt is a graduate from the Cobra Kai School of Culinary Callousness, where he received their highest award, the Red Apron of Merciless Eating. Aside from eating and talking about eating, he makes pots, paintings, prints, books, photographs, and generally, a big mess. He has been the studio assistant at Mudpuppy Pottery for almost nine years and is attending a local university in a desperate attempt to earn a biology degree.

If you’ll remember a few months back, El Lorito in Van Buren burned down. Since then, they have been diligently working to rebuild in the pursuit of reopening their doors and continuing to serve the River Valley delicious Mexican food.

Good news friends, they are back and better than ever.

El Lorito’s new digs are fancy. During the remodel, they switched up the floor plan and made a more comfortable twisty labyrinth for family style Mexican dining. In addition to the new floor plan, they have new tables and booths emblazoned with their name. The new booths are maroon and ivory vinyl, and somehow feel like they belong there amongst the rustic wood and giant fake parrots.

Is it just me, or doesn’t the name El Lorito mean the small parrot? What’s with the huge parrots? Maybe in Mexico those are small parrots and big parrots are, say, the size of pterodactyls. Whatever the case, the place looks really nice. So, well done.

El Lorito’s food has always been decent, consistent fare. In addition to the dining area getting a revamping, the food has had new life breathed into it. Now that I’ve actually typed that statement, it seems kind of creepy. Never mind the creepiness, the food is better than normal and the waitstaff are quite eager to please. It seems to me that their tortillas are fresher. I don’t think that they are making them in house or anything, but their supplier is definitely in the area.

El Lorito’s tacos, burritos, quesadillas, and enchiladas are solidly good and continue to be so. If you have haven’t tried the “Chimis” you really should. They are like flavor bombs filled with the delicious shrapnel of meat, cheese, and veggies.

An item that I’ve never noticed before is the Papas Locas (the “Crazy Taters”). Think French fries covered with ground beef, white and yellow cheese, pico de gallo, and jalapeno peppers. Sounds delicious doesn’t it? I know. I found the flavor lacking just slightly, but with a little salt, it knocks it out of the park. The only down side to drowning fries in melty cheese, besides the constipation issues, is that your fries get soggy, so eat them quickly. They have also switched guacamole recipes and it was a wise decision.

Overall, I’d say the new El Lorito rocks. Granted, it is not a life changing dining experience, but for the price, it is most enjoyable.

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When he’s not beating his eggs, Adam makes time to respond to e-mails that get past his hard-ass spam filter. You can try to reach him at [email protected]

Adam also has this thing called Sandwich Control.