A second location for this Mex (with a lot of Tex). The food is inventive and flavorful if not entirely authentic.

A simple little authentic Mexican eatery. How authentic? You might have to ask if the have a menu in English.

This restaurant is not recommended at this time.

It would seem that the place to be on a Friday night if you live in the area of Chickasaw Trail and Lake Underhill Road is Don Julio’s Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Bar. At least it seemed that way the Friday evening my companion and I stopped in. The restaurant in the aptly named Rio Pina Plaza was jumping like veritable frijoles saltarines.

It was so crowded that people waiting for tables were standing around on the sidewalk outside the strip plaza storefront. The only seats available, the young woman at the host stand told us, were at either of the bars, the tequila bar in the title or the ceviche bar on the other side of the room.

That suited us just fine because it was the ceviche bar that drew my attention to this particular D. Julio’s over the one in Lake Mary or the other location in Waterford Lakes.

If you overlook the inclusion of fajitas on the menu, this little hole in the wall (not that wall) serves authentic Mexican food.

There isn’t anything remotely Mexican about the decor and design of Frontera Cocina, the new restaurant from Rick Bayless that has opened at Disney Springs. And that just may be the point.

Bayless, the Chicagoland chef who has won no fewer than six James Beard Awards, says his style of Mexican food has “bright flavors” and isn’t heavy because they don’t do much frying. His menu focuses on the Central and Southern regions of Mexico, staying far away from the influences of Tex-Mex or Ameri-Mex, or, heaven forbid, Flori-Mex.

That brightness shows in the decor, as well. More modern, with bright splashes of color — orange, blue and green — walls of windows and shelves of tequilas. No artificially cracked plaster walls showing bare bricks beneath and nary a sombrero hanging on a hook. That alone is refreshing.

Like other market/cafes of this type, Los Hermanos offers a variety of foods as lunch specials, each visible for your inspection through the condensation on windows of the steam table. The young woman behind the counter lifted the lids of each pan so that I could see what was underneath. It all looked good, but when she lifted the cover from the chilaquiles, my mind was made up — that’s what I’m having, I told her.
Chilaquiles are essentially strips of tortiallas that are fried and mixed with salsa and cheese. It’s a sort of Mexican comfort food. (It’s comfort food for at least one gringo, too.) Los Hermanos’ chilaquiles were served with two fried eggs on top. And because it was part of the lunch special, it also came with a load of refried beans and yellow rice. As I carried the container to the grocery checkout counter to pay for it, I was struck by how heavy it was. That was a lot of food for $6.39!
And a lot of good food, too. The chilaquiles had just the right amount of peppery heat, not to much that it burned but enough that you knew it was there. My only disappointment was that the fried eggs had cooked while sitting atop the chilaquiles in the covered pan, so the yolks had hardened a bit. I would have preferred freshly cooked eggs so that the yolk could have blended with the tortilla strips.

A former greasy spoon diner now also offering Mexican dishes, though only for lunch and dinner.

The long-awaited Kavas Tacos + Tequila has finally opened at Pointe Orlando from the folks who brought you Taverna Opa, also at the Pointe, and Tapa Toro at Icon Park. With Kavas, they add Tex-Mex and Mexican street foods to their portfolio of Greek and Spanish cuisines.

A move from its original space in an office complex across the street gives La Fiesta a bigger and nicer dining area, plus a full bar. Just wish the food was a little better.