How to Judge a Mexican Restaurant: The Chile Relleno Test

Note: On Wednesdays, Andrea Lynn, senior editor of Chile Pepper magazine, drops by with Serious Heat.

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Chile Pepper magazine's editorial assistant Aurora Nessly had family in town recently and casually mentioned their chile relleno test to find worthy Mexican restaurants. "Chile relleno test?" I asked, clearly intrigued.

It's simple, she said. Let's say a Japanese restaurant is judged by the quality of its udon noodles, or a French bakery judged by the crust and taste of their baguette. Well, in Aurora's family, the true test of the quality of a Mexican restaurant has always been the chile relleno.

"You know when you get that first bite of a relleno, you will either be blissfully appeased or sorely disappointed," she said.

There can be a number of flaws in a relleno. Too much crust (and a soggy one at that!) or a filling made with inferior cheese. Though there are a number of variations on the relleno—some are stuffed with meat, others covered in a tomato sauce—the core elements are still the crust, the roasted pepper, and the filling. When any of these elements goes awry, the dish falters, according to Aurora.

And a faulty chile relleno is not a good sign for the restaurant.

I thought back on my own past Mexican restaurant experiences. I've always been a sucker for a chile relleno (for years it was my go-to order). I can't count the number of restaurants that plop a canned green chile on a plate smothered with ground beef and cheese and call it a chile relleno.

So the test makes sense. After all, don't I assume that a good Chinese restaurant starts with a worthy hot and sour soup?

Has anyone else ever used the chile relleno test (or a similar one) to weed out good Mexican restaurants from the bad? Or, do you have another test for the quality of other ethnic restaurants?

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