Here's a quick restaurant review of El Rincon Mexicano in downtown Morgan Hill. Located on East Second Street, a couple of doors east of Monterey Road, El Rincon is quite small but the food is great. It has just a few tables inside and a few outside but this is no Taqueria. Doris and I ate there for the first time a couple of weeks ago. We came a little early and ate at an outside table on the sidewalk; it was very pleasant.
For starters, we had the fresh Guacamole which is constructed at your table. Alberto the Chef brings avocado, diced tomatoes, chopped cilantro, onions, and diced peppers to your table where he combines the ingredients, letting you choose the quantity of peppers to be added. It is served with a stack of warm corn tortillas. It looked like way too much guacamole for the two of us but it was so delicious that we polished off the whole bowl. By the way, Alberto is also the host, waiter, and busses the tables.
We each had a salad, Doris choosing the mixed greens salad (Ensalada Mixta) while I had the Jicama salad. The Jicama sticks were joined by thin slices of tomato, avocado, nectarine, orange, and, I think, blood orange (it looked like a pink grapefruit but tasted like an orange. It had a chile dressing that had just the right amount of kick. We both thoroughly enjoyed our salads.
For the main course, Doris had the Chicken in Green Mole and I had one of the best Chile Rellenos of my life. The Poblano chile was stuffed with the traditional cheese plus peas, slightly crunchy carrots, and ground beef. It was served over a tasty brown sauce.
Alberto brought the bill before we could order dessert, so I guess he thought we had had enough to eat (which was probably true). We want to go back, but Alberto has opened a larger version of his restaurant in Gilroy and the Morgan Hill branch doesn't seem to be open during the advertised hours. I hope it doesn't close, but if it does, it will be worth the trek to Gilroy for some more of Alberto's excellent cooking.
El Rincon Mexicano
40 East Second Street
Morgan Hill, CA 95037
408-778-6769
8/10/2007 Update:
El Rincon is still operational and we have been back twice since the first visit. If you go, I highly recommend the Lamb Shank in mole - it is outstanding. Most everyting we have tried is excellent except the Carnitas which I thought was just average.
DF
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