Review: Papacitos!

Rating: 
http://papacitosbrooklyn.com/
999 Manhattan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11222

No, I'm not starting a new phase in my life where I'm going to start harassing men on the street and calling them "Papacitos!" Although, it's always been a fantasy of mine for the roles to be reversed and see how men like being cat-called. I kid. Papacitos isn't just something you call a hot piece-of-man, it's also a Mexican restaurant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

I'm noticing a trend in Greenpoint of really great Mexican restaurants (Calexico being another one of them). I heard that there are crazy levels of radiation in Greenpoint and maybe it's creating radiation-induced Superchefs? Ok, obviously not, but this is only adding to the jealousy I feel towards all of you Greenpointiacs (is what I calls ya) and your awesome neighborhood. Luckily, the gringo and I have really awesome friends that live in Greenpoint and visit them on a weekly basis. Our visits usually include us eating wings at The Habitat and eating way too much to the point that we no longer know the feeling of shame. Well, this last visit, we decided to give another restaurant a try. I'd heard so many great things about Papacitos, so I was really excited to finally give them a try. Although I would rather be giving you a review about my visit to the restaurant, this time all I can give you is the scoop on their delivery, which I think can be equally as important. I ordered a carne asada taco, a green chile burrito, and the gringo ordered a chorizo taco and chicken quesadilla. The food was moderately priced , $5 for two tacos, $9 for a burrito, and $9 for the quesadilla. I honestly can't say if the delivery was fast or not, it FELT like it came quickly, but to be honest, we were having a grand ol' time, so I couldn't tell if we were just distracted. When the food came, it was still warm though. Win! The delivery guy was super nice, too! The tacos are served in the traditional street style, two corn tortillas, meat, cilantro, onions, salsa. That's the way to serve a taco! No need for distracting frills, just simple ingredients that enhance and don't distract you from the flavor of the meat. The one thing that stood out to me were the tortillas. They reminded me of the freshly made stack of warm tortillas that my mom gets delivered to her in a beautiful embroidered napkin to her house in Mexico every morning. The tortillas were moist and actually tasted like corn, not chalky and dry like the horrible ones they sell at most bodegas. I really enjoyed the carne asada and the salsa had the perfect amount of heat for me. The chorizo taco was also really great and although it wasn't the traditional loose chorizo that I'm used to, it was more of a sausage, the spices were just right. I don't have anything to rave about the burrito, but then again, I usually don't. I think burritos have way too many ingredients in them and the flavors just sort of end up getting lost. The quesadilla was prepared perfectly, a crisp flour tortilla, gooey jack cheese and really well-seasoned chicken. 

Aside from really great food, I've heard that Papasitos has a Loteria night, or as they put it (for the gringos), Mexican Bingo. I'm really looking forward to actually going there and trying more of their food and hopefully playing some Loteria; I really hope they use frijoles (beans) as markers and not some fancy Bingo chips!