El Cajete
3301C Franklin St, Michigan City, IN, 46360
El Cajete Menu
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Visit below restaurant in Michigan City for healthy meals suggestion.
Visit below restaurant in Michigan City for healthy meals suggestion.
Visit below restaurant in Michigan City for healthy meals suggestion.
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Address :
3301C Franklin St
Michigan City, IN, 46360 - Phone (219) 872-3333
- Click To Get Directions
Opening Hours
- Tue
Specialities
- Takes Reservations : No
Delivery : No
Take-out : Yes
Accepts Credit Cards : Yes
Good For : Lunch, Dinner
Parking : Street, Private Lot
Bike Parking : No
Wheelchair Accessible : Yes
Good for Kids : Yes
Good for Groups : Yes
Attire : Casual
Ambience : Casual
Noise Level : Average
Alcohol : Beer & Wine Only
Outdoor Seating : Yes
Wi-Fi : No
Has TV : Yes
Dogs Allowed : No
Waiter Service : Yes
Caters : No
Categories
Mexican Cuisine
If you enjoy Taco Tuesday, then you have officially fallen in love with the Mexican Food. The main grain of Mexican cuisine is maize. Also known as corn, maize is grown for the past 9000 years after the crop was discovered by the people in Mayan civilization. Mexican empire flourished when they started growing beans, tomatoes, chili pepper, sweet potato and cactus. Till this date these ingredients are used in cooking authentic Mexican dishes and drinks.
Great use of spices, fresh chili pepper dishes like fajitas, tortilla chips, corn chips, salsa, chimichangas, burritos, nachos and quesadillas are invented in America. But when you are looking for authentic Mexican food then you must find a restaurant in the city that serves Rajas con Queso, Garbanzo in a Guajillo Chile Sauce, Pork Filled Chiles Rellenos, Chiles en Nogada, Molcajete Salsa, Pico de Gallo and Frijoles de la Olla. An eye-opening fact – Mexican don't like their food hot. They use fresh chili and other spices to create a flavor that lingers in your mouth.
Mexican food is great for those who are Gluten Intolerant as they use Corn instead of wheat in most of their dishes. Also, you can easily find many beans based Mexican dishes. Another dish which didn't get similar glory as tacos or nachos is the Mexican hot chocolate. If you love something hot on a chilly day, then go for Mexican Hot Chocolate. On merry days, you can enjoy the authentic Mexican Drinks like Tequila, Mezcal, Tecuí, Sotol, Bacanora, Charanda, Posh O Pox, Puebla and Pulque. Mexican Cuisine is for people who enjoy strong drinks and hearty meals.
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Clifford W.
I love authentic Mexican food and this was as close to authentic as you will get. Start out with some fresh warm chips and salsa while previewing the menu. Lots of different combo meals to choose from. Great service, tasty food and good prices ensure that I will return
(5)Courtney C.
Great food, friendly staff, nice cozy environment. No complaints. The food is delicious. Highly recommended.
(5)J M.
This place is great. We eat at least once a week. The prices are very reasonable and the food is always good. It is close to the beach (2 miles) and much better than the Mexican food you can get down there. This place is rarely busy but would be packed if it were more visible.
(5)David N.
Pretty solid Mexican joint for Northern Indiana. Stopped in with the fam and had quite the enjoyable experience. Service was fair throughout; the fresh chips and salsa were quickly devoured, but quickly replenished. The sides of guac were better than most, fresh, perfect amount of salt and lime. Tried some tacos; tongue and carne asada. Well-seasoned, but a couple pieces of grisel in the steak had to be spit out. Tongue was cooked properly, and the cilantro and onion were fresh cut. Chicken fajitas were run of the mill, which isn't a bad thing. Everything you want, great seasoning, green peppers, caramelized onions, and smoke and sizzle on the way out. My daughters quesadilla was average, maybe less cheese than most. Everyone seemed to enjoy their accompanying beans, rice, and side salads. Consistent wait staff, consistent food, consistent prices.... sounds good in my book. I'm a fan.
(4)Amber A.
Authentic food, friendly staff, cute place. And the chips are amazing! Highly recommended.
(5)Natalie S.
Wasn't impressed. Had a torta, which was ok but service really lacked. Definitely better things in the area
(2)Peey D.
Freshest best Mexican in LaPorte County. Haven't had anything here that didn't rock. Sooo much better than the locally famous, inexplicably crowded "mexican" restaurant on Karwick.
(5)Eric B.
