What is served in this little eatery in downtown Orlando has a lot more in common with Tex-Mex than Mexican, with a definite leaning to the, uh, gringo side of the border. But they do serve some decent food in a delightfully grungy atmosphere.
The menu is a bit salacious, with such entries as Dirty Sanchez, Drunk Gringo, Mouth Hugger and 1 Night Slam. Mainly, it’s tacos and burritos. I had the Drunk Gringo, which has nothing to do with alcohol. Instead, it simply means that it is the burrito into which everything is loaded. (Drunk. Loaded. Get it?) So instead of just one meat — or protein, as it is prosaically referred to on the menu — you get roast pork, ground beef and chicken. You also get beans and rice and lettuce and cheese and onions and…you get the idea.

Another player in the gourmet taco game, Hunger Street does a good job with meaty fillings in appropriate tortillas.

Jimmy Hula’s has opened a second location on University Boulevard, close to UCF, which seems a perfect location for this type of operation. Fish tacos are the focus here, and they’re mostly done well.

As with other assemblage concepts, guests choose the ingredients and direct the staff member behind the sneeze guard who puts it all together into what one hopes will be a conglomeration that doesn’t suck. Here you can choose a burrito as your food container, or perhaps a pita pocket, or maybe just a bowl to hold it all.

I went with the burrito, choosing a white flour tortilla instead of a whole wheat one, Mexican rice instead of brown or mjedderah (the Lebanese mix of rice and lentils), black beans instead of lentils, and steak as my meat option. It doesn’t stop there. One must still choose sauces and other accouterments.

It all turned out well, however. My choices all came together into a well-stuffed burrito that was transferred into a well-stuffed diner. The quality of the ingredients — including hormone-free meat — was evident in the taste.

La Campana has a lot of intriguing items on its menu and it makes no claim to being authentically Mexican – a note at the top of its online menu says it is “inspired by Mexican food.”

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.

The menu is more extensive than it really needs to be but distinguishes itself from other local Mexican restaurants by being more authentically Mex with less Tex.

The menu is extensive – larger than it really needs to be – and does have some genuine Mexican dishes, though it is also chile-peppered with Tex-Mex and other Americanized versions. The food is good and is presented in startlingly large portions.

Mi Tomatina, the paella place in Winter Park’s Hannibal Square, is now Pepe’s Cantina. While Spanish may still be spoken here, the dialect is more Mexican than Catalan. And there’s a distinct Texas accent, as well.

Pepe’s Facebook page (the website is still “under construction) states that chef Jose Baranenko’s menu “puts a new twist on traditional Mexican cuisine.” Inasmuch as fajitas and nachos — and burgers, for that matter — are Mexican it’s only because they migrated from the country to the north.

But I’ll not quibble about authenticity. I had a pleasant visit to Pepe’s recently, and if the cantina vibe isn’t quite in sync with such neighbors as Chez Vincent, Mynt and Armando’s — Pepe’s Facebook page is promoting an event called Cinco de Drinko — it isn’t any more out of place than, say, Dexter’s down the block.

An outpost of the longtime Winter Park dive, just as dive-y. Tex-Mex snobs will be horrified at some of the selections. Relax. You just need the food to absorb some of the beer.