October, 2011 – A good friend, who has lived in Tucson for over 40 years, recommended Mi Nidito. Moreover, TripAdvisor.com ranks it #28 out of 652 Tucson restaurants reviewed. High praise indeed. I just had to check it out.
By the name, you can reasonably assume that Mi Nidito serves Mexican food. It is located south of the freeway, which is to say in the heavily Hispanic neighborhoods of South Tucson. That alone suggests authentic Mexican fare. This was a dining experience I was looking forward to.
My dining companion and I arrived at 11:30 AM to avoid the lunch crowd. Mi Nidito was already crowded. Shortly, we were seated. The chips & salsa were already on our table. Sure enough. Chips cold, not fresh. A bad sign and we hadn’t even ordered our drinks yet.
We ordered drinks. What else? … margaritas. We munched on stale chips & so-so salsa and chatted until the margaritas came. Hummm. Long on salt, short on tequila. The best way I can describe my margarita is “watered down”. Stale chips. Weak margaritas. Not a good sign. But I remembered that TripAdvisor customer reviews rated Mi Nidito the 28th best restaurant in Tucson. There was still hope.
Waiter comes to take our order. We both order … what else? … El Presidente’. Back in the good-ol’-days circa 1999, El Presidente’ William Jefferson Clinton somehow picked Mi Nidito for lunch on his visit to Tucson. I tried to imagine this little restaurant south of downtown hosting the most powerful man in the world, along with his entourage of Secret Service agents and assorted sycophants. Just the security sweep would have put a less popular establishment out of business for a week.
The Presidential Plate is a combo extravaganza of 5 Mexican standards: Taco, Enchilada, Tostado, etc. with beans and rice. While we awaited our lunch, we ordered more chips and salsa. This time, the chips were at least warm. The salsa … nothing compared to Elvira’s at Tubac. We tried to chat with the wait staff. They didn’t seem to want to chat. Not even in Spanish.
While waiting for our meals, we took note of our surroundings. Faux Mexican. Fake flowers everywhere. Piped in mariachi music … loud. In fact the whole place was loud … crying babies, screaming kids and all. Yes, I appreciate the Hispanic family ethos, just not while I’m eating.
Our meal came in a reasonable amount of time. Our waiter placed two huge platters of food before us. El Presidente’ plate is gigantic. Enough food to feed the local high school for a week. My only thought was if Bill Clinton actually ate everything on this plate, he’s a better man than I.
Sadly, quantity is what we got. Lots of cheese of course. But the cheese masked the fact that the meats, etc. really had no taste. In desperation, I ordered a glass of wine to try to save the meal. I asked for a wine list. No wine list. [another bad sign]. I asked the waiter, who could not have been more impersonal, to bring me a dry white, perhaps a sauvignon blanc. No can do. But they had a chardonnay. Great. I’ll take it. [You can see where this is going, I’m sure.]
Wine came. Small glass. Half full. Wine a tad on the sour side. I asked to see the bottle from whence this delicacy originated. No bottle. But he offered to show me the box.
As we were leaving, I noted two things of importance. At the entrance is a small picture of President Clinton with arms around [I presume] the owner and his or her family. I had missed this upon arrival. So, the legend is true. Bubba really was there. Second, the line of patrons waiting to be seated extended out the door. This place is extremely popular … for reasons that completely escape me.
Now you see why I distrust customer reviews on sites such as Yelp.com and TripAdvisor.com. I assume, but cannot verify, that the vast majority of reviewers are young and simply have no taste. Why? They tend to overrate. They’ve never actually had a great meal, Mexican or otherwise, to compare. They’ve never been to New York or Paris and experienced the best of the best. They spend 4 years at U of A, dine on 1702 pizza (yuk) and think they’ve died and gone to heaven.
And yes, President Bill is a better man than I. I have it on good authority that he consumed everything on his plate and asked for more. Neither of us could finish our meal. Nor did we want to. It just wasn’t all that good. You want good Mexican? Go to Cafe’ Poco Cosa downtown (now closed because of the pandemic), Theresa’s Mosaic Cafe’ on the West Side, or Elvira’s in Tubac.
Mi Nidito
1813 S 4th Ave, Tucson
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