South of the Boarder Restaurant & Lounge was located at 2611 US 41N, also the location of Taylor’s Junction and now MrB’s.
Food pleasant, but servings too large at ‘South of the Border’ – by Sara Anne Corrigan
The phrase, “South of the Border,” as in “…down Mexico way,” has recently been applied to a Mexican restaurant that lies south of the Indiana border and across the Ohio River in Henderson.
South of the Border Restaurant and Lounge occupies the building that formerly housed Taylor’s Junction on U.S. 41, south of the light at Watson Lane. It is right next door to another of Henderson’s dining and leisure time attractions, The Filling Station Lounge.
Since our last experience with Mexican food, or rather the hybridized corporate version of Mexican food found at most local Mexican theme restaurants, Keith and I have been possessed of a certain ennui where Mexican anything is concerned.
“But,” I suggested, as we drove across the bridge Monday night, “we don’t know anything about this one yet. We don’t know if it is part of a chain. What if they have a real Mexican chef?”
Keith, having a certain, albeit intermittent, tendency toward old-fashioned Southern chivalry, allowed my comments to go unchallenged and drove on in silence.
Our initial impression of South of the Border was quite good; the establishment is bright, clean, warm and inviting. There are some decorative Mexican theme objets de art hanging on the walls and from the ceiling, but the place is not at all overstated.
Neither is it especially large.
We were seated quickly and our waitress was immediately on hand with the ubiquitous basket of warm tortilla chips and red tomato salsa – both of which we found to be typical. Ditto for the margaritas that were billed as Monday night’s half-price special.
The menu and the prices are modest. We noted the same variety of tacos, tostadas, enchiladas, burritos (smothered and otherwise), fajitas and chimi-changas, that we have endured at other Mexican theme restaurants in the area, and which – we have on good authority – no Mexican in his or her right mind would claim as “native cuisine.”
And it turns out that South of the Border, too, is a franchise. Our waitress said the restaurant tends to show up in Holiday Inns on a pretty regular basis. All over the country.
Keith and I suspected that, in keeping with corporate restaurant trends, this place too might be guilty of serving obscenely large portions, so we decided to share an appetizer and a salad before embarking on individual entrees.
This turned out to be a thoughtful choice. The
“Mexican Layer Dip,” billed as “layers of spicy beef, refries, shredded cheese, guacamole, sour cream, diced tomatoes, green onions and black olives, served with warm tortilla chips smothered with cheese for dipping,” was really pretty good, but it was served in a trough that would have made a satisfactory appetizer for four to six people. It would have made a luncheon for two or an ample dinner for one.
The salad we chose, “Guacamole de la Casa” was an attractive melange of shredded lettuce, red cabbage and tomatoes topped with more cheese, more guacamole and several wedges of fresh avocado.
After sharing these two items, we could have burped once and gone home. But nnnoooooo. We had dinner coming.
Or rather we had dinner waiting: Keith’s entree was delivered before our appetizer and salad and then everything sort of showed up at once. We found this to be a little disconcerting.
The Chimichanga with spicy beef I ordered was good and large but unremarkable. Keith was quite satisfied with his “Fajitas al Carbon” which translates into ” strips of marinated beef (or chicken, or shrimp, your choice) sauteed with thick chunks of onion and green pepper.
It was delivered with flour tortillas and a plate of assorted toppings that left him free to assemble his own meal. The meat/onion/pepper mixture was a little greasy, but it did offer a nice flavor that was not the same flavor we found elsewhere in the meal.
Woefully, this has not always been the case at Mexican theme restaurants.
Our biggest problem with this and other corporate restaurants has less to do with flavor or presentation of food than it does with quantities. At South of the Border, we found the food to be generally pleas-ant, although the guacamole was understated to the point of being: mute. At issue here is volume, and the restaurant’s failure to identify it. Neither Keith or I tend to be shy around food, and our appetites are best described as “healthy.” When we tell you that servings are too large to handle, you can take it to the bank.
