Welcome (back) to mmm-yoso!!! the food blog. On this chilly weekend day, Cathy is blogging. Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are frenetically researching places to blog.
Hello again. I noticed I had not blogged about any Mexican food in the last week, yet I know I eat Mexican food either in a restaurant or from a taco shop at least once a week. Emma's is a regular spot for The Mister and myself. In fact, Emma's was my very first restaurant post on mmm-yoso!!!. Since that post was about breakfast, and it is six years later, I'll post about lunch.
Located in a nondescript mall of cinderblock buildings on Buena Vista, just off of Cuyamaca (you can see the back of the building when driving on Cuyamaca), Emma's has been located here for more than 10 years.
It is located in the same block as the Santee Sheriff Station and Buena Vista has a Fire Department just a few blocks East. Emma's is always busy with eat in and to go orders. I have also seen the mailman eating here- a little 'hint' about where to eat I learned from FOY (friend of yoso) Trent in 2006.
The eat in area is quite large. If you order 'for here' the food will be brought to your table. That's the fresh salsa bar to the right, next to the refrigerator. Only three types of salsa here (mild and chunky, hot smooth red and hot green). That's all you need.
The menu has barely changed since 2006. Most prices have seen an increase of <$2.
The Mister ordered the a la carte flautas ($4.60). This is made with only shredded beef (not the stewed shredded beef with onion and green pepper) placed into one of those super large flour tortillas, cut in half then deep fried. Properly fried. Many other places seem to fry the exterior of the tortilla only and the inside is unfried and so a raw tortilla. The flautas here are almost completely crispy and combined with just shredded beef as a filler…really good. Eve though a la carte, sour cream, guacamole, shredded lettuce and a slice of tomato fill out the plate.
Emma's only has three Mariscos plates, all versions of shrimp. This is the camaron mojo de ajo- shrimp in garlic sauce ($8.60). Five plump butterflied shrimp sauteed in a buttery garlic sauce on top of rice (which gets all butter garlicy and is a joy to eat) and also served with tortillas, refried beans, sour cream and a salad (which has real, not that sauce) guacamole under that tomato slice. Fresh and really good.
Emma's Mexican Food 8781 Cuyamaca Street, Suite L (at Buena Vista Avenue) Santee 92071 (619)596-8189 hours: 7-8:30 Mon-Sat. Closed Sunday
