Restaurant Review: The Mission

To celebrate Dong's first day on the job as a licensed pharmacist, we checked out The Mission for dinner (of course he was paying, tee hee!) The Mission serves what they call "Pan-American" cuisine - a tasty mixture of Mexican, South American and Southwestern cuisines. It's also charmingly located inside an old red church, complete with ivy crawling up one side.

Inside, the main dining area is illuminated by hanging lights and gorgeous stained glass windows. A bar lines one side of the room, with the stained glass windows adding great effect. Wooden beams overhead add a rustic appeal, and you can see the kitchen through a window in the back. The back of the restaurant is dominated by a clay facade, like you'd see on a Mexican church. It's a pretty dramatic and cool effect, and really gets you ready to enjoy some delicious food!

Their dinner menu changes with the season, so I wasn't able to try out the scallops that I remember Shirley raving about a few weeks ago (wahhh!). However, there were plenty of other offerings to choose from. For our appetizer, we ordered the tostada, my entree was the puerco, pork tenderloin with mango salsa, and Dong ordered two soft tacos with pulled pork and chicken.

May the food porn commence.

First up was the tostada, consisting of pan-seared tuna (on the bottom), with avocado sandwiched between crispy corn tortillas and salsa on top, drizzled with some delicious sauce that I can't remember the name of. It was so good... crispy, flavorful, and the tuna was moist and flavorful. Gone in sixty seconds!

My entree, the puerco, was pork tenderloin topped with mango salsa, with a side of warm greens and some mushy stuff that I didn't really like. The pork was okay... it was a little bland, but the mango salsa helped it some. In actuality, my favorite part of the dish were the greens, which was mixed with rhubarb. They were slightly bitter, helping to offset the sweetness of the mango. And lastly, there is that unidentified mush beneath the pork... I think my dislike of it stems from my distaste of mushy foods. I'm fine with mashed potatoes, which has a firmish consistency, but this was kinda weirdly runny in my mouth, with bits of chewy something. It didn't taste that bad, but the consistency really turned me off... Thankfully, Dong finished it off.

And last but not least, Dong's soft shell tacos! In the picture you can see his hands, all clenched up and ready to devour! In the words of Dong, they were "very good". They gave us pretty generous portions, since by the end of it we barely managed to clean our plates. Then again, we did have generous portions of the nachos and salsa that they set out before the food came... As a forewarning, they do charge for extra salsa for the chips. Just so ya know.

All in all, it was a pretty satisfying meal, and we were happy stuffed little campers when we left!