El Diablo Burritos - Chiang Mai: fantastic place but the mexican is not great

So this is my 4th stop on my attempt to sample every single Mexican or Tex-Mex place in the entire city of Chiang Mai. If the information I found online is correct, there are 14 such establishments in the city. My intention is to eat at all of them and report back.

I go to every establishment blind: I do not read any reviews or do any research whatsoever before attending. I also order stock-standard items such as tacos so I can do a fair assessment of each place.

On to El Diablo!

source

Upon entering this delightful establishment it immediately becomes evident that the place is owned by an American. There is tons of Americana inside and there are certain things on the menu that you will never see in other places such as sweet ice tea with free refills. "El Diablo" is a subset of the entire establishment that is actually named "3 Little Pigs" and they have an extensive menu with things on it that I am very excited to try one day.

I was actually disappointed that I was here for a very clear objective and that is to eat Mexican food. I really want to order just about everything in the above picture and I will get to it one day.

The service was fantastic and one thing that really turned me on was the fact that before I even ordered, water, a bunch of pickled vegetables, and chips and salsa were brought to my table. This is a nice touch and something you don't often experience in Thailand.

Everything was going great! The staff were super-friendly, the owner was wandering around making sure everyone was taken care of, there were plenty of fans to keep us cool, and the menu was delightful. Now on to the disappointing part.

I ordered the combo plate of 2 tacos and two tamales (which also came with rice and beans as is tradition.) The plate presentation and the portions are fantastic and I stared at my dinner realizing before even starting that there is no chance I am going to finish all of that. I was delighted and then I started eating it.


To describe the flavor as disappointing doesn't really do justice to how much of a let-down this was. The tamales tasted dry and weird, I didn't finish them. The taco shells are clearly purchased rather than made and again, they were not cooked properly so they were very chewy. I don't have a problem with people buying products rather than making them but jaysus, you gotta cook them properly otherwise they are kind of unusable.

The refried beans were just strange and didn't taste like beans at all. The rice was rice and it was fine but for me anyway, i generally don't get involved with rice at Tex mex places.

All in all i was thoroughly disappointed with El Diablo's food, but am willing to give them another chance when i return to try some of the entres such as the ribs or pork chops. I would never order their mexican food again because while I am certain that their intentions are good, the delivery was so far from actual Mexican food that to be honest I think it shouldn't even be on the menu. I still think people should visit this place if for nothing else than to enjoy the very nicely created ambiance and friendly staff - just don't order the Tex Mex.

you can find their location and other information here