There are a lot of reasons to love California and a handful of reasons to hate it. Hate: the traffic; the smog; the superficiality. Love: the weather; the food; the diversity (in people and places); the chillness; the possibility of dining outdoors while people-watching and eating good food virtually any time of the day. And that last thing is precisely what we did at Frida.
I've passed by Frida on multiple occasions while shopping at the Americana and each time, I also passed the opportunity to dine there. So when I was told we were going to lunch there a few weeks ago, I was a tad bit excited. This excitement included "studying" the menu for about 20 minutes so I knew what I was ordering well before we got to the restaurant. (People can attest). Here's what we consumed:
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| We thirsty. |
The first thing we ordered upon sitting down were the margaritas (yes). Above you see beautiful mango and strawberry margs, each with natural fruit puree. Yummy and refreshing!
Each table gets an unlimited basket of tortilla chips and salsa. This is dangerous, especially if you come to a restaurant starving (aka - my case). The chips weren't as authentic (or fatty) as the ones they serve at Casa, but still pretty darn good. Because we wanted to upgrade to an even spicier salsa than their house roja sauce, we ordered a side of their habanero jalapeno w/ pickled onion "salsa" that's not even listed on their menu (I know; I studied it, remember?) It definitely had a kick... and made us thirstier... for more margs.
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| Burrito Vegetariano - $9.95 |
From their extensive menu including sopas, ceviches, tacos, and carne, mariscos y moles, I went with the vegetarian burrito. (Wow, maybe I will be able to do this challenge after all!) Sauteed asparagus and zucchini with white rice, black beans, lettuce, queso fresco and guac (no sour cream), all wrapped up in a warm flour tortilla. I wanted it to have a more spicy kick, but that was easily fixed by adding some of that hab salsa in the mix - yowza!
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| Burrito Mazatlan - $11.95 |
Because one type of burrito is not enough, my friend and I went "halfsies" and shared our respective orders. This is the Burrito Mazatlan which had sauteed shrimp in a chile-pasila orange sauce, onions, lettuce, and guac wrapped in a flour tortilla. It was good, but the sauce wasn't as delicious as I had hoped (it just tasted salty).
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| Taco Tasting - $11 |
My other friend was not feelin' the burritos, so he went with the taco platter. Your choice of 5 different tacos: beef, chicken, carnitas, pibil or al pastor. I think he got 2 al pastor, carne, chicken, and pibil. Cochinita pibil is slow-roasted pork.
Overall the food was good and the service was very attentive. All that enjoyed on a lovely patio (al fresco dining) under the beautiful California sun is really hard to beat.
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cuisine: Mexican
location: Glendale, CA
website: { Frida | yelp }
hours: M-Th: 11:00 AM - 11:00 PM; Fri-Sat: 11:00 AM - midnight; Sun: 11:00 AM - 10:00 PM
attire: Casual
parking: free 90 min. parking in lot
