Neighborhood king

I think it’s fair to say that there is no restaurant in Chico that I eat at more often than El Rey Mexican Grill.

I consider myself fortunate that the East 20th Street eatery is in my south-side neighborhood. But I’d drive across town for El Rey’s delicious and affordable breakfast, lunch and dinner offerings, which include such unique items as El Molcajete (more about that in a little bit), Salvadoran pupusas, and guaraches—thick, shoe-shaped tortillas stuffed with beans and topped with meat, lettuce, tomato and salsa.

Plus, there is the unmatched, truly friendly, neighborhood-style service provided by good-natured, capable, 16-year-old waiter (and Chico High School student) Victor Quintero and his mother, Teresa Quintero. The smiling, gentle-mannered Teresa, who co-owns El Rey with her husband, Sergio, will occasionally pop out front from behind the grill to check in on her customers. When home on breaks from her studies at UC Davis, Victor’s sister Gloria (another amiable, smiling Quintero) helps wait tables as well.

I have eaten many of the items on El Rey’s menu, including the pozole (which they serve, along with fresh menudo, every day of the week, unless they run out), sopes, burritos, chile rellenos, chicken enchiladas, beef chimichangas, huevos rebueltos con papas (scrambled eggs with potatoes, rice and beans) and sonoras—taco salads in a fried tortilla bowl.

The breakfasts, served until 11 a.m., are a steal. Most are only $3.25 and include everything from good old pancakes and eggs to huevos rancheros. (Note: El Rey serves cut-up french fries as breakfast potatoes. It works in a peculiar sort of way, but it’s perhaps not for everybody.)

Ample lunches such as an enchilada, rice and beans, or a giant super burrito cost $6 and $6.50, respectively. Kids’ meals are $3.75. El Rey makes both meat and sweet (pineapple or strawberry) tamales, too.

A hungry person on a budget can fill up on a small (but not that small!) vegetarian sonora for only $2.75.

But it’s that El Molcajete that I want to talk about.

It’s not listed on the menu. In fact, the photograph of it on the wall next to the register doesn’t even list a name or a price, and it hangs alongside other photographs of El Rey specials that are also unidentified.

I asked Victor during a recent visit, “What’s that?”

That picture of a gigantic, three-legged, granite bowl (“molcajete” means “mortar” in English) filled to overflowing with prawns, peppers, chicken, beef, white onions, whole green onions, cheese and chorizo had intrigued me for weeks.

So, even though I just had the company of my slender, 8-year-old daughter, Lydia, on this visit, I ordered the large El Molcajete. At $19.99, it comes with rice, beans and tortillas, and is meant to serve two to three people.

I could hear the gigantic, bubbling mortar coming, somewhat like the experience of ordering a sizzling-rice dish at a Chinese restaurant. And I swear that Molcajete was still making noise 20 minutes into our meal.

Lydia ate the rice and beans that came with it (plus a chicken tostada, for $3), leaving me barely able to make a dent in the giant mélange of goodness. El Molcajete is not spicy, but is very flavorful. It was pure pleasure to wrap a couple of grilled prawns; a piece of chicken; a big glob of melted cheese; a gangly, grilled, green onion (from the Quinteros’ garden); and some of the chorizo-infused soupy sauce scooped from the bottom of the mortar in a hot flour tortilla and trade off bites of that deliciousness with a swig of Coke or a bite of the deep-fried jalapeño that garnished the meal. (By the way, El Rey does serve beer, both Mexican and domestic brands.)

El Molcajete would be a perfect, fun meal to share on a date as it is one of the most impressive dishes I have seen, heard or tasted.

El Rey might not be famous for its El Molcajete, but it’s probably only a matter of time.