This weekend I had the pleasure of trying out Original’s Cafe Mexicano, a new restaurant located in the New Westminster Skytrain Station right next to the Tim Horton’s.
As usual, I will skip to the bottom line and say that we had a positive experience at Original’s and we will return. 
The first thing we ordered was a plate of Nachos Originales. The dish was not as large as I had anticipated and the chips were significantly thicker than I like. Also, the cheese, although there was lots of it, was basically all melted on the top layer of chips.
There was plenty of bean puree spread around the chips but the cheese distribution was a deal breaker for me; I have to admit, we would not order Nachos Originales again.
Seeing as I had already eaten brunch, I didn’t order from the list of mains – I just ordered a couple of the tacos. The server told me straight up that they the tacos are “really small” and I have to say, they definitely were really small. The two for $5.50 is a great deal.
I had the Saudero tacos – butter fried chopped beef brisket. Wonderful flavour to the beef. If I was going to order these again I would order a selection from the taco list and get four or six of them. These little morsels were flavour delights and I would definitely order these again.
One of my lunch companions also went around the “mains” and ordered an Arugula Tomatillo Salad.
Eating is a funny thing. When a dish arrives at the table I have to admit that I eat with my eyes before eating with my mouth. And, I learned this idea from my foodie-guru – my Mom. So when the salad arrived, I right away thought, my goodness, that is TINY.
However, the salad, a mix of arugula, tomatillos, roasted almonds, dried cranberries, feta cheese, with a balsamic caramel agave vinaigrette dressing for $7 ended up being a good value.
The dressing was a flavour hit and the tartness of the tomatillos was appreciated.
The menu offers a large version of the salad for $10.50 but as it turns out, the smaller version of the salad satiated my lunch companion’s appetite quite comfortably.
My other lunch companion ordered the Noplalitos Al Gusto – cooked cactus leaf served with fresh salsa, and feta with a side of corn chips for $9.50. She chose to add a side of chicken to the dish (for an additional $2.50). Although the dish was an amazing flavour sensation I simply could not capture a flattering photo of it.
The cactus leaf has a heavy smoky-barbecue goodness to it that brings up all sorts of warm-goodness feels. It is difficult to describe the flavour-goodness of this dish!
For dessert we shared the fried plantain with cinnamon, candied pecans, and sweetened condensed milk. Once again, this was a big hit and we would return just to have this dessert!!
The other dessert was a gluten-free chocolate cake that was nice. It really was what I would more accurately describe as a flour-less chocolate cake. Nice chocolate flavour but otherwise unremarkable.
We will return to Original’s Cafe Mexicano again. At this time, their website only lists their Port Moody location but they are now open and serving great Mexican style food in their New West location, in the New West Skytrain Station.
Give them a try.