Blending bold flavors from Arizona, California, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Texas comes an interesting concept by the name of Z Tejas!  The menu reminds more more of tex mex with some cajun offerings. The menu is very short compared to most restaurants.

The atmosphere was warm and very comfy the only real complaint was the noise. Even with tables being nicely spaced apart noise carried so much it was a bit distracting.

We started off with two appetizers since their appetizers tend to be on the smallish size….. We had chile verde with pork and a smoked chicken quesadilla.

Before the appetizers came out they serve cornbread in a cast iron skillet with whipped butter…. it is a great concept and the cornbread they use is quite good… moist and very flavorful.

The appetizers arrived and the chile verde came with tortillas and black beans topped with cotija cheese. The chile verde was very good. It had just the right amount of tartness from the tomatillos and just enough spicyness to be flavorful and pleasant. The black beans that accompanied the dish were perfect. Very flavorful and cooked perfectly.

The second appetizer didn’t fair too well. The lackluster dish didn’t have enough cheese to be called a quesadilla. There was a pool of liquid from what look like the pico de gallo they topped it with and then fell off. It caused half of the tortilla to be soggy while the top half was crisp. It was more like a soft taco cut how a quesadilla should have been dressed. The flavors were bland and quite disappointing. They also didn’t do a very good job of shredding the chicken because I had a bone in my quesadilla.

As for dinner we decided to each order something and then we would split. I ordered chorizo stuffed pork tenderloin and Scott ordered the Santa Fe smoked chicken enchilada.

The chorizo stuffed pork tenderloin was served with mashed potatoes and sauteed vegetables. The pork was topped with a roasted garlic cream sauce. The dish was excellent. The pork was tender and juicy. The chorizo was a little spicy and was airy almost mousse-like. The vegetables were cooked properly but a little more salt on the vegetables would have balanced the dish out a bit more. The mashed potatoes were very tasty but not smooth. I do not know if this was on purpose to make their mashed potatoes lumpy but it complimented the dish well.

The smoked chicken enchilada was topped with a red chile sauce and was served with black beans and spanish rice. The enchiladas suffered the same fate as the quesadillas. It was quite bland compared to their other offerings. The enchilada was built flat and round instead of the traditional tube shaped we are all so used to seeing. The rice and beans were very flavorful which is sad considering they were sides.

We finished off the meal… (yes we were hungry) with dessert. The server which was very friendly suggested the special which was a red chile fudge pie topped with ice cream and chocolate and caramel sauces. The cake was bland which seems to be a theme for the night but the coffee ice cream they paired with it was great.

All in all… was it bad…no… was it good? Yes… for having such a small menu and to have half of what we ordered to be okay was a bit disappointing but the dishes that were good is stuff where you crave and come back for. All in all it was a good place and hopefully those that read this will avoid the bland items.

Happy eating!