Our work project host took us to Lunch here on our last day in town. This place is the real deal, albeit with healthier choices (including smaller portions) being a bit on the light side. I settled for a appetizer quesadilla (with chicken) which tasty. I promised myself that I would avoid the chips, but I gave into their delicious goodness, if only for a modest taste. My friends very much enjoyed their much larger choices. We also all agreed that beer would have worked well with our meal, but it was out as it was a work day. Would I come back? In a Michigan City minute. That would be for the food, the atmosphere, and a very nice bunch of folks running the place.
(4)Kayla F.
Everything tasted amazing. It looks a little sketchy on the out side but definitely the best Mexican food I have had in the area! I would definitely recommend it.
(4)D W.
The restaurant smelled really good when I walked in (unlike La Azteca a bit further down the road where the entire place reeked like somebody's bad breath). The place was packed, and seemed to be in good spirits. I'm vegetarian, and was happy they had a specific vegetarian section on their menu. I ordered the Vegetarian Fajitas, which consists of rise, refried beans, blanched veggies (peppers, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower and such). It's all served with guacamole and corn (alt. flour) wraps. The staff was nice, but the people in the kitchen clearly don't know how to cook vegetarian. The veggies were bland bland bland. Almost no flavor except from the veggies themselves. It's like they put em all in a frying pan with oil but no spices whatsoever. The rise had a nice yellow color, a minuscule amount of melted cheese the size of a quarter in the center, and alas, it too had almost no flavor except just... rise. Despite the fact that I got served nice amount of food, they only gave me 3 wraps. I suppose I could have asked for more, but the But the the biggest disappointment was that I asked specifically for no cilantro in my food. I have the "no-cilantro" gene, and the stuff tastes like sucking on a piece of metal dipped in soap.The guacamole was riddled with that nasty stuff. I still tried to go around the cilantro leaves, but in the end I gave the guac away to one of my friends. There went the last hope of getting any kind of flavor to my fajitas. This is the 3rd mexican restaurant that have totally or partially ignored my request of no cilantro. It perplexes me that people in the restaurant business could be this sloppy because if I had a bad allergy to the stuff, they could have killed me! A truly underwhelming dining experience, and I left the restaurant still starving. Won't be coming back.
(1)Allison J.
Not impressed and would probably not recommend. The servers were not the most pleasant and definitely rushed us through our meal, even though the place was pretty empty. I will admit the chips are really good, but the salsa not as good. I got the enchiladas and my boyfriend got the steak burrito - neither of us would have ordered it again. The fajitas did look good, so maybe we just ordered the wrong meals... It was very affordable, both of us walked out absolutely stuffed for around $20.
(2)Dan B.
Have come here for the burritos several times and have complained several times. The burritos are loaded with lettuce to fill it up with only a few pieces of steak - they fill it with the cheapest ingredients to maximize their profits. This is the last complaint and I will no longer go here to eat.
(2)Tom K.
Good chips and salsa. Fajitas were good and filling. Good value for the money! The place looks a little shady but is nice inside and the food was very authentic. A nice change from casino food!
(4)D W.
Love this place. The food is delicious. Served attractively. Wait staff are attentive. If you're in Michigan City this is a great place to add to your dinner out lists.
(5)Gene B.
Arrived at 6pm on a Sat. With a party of four. Place was 50% full. Told waitress that we were in a bit of a hurry to get to a 7pm event. Ordered 3 quick items like tacos for 4 people. Two baskets of chips came quickly which were good. Waited 10 min to order and to get a glass of water after we asked for it. 20 minutes later our cheese dip came -- after we ate the two baskets of chips. 40 minutes later the manager stopped by and asked how we were doing. We said not well and he asked what we ordered. He said the kitchen was slow. Nothing else happened. Our food came out 53 min. after we arrived. We hurriedly ate it in five minutes trying to make our 7pm event. The food was average and not worth the wait or hassle. My two tacos were not very hot and the cheese was not melted. The side of rice was not good. The rest of my party were okay with the food. Waitress kind of apologized for the slow kitchen but nothing was comped. She was not that nice and didn't seem to want to be there. I definitely would not recommend this place. The atmosphere is nothing special at all. Zero stars.
(1)Courtney B.
I love coming here !!! The food is so fresh. Homemade chips and salsa. I love to add the red spicy salasa to my food for a nice kick, just a little, too much will have you sweating. My favorite is the Cajete chef special. The chicken, steak and shrimp is always plump and flavorful. Then it has this cheesy rice that is exceptionally good. If you like real Mexican food, this is the best place in Michigan City by far!!!
(5)Maggie S.
The chips are the best in the whole planet!!!! I love this place!!!! Every time I came to outlet this is the place I have to come!!! Strongly recommended!!
