Restaurant Review: Senor Sol

I'd been curious about Senor Sol in West Allis for a while. I've driven by it a lot, it's near my house and I had purchased a $25 restaurant.com not too long ago, so I had been wanting to try it, but I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought the food would be overly Americanized and just not good. Turns out, I was pleasantly surprised by our experience and meals.

Nate and I visited a couple Saturdays ago for dinner. The place is nice inside--small and rather cozy, but nice. It wasn't busy at all--it was about 7:00 on a Saturday and we got a booth right away. We, of course, got chips and salsa right away. Three salsas came with the chips: a mild red salsa, a rather spicy and green salsa and a chunky salsa-like mix of tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and herbs. All three were very good.

Knowing we had to spend at least $35, we ordered some Mexican beer and started with an appetizer--shrimp cocktail. We didn't quite know how to eat the shrimp cocktail. I was expecting it to be somewhat chunky so that we could dip the shrimp in the "cocktail" part. But this was almost like a soup. We ended up eating most of the dish with tortilla chips and some of the Saltine crackers the dish came with. The waitress didn't bring us individual plates either, so it was rather a messy process (I don't recommend it for a first date!!). The flavor was really good; it was just difficult to eat.

We both opted for meals from the specialities page of the menu, which turned out to be a good idea, because both dishes were delicious! I ordered cochinita pibil, a slow-roasted pork dish with achiote. The pork came with red cabbage and avocado on top of it, along with a pile of lettuce, tomatoes and some shredded cheese. I opted for corn tortillas to roll it all up with. It was really, really good. I enjoyed it a lot. I also have to say I think I impressed (or surprised might be a better word) the waitress when I asked her for a bottle of hot sauce. She asked if the green salsa was hot enough, and I said yeah, but do you have something more? So she brought out a bottle of habanero hot sauce. A couple dabs of that was great on the pork!

I can't remember the exact name of the dish Nate ordered, but it was essentially a chile relleno with chicken, peppers, onions and cheese on top. He got flour tortillas to go with the chicken. His dish was really good too--great flavors and something really different from what he usually orders (did someone say chimichanga??).

Overall, we had a good experience at Senor Sol, and I'd like to go back sometime. Our waitress and the service was good, although when we couldn't make up our mind about the menu right away, she disappeared for a while.