Restaurant Review: Xel-Ha

Originally posted on my old blog on November 6th, 2004:

Xel-Ha is an unusual name for an unusual restaurant.  It is a Mexican Restaurant - notice Mexican, not Mexican-American, and not Tex-Mex - found at 2301 S Howell in Milwaukee.  Christina and I went with two friends from Mensa who had recommended it.  Their specialty seems to be enchiladas covered with specialty molés that make their restaurant more authentic than Americanized.  You won't find a peanut or spicy chocolate sauce, for instance, at Chi Chi's.  We started with an appetizer of guacamole and tortilla chips, and they served us tortilla soup before our meals.  I had the shrimp enchiladas with peanut sauce, Christina had shrimp enchiladas with a pumpkin seed sauce, Karen had the chicken enchiladas with pumpkin seed sauce, and Lee had the vegetarian enchiladas with the chile verde sauce.  All of the sauces were spicy, but not overwhelmingly so.  The peanut sauce, for obvious reasons, reminded me of Thai food that I had had before, and it was excellent. 

Everything except the desert was served with what they said was Chihuahua cheese, which had the consistency of feta but wasn't nearly as salty, and tasted like a mild swiss or Provalone.  I'm assuming it is so named because it is made in the Chihuahua region of Mexico, but being who I am I had to make a joke about how hard it is to milk those little dogs.  Karen countered by accusing me of milking the joke.

We followed up dinner with some excellent flan for desert that was almost like a cheesecake in its consistency.

The restaurant is very small, so show up early.  I don't know if they take reservations, but their prices are very reasonable.