Tortilla Grill serves up favorites at friendly cost

Published: Friday, January 30, 1998

Friday, January 30, 1998

RESTAURANT: Simplicity, charm, traditional Mexican food mix well at Venice grill

By Jessica Holt

Daily Bruin Contributor

Pastel-colored houses line a cobblestoned street. A sun-soaked beach glistens in the background. Palm trees bend ever so slightly in the breeze. A sign framing the scene invitingly says "Bienvenidos a Tortilla Grill." It's not a window to paradise but rather an endearing wall mural adding eclectic charm to a Mexican joint that differentiates itself from scores of Mexican fast-food franchises that dot the L.A. landscape.

Nestled in Venice between an interesting mix of liquor stores and upscale furniture boutiques, the Tortilla Grill offers good old fashioned Mexican food at student-friendly prices.

The vibrantly colored pinatas, plastic ivy curling along the walls, and red-checkered table cloths separate this small eatery from the L.A. chic of Baja Fresh and La Salsa. Catering to a large to-go clientele, the Tortilla Grill is tiny. Yet with five tables and ample bar space, this little hole-in-the-wall exudes quaint character which invites customers to forget about the L.A. scene.

This restaurant is not about fine dining and service. The emphasis lies strictly on the food. Orders are brought to the table when ready, but that is the extent of the service. Customers can pick up pastel paper napkins and plastic utensils next to the cash register.

The food also receives recognition for its unpretentiousness and simplicity. Entrees from tortas to burritos to combination plates range in price from as little as $2.75 for a Chico Burrito to $7.95 for the Super Grande Plato, consisting of an enchilada, a taco, chili releno, and a tamale. Most dishes fall somewhere around $5.

The Tortilla Grill gives the customer a lot of food for the money - always a plus for hungry, broke students. The soups and salads, such as the black-bean soup ($2.95), are enough to satiate one for an entire meal. This soup is truly recommended. The mixture of beans, sour cream, Jack cheese, and pico de gallo combines to make a earthy, hearty and refreshingly different soup.

The burritos are definitely the centerpieces of this down-home menu. Huge and stuffed with a choice of chicken breast, steak, pork, fish, and veggies ($4.45-$4.65), the burritos are filling and can serve as lunch the next day as well. The daring or hungry can choose the Macho Burrito ($5.25) which takes any of the above-mentioned burritos and buries them under sour cream, cheese enchilada sauce, and guacamole.

The menu also offers traditional tortas ($4.75-$4.95), quesadillas ($3.25-$3.95), fajitas ($5.95-$6.45), and combination plates ($5.95-$7.95). All these items are served in heaping portions.

The plato de enchilada ($5.95), consisting of cheese and chicken enchiladas served with beans, rice, sour cream, guacamole, and grilled green onions could easily feed two people. Beware the enchilada sauce though; it is extremely spicy. The guacamole also seems to lack any major flavor and falls a little flat for avid guac fans.

All of these dishes are prepared in the health-conscious way of the 90's. Even mom and pop are feeling the pressure from their younger, stylish competitors. The menu proclaims "Tortilla Grill cares for you!" and then runs though the regular list of healthful eating - skinless chicken, extra-lean meat, cholesterol free oil, no lard - that the L.A. area has adopted (but this wouldn't fly in Ohio!).

Even so, the food still gives one that "guilty feeling" of a splurge well worth it. Unlike the crisp burritos of Baja Fresh, this food feels like mom made it.

In a final nod to the trends of today, Tortilla Grill also offers a wide array of smoothies and shakes. The smoothies ($2.75) are made with fresh fruit, juice, and non-fat yogurt and one can add the usual array of ingredients (wheat grass, protein, honey, etc.) for 25 cents extra per item.

The shakes ($2.50) are made with low-fat or non-fat milk, frozen yogurt, and various other ingredients. The oreo cookie ($2.50), a satisfying drink of frozen yogurt, oreo cookie crumbs, chocolate syrup, and milk, calms the stomach after a spicy meal.

The huge portions of this homestyle hearty food in the end should endear this little dive to any money-minded person, student or not. Lacking in pretension and trendy chic, the gaudiness of the grill only engages the customer to feel at home. Even the attempts to accommodate the healthy inclinations of today's clientele can not hide what this restaurant is really about: hearty, filling food.

DERRICK KUDO

The Tortilla Grill in Venice serves a wide array of Mexican entrees in a down-home setting.