La Cocina Mexicana (Beckley Road)
5424 Beckley RoadI spent a lot of time in Battle Creek a few weeks ago. Earlier in the week, I wanted to stop by the new Ex-Wife’s Famous Chicken to pick up dinner on my way home. While I was in the Minges Creek Shopping Plaza, I noticed a few other restaurants that I had no idea were there.
I spent all day on a Friday in Battle Creek. I was downtown for most of the day but the evening would bring me back out to the Emmett Township area. I had some time between my assignments and headed back towards Beckley Road to pick up dinner.
I picked La Cocina Mexicana because I was in the mood for tacos. And they have online ordering through GrubHub.
La Cocina Mexican has two locations in Battle Creek. One is on Beckley Road in the Minges Creek Shopping Plaza near the Lakeview Square Mall. The other is on West Columbia Avenue near 20th Street. I picked the Beckley location because it was closer to where I was going. This location is part of the a large shopping plaza. The restaurant is near the back tucked in between Plato’s Closet and Big Lots.
I used Grub Hub to put my order in so when I got to the restaurant, I just had to go inside and pick it up. I didn’t snap any pictures but the restaurant looks like a pretty typical Mexican joint. A lot of bright colors and large, wooden pieces of furniture with intricately painted designs on the back of each chair. There is a host stand right as you walk in. I told the guy I had a GrubHub order. He picked it up off a nearby table and handed it to me.
I knew I was going to be eating in the car so I tried to pick things I could eat while not making a huge mess of myself.
I started with the French Fries because who doesn’t think of French fries which you think of Mexican restaurants. The fries were frozen battered fries with quite a big of seasoning salt on them. I ate these as I was driving to my next job site and was pretty full after finishing off the entire container.
The fries were decent on their own but I added on a cup of Queso to dip them in. Mexican places have the best cheese dips. I didn’t need the cheese to dip my fries in but I’m glad I got it. It’s a really smooth, creamy cheese dip and made the standard frozen fries something completely different.
I know I said I tried to order things that would be easy to eat so it seems odd that I would order the Tacos de Birria a la carte. The three tacos came Mexican style with Al pastor meat, cilantro and onions. The corn tortillas were not fried in the consommé which is how I typically prefer birria tacos but they were still good like this. The tacos were filled to the point of overflowing. Combine that with the fries and there was no chance I was walking away from this meal hungry.
What made these birria tacos was the consommé. There was quite a large cup of it to dip the taco in and I dunked every last bit of my tacos in to it before taking a bite. There was quite a bit more than I needed so I sealed up the best I could hoping I wouldn’t spill before I could find a garbage can for it.
My bill for dinner was about $23 before tip.
La Cocina Mexicana delivered on what I needed it to deliver on. Fantastic tacos. I guess I still don’t know if birria tacos are supposed to be fried in the consommé or not. I know that’s how Teresa’s Kitchen and La Familia do them and that’s where I typically get birria tacos from. Either way, the tacos were delicious and I had a full belly heading in to the home stretch of my 12 hour shift.
SW Michigan Dining 