El Aguila Real

As far as Mexican food goes, I admit that a lot of the restaurants in Des Moines taste similar to me...delicious! One of my favorite places though is Aguila Real in Beaverdale. Like most of the other restaurants, they are quick, cheap and good. They moved to a bigger location across the street from their old building a couple years back which I feel hurt the quality of the food a little bit (or it could be I don't delicious greasy Mexican food like I did in college). It is still good but I don't feel like it is as good as it was when it was in the small Long John Silver's building.


Normally, I get the chicken nachos which are the best in Des Moines (yes I've compared them to other Mexican restaurants before) but I thought I would switch it up. I got the #3 on the lunch menu which is a chicken enchilada, rice and a chicken taco.

Enchilada, rice and a taco

I rarely get combos but I enjoyed this one. It was a ton of food, but not overly greasy so I didn't feel miserable. I still don't know if any restaurant can beat the enchiladas my family and I make  but this one wasn't too bad. The taco was pretty crisp but it didn't shatter like shrapnel when I bit into it. I have always liked their chicken and I normally don't like the grainy beef that most of the Mexican restaurants have so I recommend chicken or steak for meats.

The combo is probably a better meal than the chicken nachos which are slathered in cheese sauce atop a huge bed of carbs. Probably the healthiest thing to eat at a Mexican restaurant would be chicken fajitas and skip out on the tortillas--and Aguila's are very good. What is you favorite Mexican restaurant?