(5)Joe K.
This is my family's favorite mexican place locally. The meat has in our opinion more flavor than most places around. The chips are on the greasy side though.
(4)Cody S.
Had a burrito and it was good. But the service was horrible and I had to send food back because it was wrong. Hopefully they find better servers.
(3)Brian B.
Small, kind of dingy place...but very nice staff and really good Mexican food. Prices were very reasonable, too.
(4)Jesse T.
This place replaced the Santoyo's (Mexican buffet) that used to be here. Recently someone said to me you can tell how good a Mexican restaurant is by their chips and salsa. The salsa here is great. You can also get a hot version of the salsa, and it's got a nice smokiness to it. The chips appear to be made of flour tortillas instead of corn, which is fine. It's different and that's nice. I went with a group of 5 people, and 2 of us got the special of the day (Torta, rice and beans), one guy got a burrito, and 2 people got steak nachos. The steak nachos are more of a "appetizer" but you can try and tackle them on your own. They are fully loaded and really could be a meal for 2 people. The burrito my friend got was also huge, came with lettuce, guac, and other toppings. He said it was good. The Torta was huge. I was expecting a homemade bun, and this appeared to be homemade - it was definitely fresh and didn't look or taste processed. The bun or roll was the size of a small loaf of bread they sometimes bring you at steak or other fancy restaurants. I got mine with milanesa, a breaded flat steak. It was loaded with some refried beans, lettuce, tomato, avacado, jalapenos. I mean, it was LOADED. It was the special, so it was $6.99. A more than fair price. I was so full after eating here that I didn't eat dinner that night. I would give this 5 stars if there was a bit more ambiance to it, but it's a clean restaurant, the waitress was great, and the drink cups are HUGE. You can't go wrong with this place.
(4)Ryan H.
A little less than mediocre food for mexican. Staff was ok but didn't go out of their way. Price was higher than average for what they serve. And to top it off as a last impression we came out to the car and apparently that's the smoke break area next to the outdoor seating area which was empty and a food worker that looked grumpy, didn't say hi when we said hi. Wouldn't go back. Better options in the area.
(2)Amanda F.
Well, I don't give 1 stars often, but this place was pretty bad. I went with a group of girls and we told the waitress before she even took our orders that we needed separate checks. She huffed and every time someone would order, she would angrily mess with and shuffle her pages of the check/note pad book. So first off, we didn't even feel welcome. They don't have even a beer or wine license, so forget having a beer with your tacos. The chips were not salted, but a good crispy texture, the salsa was WAY too watery, and the food was greasy and poorly executed. Not many options, bad service, and bad food gives this place 1 star. I'll never be back.
(1)Debi W.
Went to this place with a local who had a recommendation from a Mexican friend. We had a good experience and perhaps the last review was a wake up call to the owner. Our waitress was extremely attentive and friendly first of all. They do NOT have a liquor license to serve but do have other traditional Mexican drinks (and Mexican Coke). My mother-in-law, whom I was with, said she thought you could byob, but I would double check on that. Chips and salsa was brought to the table and the salsa was watery (not terrible) but watery. We asked if they had other salsas, and they do, which are fabulous! One is a tomatillo and the other was red, spicy and flavorful. Both were in like a plastic ketchup bottle with the tip cut open wide. I have had salsa served like that before so I was not taken aback by it. I wonder though if it was something from the "line" in the kitchen, but whatever the case it was much better than the first salsa. The chips were a little different texture (almost a little flaky) but were salty and good. We ordered the guacamole as a side and it was plenty for both of us. Very good and fresh. My mother-in-law's friend said to ask for the dish NOT on the menu, CAJETE. WOW, WOW, WOW! This is a beautiful vessel of fajta style meats and veggie layers served with tortillas, rice and beans, guac and sour cream. You really need to share this with a friend and just order extra tortillas. Shrimp, chicken, steak, chorizo, grilled cactus, peppers, onions, tomatoes all perfectly cooked and seasoned. Beans and rice were also good. Maybe if this dish is asked for enough they will put it on the menu.
(4)Jenny M.
Delicious! This is not necessarily the place to go for tacos, burritos, or other standard American-Mexican fare, but this IS a destination for other authentic Mexican home-cooked dishes. We had the Cajete, which was amazing and one of the best Mexican meals I've ever come across outside of Mexico or the American southwest. Their salsas were also fantastic, especially the tomatillo and the chile salsa kept behind the counter. When you go, check it the special of the day or ask your server for recommendations, and break out of the tired beef-or-chicken-taco mold. Oh, and our server was fantastic too!
(5)