Recently, on borderbeat.net, the fall 2008 restaurant guide was made live. I went through past borderbeat.net stories, to see what has been already been covered; I found reviews by the local Tucson papers (The Arizona Daily Star, The Tucson Citizen and The Tucson Weekly) and made created a list of the reviews with their contact information.

With living in Tucson for 23 years, I have eaten at the majority of all of the restaurants in town: the good, the bad and the awesome. I’m picky when it comes to my food, but even picker when it comes to Mexican food. Below are a few of my favorite Mexican restaurants:

• Last spring, when I was an intern at the Arizona Legislature, I came home for a weekend and wanted some really good Mexican food; we went to Mi Nidito (at 813 S 4th Ave, Tucson) and waited for almost 2 hours for our table. The food and service were amazing. I’m a huge fan of cheese enchiladas and they were to die for. They are home to the world famous Chile Relleno.Former President Bill Clinton (he even has a item on the menu named after him), Enrique Iglesias, Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, and Willie Nelson are just a few who have eaten at this Tucson restaurant.
  

• To celebrate a friends birthday last year, we ventured off to La Fuente (1749 N. Oracle Road.) for dinner. I wasn’t really impressed with the food, but guacamole that was prepared at our table was pretty good, and I’m not a fan of guacamole. The entertainment at La Fuente was great! Throughout the week, they have live mariachi music for the guests to enjoy. Since it was my friend’s birthday, they played ¡Feliz cumpleaños!Just for her and for the rest of the night, she even wore a pink sombrero.
  

• I am a huge fan of the Fox Restaurant Concepts: everything from Sauce, Zinburger, North, and Wildflower a couple of weeks ago I wanted to try something new from Sam Fox. Blanco - Tacos + Tequila it offers a new, causal atmosphere and outlook when it comes to Mexican food. The food was really good.

• While working on The Chimichanga: A Delicious American Mystery project with Chris Reed, I remembered how amazing the food and service was at El Charro Café. While working on this project, I learned that at the downtown location (which was Monica’s home) was where the burrito was “accidently” dropped into the pot of boiling water and the rest is pretty much history. There are five locations in Tucson and each offers the same, traditional food with the same great, family service.

Check out this video of the mariachi music at La Fuente!