El Farolito - Nachos for the Recession (3 stars)
by jonnynacho
El Farolito is located deep in International Boulevard territory, Oakland's own Mission District. The area has an honest, unpretentious Latino flavor to it. It's the hardscrabble working man's street, and they aren't fooled by flash or fancy packaging. That means honest food. That means honest nachos.
That can go two ways, though, because there's a fine line between frugality and just being too-damn-cheap. El Farolito really rides the razors edge, getting dangerously close to the latter but thankfully for us, mostly being the former. Our nachos showed up on a large plastic plate, and I noticed with more than slight distress that they had piled on the base of chips, beans and cheese on said plate and then warmed them under the broiler that way. I was about to protest this, but there were no signs that the plate had melted in any way, so we proceeded. Additionally Farolito's chips didn't look house-made, a major detractor. They were fresh enough, but a bit too thin and not quite suitable for the heavy lifting that top-tier nachos demand.
While waiting for our food, I noticed Farolito had one of the best sticker machines in town, sporting awesome religious stickers. I wasted no time trading two bucks for quarters and pumping them into the machine with excellent results.
There was an amazing amount of carne asada. This is a meal for two or more. All the key ingredients were in evidence - meat, beans, monterey jack cheese, pico de gallo, sour cream, jalapeno. There was no quacamole, but Farolito gave us a whole half avocado, which Jake made short work of.
How much for all of this? An amazing $5.50! $4.50 gets you the same without the meat. These are definitely recession-priced nachos. Dare I say, I don't think it's even possible to buy this much food at a grocery store for $5.50.
One taste, though, and I knew our mission was hardly over. The carne asada was salty, and needlessly so, I think. The meat tasted plenty fresh, so why they loaded it up with salt was a mystery. And like La Corneta, there was just too much piled on the chips. It wasn't long before I was leveraging our chip basket and things got ultra-messy. I had to go back for extra napkins. More is not always better.
Farolito doesn't make the ultimate nachos, but they do deliver an unparalled, honest value, and the girl at the counter was very nice. They're open till 11:45 on Fridays and Saturdays, so they might also be right for your late-night post-drink nacho buck.
El Farolito - 3 stars (out of 5)
3646 International Blvd
Oakland, CA 94601
(510) 533-9194
Oakland, CA 94601
(510) 533-9194
