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Restaurant Ratings

The ratings are based mostly on the degree to which the food excites us, and a little on environment, service, and other considerations. I rate restaurants relative to all other restaurants in the New Orleans area. Here's what the stars mean to me:

starstarstarstarstar
Among the best locally.

starstarstarstar
Excellent and ambitious.

starstarstar
Worth crossing town for.

starstar
Recommended.

*
Acceptable.

No star
Unacceptable.

Cost Ratings
Each dollar sign indicates a ten-dollar range, including a normal meal for the restaurant (dinner, if they serve other meals), not including drinks, or tips. So, for example. . .

1$--$5-15
2$--$15-25
3$--$25-35

. . . and so on, with no upper limit. While this scheme may suggest mathematical precision, know that perception of price varies from diner to diner as much as the star ratings do. So consider this an estimate.

All reviews are based entirely on meals I have personally taken at the restaurant and paid for from my own pocket. I don't take free review meals, nor am I reimbursed by anybody for my restaurant expenditures.

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La Carreta

Mexican.
Mandeville: 1200 W. Causeway Approach. 985-727-7212. Map.
Lunch and dinner continuously seven days.
Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website

WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
The best of the American-style Mexican restaurants in the area, La Carreta is the Mandeville location of a small Louisiana chain. Its menus have kept pace with the opening of many small Mexican cafes around the New Orleans area in the past few years. Most of those introduced dishes not before seen in this area. La Carreta has been quick to pick up on the best of those and prepare them credibly, in a mainstream restaurant environment.

WHY IT'S GOOD
They start you off with what I think is the best salsa in the area, brought forth by the quarter-liter. The ingredients used in all the dishes are of unimpeachable merit, fresh and good-looking. While most of the food is gussied up more than they would be in a mom-and-pop cantina, there no watering down of the flavors.

BACKSTORY
La Carreta is a small, rapidly-expanding chain of seven Mexican restaurants in Southeast Louisiana. Saul Rubio, native of Queretaro, Mexico, came to Hammond to go to school, and worked in the usual capacities in Mexican restaurants. In 1998, at 36, he opened his first restaurant in Hammond. Almost from the beginning, the restaurant has not only expanded its reach but also its menu and its individual locations. The one in Mandeville has been renovated at least twice. La Carreta has no connection with Carreta's Grill, another chain of Mexican restaurants in the same region.

DINING ROOM
The walls are dark, but the lighting gives the tables in the two main rooms a pleasing brightness. A few outdoor tables are under the trees. The service staff is friendly and responsive, and may even be too quick to bring the food out.

ESSENTIAL DISHES
Chorizo con queso.
Ceviche with shrimp and fish.
Quesadillas.
Tortilla soup.
Chicken or steak fajitas.
Enchiladas Potosinas (grilled chicken or carne asadas with cheese enchiladas).
Tacos al carbon (flour tortillas with grilled beef).
Tacos al pastor (flour tortillas with braised pork).
Pork tenderloin carnitas.
Mixed grilled meat dinner for two.
Tres leches cake.
Flan.

FOR BEST RESULTS
If you're going to have an appetizer, split it with someone else--it's too much food. Also, tell the server to hold back on your entree until you're finished the first course.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
Why does La Carreta, with its obvious talent in the kitchen, stop short of serving things like mole poblano, cabrito, and menudo? I think the market is ready for it.

FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.

SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES

This review was updated with new information on 11/12/2009.

A list of all 275 full, current reviews is here.