I recently booked a trip to Mexico City, so I've been a bit obsessed lately with traditional Mexican food. I remembered a friend telling me about Black Ant, so I was able to convince Holly to check it out with me Friday night.
This is no Tex Mex food where everything is dripping in cheese and sour cream. It's the kind of place where they have gresshoppers and goat as their main forms of protein. We started with the black ant guacamole ($13) - I had to ask what black ant salt was and it's exactly what you think it is, crushed up black ants mixed with salt. I felt like we had to try something adventurous. We also got a side of plantains ($10) and I got the lehcon ($26) and Holly got the octopus ($27). We were really tempted to also get the fish tacos since they sounded amazing but our stomachs were way bigger than our eyes at this point and I'm glad we refrained. I was kind of expecting to see a bunch of this black ant salt in the guacamole but it was honestly barely noticeable. It was really just normal guacamole served with freshly made tortilla chips. There was a hint of mango and pomegranate so I guess it wasn't 100% "normal" but it was a pretty solid dish. The plantains were also great - served in a smokey mole sauce and sprinkled with melted cotija cheese. It was a lovely way to start the meal.
The entrees were no different either. We had a bit of a snafu when they gave Holly the wrong dish and honestly it was bit too dark and we were starting to get a bit to tipsy to recognize it right away. They gave her the duck dumplings and I tried a bite and we were both confused. Luckily when we flagged down the waiter, he knew immediately that it was the wrong order and brought out the octopus right away. As for my lechon - it was a big block of suckling pig deliciousness. Juicy, flavorful and the meat fell apart instantly. The also give you a side of fresh corn tortillas, which I would normally skip but for some reason decided to try and it was magical. I have been trying to avoid eating so much meat because of my high cholesterol but it's dishes like this that make it really hard to give up. I had a bite of the octopus and it was super tender and tasty as well.
We got the churros ($10) to end the meal because, well, how can you not get churros?!? They were sweet and crunchy - albeit a bit too crunchy. They probably were fried a bit too long and could have been more fluffy as Holly noted. But overall, it was a fantastic way to end the meal.
This meal got me super excited for my trip to Mexico City. The only reason I didn't give it 4.5 forks was for the really slow service in the beginning and the fact that they had this really annoying blinking light near where we were sitting that almost made it seem like we were in a rave. Luckily it was fixed but it was highly distracting. However, after seeing this picture of what the fish tacos looked like, I would be more than happy to try this place out again soon. A fair warning, the margaritas are really strong - you've been warned. Total bill: $85/pp with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
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