November 29, 2012 - El Pacifico, Jackson County, NC

EL PACIFICO OUT SIDE PARKING LOT

This is our first stop in Jackson County! Whew! I thought we would NEVER get out of Swain County and there isn't that many restaurants in Swain. Technically, we are not really finished with Swain as we still have to hit The Fryemont Inn in the spring when they open back up. Lisa has never been to The Fryemont Inn, which I can't believe. She is a native from WNC and TFI is such  a historic landmark. I thought everyone had been to the TFI at least once.

Anyway.. here we are at El Pacifico right outside of downtown Sylva. It's in the middle of fast food lane  on 107 going towards Cullowhee. Greg and I used to go to El Pacifico quite a lot but it got too noisy from all the Sorority girls screaming and talking we finally quit going. That was pre - Sazone. Now with Sazone, we never even think of going anywhere else for Mexican. Most, as I am sure you can attest, are all the same with the same menu, same presentations, same prices, and same taste.  Really nothing special or different. Sazone  is  cut above the rest and there is no comparison.
Anyway.. back to El Pacifico. The same folks that have this restaurant have the one in Cherokee next to Food Lion. It just opened a few months ago and I can't think of the name of it. We will have it on our Jackson County list though. The menu is quite extensive and the food here is fairly good. Lots of melted cheese as you can see from the plates photos. Same rice and beans as any other Mexican restaurant.


We were joined tonite by Robert and Beth. I really can't believe they came back with us after the roachfest at Anthony's. I thought that might have scared them off. But brave souls will persevere. Plus I think they were already in Sylva at Walmart.
We were lucky to have everyone present tonight.... even Pam and Rosemary

INSIDE DINING ROOM 

Luckily tonite, there were no sorority or fraternity gangs out at El Pacifico. Typically there are slews of screaming, laughing, flitting girls in EP, and its hard to eat a nice, quiet dinner. That is one reason Greg and I quit going.. that and the introduction of Sazone into the area. But while the food is OK.. once you have eaten fresh Mexican, you just can't go back to eating the same old, same old served in all the other Mexican restaurants. The food at EP is OK and you do have  a very extensive menu, with some items not found in other Mexican restaurants around the area. The Chili Colorado is one such dish, as is the Santa Rita, and El Diablo.

SUE ENCHILADAS 

POLLO FUNDIDO OR AS WE CALL IT... THE FUN CHICKEN

Like most Mexican restaurants in the area, this one is also run by a family and so you do have the same employees there as you did several years ago. Consistency is nice in a restaurant.. or at least I think do.

CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

CHILI COLORADO....MAYBE IN HONOR OF THE LOCATION.. MAYBE THIS SHOULD BE RENAMED... CHILI CULLOWHEE

One of my big pet peeves in a restaurant is present here.. can anyone guess what it is? The first right answer will win a prize, chosen just for you. No just kidding..... anyway the answer is TV's!!! and not just one of them, but THREE.... yes, count them THREE. However, the strange part of this is.... they all are tuned to Spanish speaking channels.
I didn't realize that the majority of EP's clientele were Spanish speaking. OR... maybe they are for the staff to keep from getting bored during their shift. OR, maybe it is a subtle slap back around the "Speak English" issue. Regardless.. there they are... blaring away with a soap opera, sports and sports. We happened to be sitting near the soap opera channel and at some point we got sucked into the electronic void. Yes, we started watching. Or at least Beth and I did. We happened to be on that side of the table facing the TV and were closest to the radio waves....so there we were watching a bunch of unnaturally beautiful Latino women interact with some not so great looking Latino men.
That was the start of the downhill slide towards silliness. We started making up dialogue based on what we were watching. The others got sucked into our game and the dinner took a hard left into a reverse TV charades.

BEEF BURRITTO - BETH WAS EATING LIGHT TONITE

There was one man on there who bore an uncanny resemblance to the "Stay thirsty, my friend " man who stars in the Dos Equis beer commercial. We also noticed there was a great deal of hitting, slapping, punching,  and general violence among the women. Every scene one or more of them were in a fight with each other or one of the men. We also noticed that the men didn't typically hit the women..they just sort of shook them violently. I don't know if these women were typical of Latino women, but they were tough, beautiful and didn't take no crap from anyone - men or women.

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS... SANTA RITA

ROBERT WAS EATING FOR BETH..... THE EL DIABLO

We also all felt sorry for the grandpa Dos Equis man as he was crying for most of his scenes. But anyway... we could have kept this up for a long time as we were getting quite hysterical about our improvised lines. It would make a good party game.

Our food was pretty good. I have had the Chili Colorado several times in the past and it is always good. This time it didn't seem to have the quality as in the past.. lots of gristle and fat on my meat. But the taste was satisfactory. The Santa Rita was good and the fresh jalapenos topped off the dish nicely. The other dishes, with the exception of the El Diablo were standard fare on a Mexican menu.. .and those who ordered them stated they were tasty, and filling. Nothing spectacular, but acceptable. The El Diablo is a huge meal. It comes with many sides, such as lettuce, rice, beans, chili sauce and chipotle sauce. Robert didn't care for the chili sauce, but did like the main dish. It was a lot of food, but he was a trooper and plowed forward.

Our group was large tonite, and we had a lot of fun laughing, talking and getting to know Robert and Beth a bit more. We do hope they will come back. We were some of the last ones leaving of course....we didn't order any dessert. The selection was basic as in most Mexican restaurants and I think Pam secretly wanted Dairy Queen.
We called it a night and our next stop will be Lulu's. It is located on main street in Sylva and has a long history of really good organic food.