Brownie had read about this place in Serious Eats, so being only 20 minutes away we had to check it out. Sadly, I think the positive Serious Eats review has more to say about the dearth of good Mexican food in New Jersey.We did meet "the boss" (mentioned in the Serious Eats post), and she was indeed lovely - much nicer than the woman behind the counter (also mentioned in the post). But we weren't quite as wowed by the food. We ordered one of each kind of tamale - chicken mole and pork. The masa was nice, but the mole flavor was nothing special. We also got 3 kinds of sopes - al pastor, carnitas, and chicken. It seemed like the tortillas had been made a while back and the sopes just assembled upon order, as it was pretty tough to cut through them with plastic knives on styrofoam.
All in all, brownie and I both agreed we probably wouldn't make the 20 minute drive again - not when there's the much better El Chapin restaurant right in downtown Princeton. Or if I'm going to travel for Mexican, I guess it will have to be up to NYC.
La Costeñita
450 Amwell Road, Hillsborough NJ 08844
908-874-0091
