Restaurant Review: Antigua

It had been a while since the ethnic dining group made it out to dinner, so it was nice to get together this week and go to dinner at Antigua in West Allis. I had been to Antigua before, but years ago and I didn't remember much about it, other than it wasn't a Mexican restaurant, but a Latin restaurant.

We had a great experience--and great food--when we were there. The menu contains many tapas you can have for appetizers or order a couple to make up a meal. There is one page dedicated to Mexican food and two types of paella. Another page has different entrees from Latin American countries including Peru, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Spain, as well as Antigua-created dishes.

Rather than the usual chips and salsa, we were treated to a plate for small-bite appetizers: a piece of mango and cheese quesadilla. a lightly fried potato-puff sort of thing and an empanada-style dough pocket with meat (sorry I don't have better descriptions for the appetizers!).

Even though we had those to snack on, we couldn't pass up an order of guacamole. The guacamole was very fresh and flavorful--it had a good, strong lime taste--and it came served with fresh, homemade tortilla chips that reminded me of the ones we had in Mexico.

For meals, the other ladies each ordered a bowl of the caldito xochitl, Mexican "hot flower soup," made with chicken broth, shredded chicken, avocado, onions, tomato, rice, tortilla strips and lime. Sun and Leah had different salads, and Lisa tried one of the tapas, Yolanda empanadas.

I ordered the Peruvian dishes: lomo saltado, which was strips of beef, yellow aji pepper, vegetables and fried potatoes, served over green rice. It was delicious! My only (small) complaint was that it wasn't spicy at all, despite having two peppers next to the dish name on the menu. No worries, though--I added some of the spicy salsa our waitress brought.

We had a great time at Antigua. The service was a bit slow, but it was pretty busy for a Tuesday night, and it was nice catching up, so the time went quickly. On Tuesdays, if you tweet from Antigua you can get a free drink, so I enjoyed a mango margarita with my meal. Not a bad deal! I can't wait to go back and try something else. I'd like to check out their brunch menu sometime, too.