Overview of restaurant and concept: Jacksonville is full of Mexican restaurants. It sometimes feels like there’s one on every street corner. Almost all of them are virtually the same. They provide decent Americanized Mexican food at a fairly decent price. They don’t offer much creativity or even authenticity but you know what you’re going to get and most people like it. Si Senor bucks the trend. They offer you the Americanized options you know and love but also offer delicious authentic Mexican options as well. They operate in quick service style where you walk up to the counter place your order and in a couple minutes they call your name and you come pick it up.
Authentic Mexican Sopes @ Si Senor
Location:
3546 St Johns Bluff Rd S
Jacksonville FL 32224
(904) 564-2444
Food: The menu offers Mexican or American style tacos. Both were 2 for $5.99. I asked if I could mix and match and was told “No problem”. I tried the American with picadillo (ground beef) and the Mexican with steak. The American taco comes on a flour tortilla stuffed with your choice of meat, lettuce tomatoes, sour cream, and queso fresco (Mexican cheese). The Mexican taco comes on a soft corn tortilla your choice of meat raw onions and cilantro. The American taco is exactly what you’d expect from a ground beef taco your standard Mexican restaurant. Solidly done with good flavor. The Mexican taco impressed me. The tortilla was as close to the handmade tortillas I’ve had on my visits to Guatemala as anything I’ve ever found in the states. Thick with good flavor. They’re great! The steak tasted like they’d sliced up a good sirloin. It was delicious as well. Also, many south Florida Mexican restaurants do Mexican tacos as almost a mini taco. Not Si Senor! These guys’ Mex tacos are the same size as your typical Americanized taco. Next we tried the Sope’s ($6.99): Two handmade corn patties topped with refried beans, choice of meat, lettuce tomatoes, sour cream, and cheese. We ordered one with chorizo and One with carnitas. I’m not a huge sausage fan but I can’t rave enough about the chorizo. It’s awesome! Just try it you’ll thank me. The carnitas were great also. A fantastic flavor that reminded me a little of the pulled pork you’d find at a good barbeque restaurant. The handmade corn patties are exactly the kind of corn patty you’ll find in arepa. If you like arepas you’ll love the Sope’s. We finished the meal with Flan. I’m normally not a huge fan of flan but this stuff blew me away! It was thick, rich, and fantastically decadent. Don’t order this if you’re pretty full already because they’ll have to roll you out the door like they did me. The crust on the bottom was really sweet and made the dish. I can confidently say their flan is on another level. As if this all wasn’t enough they’ve got a salsa bar with a couple great salsa’s you may not have tried before. Definitely hit up the salsa bar.
Authentic Mexican Salsa @ Si Senor
Service: I’m convinced the reason the food is so good at Si Senor is the passion of the owner/operators have for great food. I knew in the first 30 seconds from the point we walked in that this was going to be really good. As we walked through the door we were greeted promptly, asked if we’d been there before (we hadn’t), and had the menu explained to us in detail. The owner seems to work the counter. He’s very knowledgeable about the food and won’t steer you wrong. I was particularly impressed with how passionate and excited he was about sharing their food with us. You can tell they put their heart and soul into this place.
Positives:
- Great food
- Passionate owners
- Killer Salsa bar
- Authentic Mexican
Negatives:
- I’ve got nothing
