Oakdale Adventure #1 - Dining

We were off to check out Oakdale's new HyVee store which is getting rave reviews.  But first, we needed dinner to keep up our strength for our shopping/gawking adventure.  Sounded like Catrina's was worth a try. 

Great choice.  It was like Chipotle, only with flavor and without the heavily oiled white rice and pico de gallo from precut bagged tomatoes (how many ways can you say 'food safety risk'?).  Already Catrina's had a head start.   Then they posted on the plexi shield notices to keep your hands (and body fluids) on your side of the plexiglass.  Take note Chipotle...please!   I won't eat Chipotle because:  1)  no flavor, 2) they don't know what their own salsas are, 3) ewwww...who puts their hands on the filthy rail in front of the plexi (like everyone....ewwwwww), and 4) they never stop anyone who is either spitting or putting their hands over the shield.  Too gross an experience for such suburban pseudo-Mexican food.  Oh yuck.  Just my opinion.  But I digress.

Back to Catrina's.  Choose your own options (burrito, tacos, bowl, quesadilla) plus torta--only with interesting flavorful ingredients and lots more protein choices.  John chose a bowl and I picked a veggie quesadilla with a number of salsa choices.   The first thing John noticed was the white rice wasn't soaked in oil.   That cut the calories by 2/3 immediately and let the flavor of the other ingredients come through.   I tasted the spiciness of the fajita veggies-very flavorful.  Good start.

Salsa selections--here's where they shine (besides the fact that they obviously are all trained in food safety and know what they're serving).  I chose arbol and guajillo (based on 2 of my favorite peppers) and John chose tomatillo (his favorite).   Try saying the word 'tomatillo' at Chipotle and wait for the dumb looks---predictably laughable!!!!   I think I should have tasted the pineapple habanero and the ghost pepper, too.  But more about that later.

Complex flavors.  Layers of flavor in the arbol and in the guajillo.   Guajillo was definitely my favorite.  As we were finishing our meal, we had a nice chat with Caleb, who's working his way up to management.  Great spokesperson for the company.  I asked if these were the standard salsa choices and he said they had these plus they whipped up some other ones a couple of times a week to keep things interesting.  I say, 'keep it up'.   He noted that on the ghost pepper salsa, they did what none of the corporate (jump on the ghost pepper bandwagon) places seem to be able to accomplish.....give you some flavor....not just the heat of the ghost pepper.  By combining other flavors with the ghost peppers, Catrina's created a taste combo that doesn't just burn your tongue because it seems many people think heat = flavor.  Wrong!  Flavor comes from a great combo of ingredients.  Kudos to Catrina's on this.

So, Catrina's delivers on flavor and customer service (plus food safety, which for me can be a deal-breaker at many places where you can often witness 10 food safety violations in the first 5 minutes).  John loved the decor, based on Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead)...with the admonition to live life to the fullest each day.  Great staff.  Very willing to answer questions.  We hope they're a big success (especially since we picked up a punch card!) and since we've eaten at the last 2 or 3 places that were in this location and have gone away.

One of the more interesting adventures to Oakdale in my life experience.  Catrina's was worth the stop, if just for the guajillo salsa.  They had a great beer selection, too...Modelo and other Mexican beers plus Surly and other options.