El Naranjo Now in South Austin

Originally published 1/24/2020, updated 2/16/2020 (scroll down)

El Naranjo began as a food trailer during the opening era of what's now the hip and trendy Rainey Street, and soon opened a brick and mortar restaurant there. And searching my past blog posts, I first visited in June 2010! This past fall, they moved into the old El Chipiron spot on South Lamar at Manchaca, where there's plenty of parking! I recently visited for dinner with some friends.

We all loved this Queso Oaxaca Fundido with chorizo. Crispy around the edges, and gooey in the middle, with flavorful chorizo that wasn't super greasy. Served with housemade blue corn tortillas and  a verde salsa.

Their complimentary bread service, including butter with orange zest, chile oil (or salsa macha), and escabeche (pickled veggies).

Cochinita Pibil, the classic Mexican pork dish, traditionally cooked in banana leaves until it falls apart, with refried black beans and pickled onions.

Pesacado al Cilantro, or redfish with cilantro and ginger butter. This was fresh and light with bursts of flavor.

I am always a sucker for mole, and this mole negro with duck breast was plated beautifully. However for my tastes, I felt the sauce was on the thin side, and while they use 30 ingredients in it, I was unable to detect the nuances that I love in a mole like sweetness from raisins or prunes.

A delicious chocolate torte for dessert!

El Naranjo has kept some of the decor of the previous restaurant like the web of ropes. 

The bar

Bowls on the way to the restrooms

From the street

All in all it was an enjoyable meal, and we had a great server, Amanda. Unfortunately they were out of the Negro Modelo beer I initially ordered, so I chose a glass of Tempranillo. I would definitely go back, but I think I would try things other than what is normally my go-to mole dish at an interior Mexican restaurant. Neither of my dinner companions wanted to try the huitlachoche (corn fungus!), but I have had it before and liked it, so I'll have to back to try El Naranjo's.

Have you been to the new South Lamar location? What have you eaten?

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UPDATE

After my initial post above, Chef Iliana de la Vega reached out to me and invited me back to El Naranjo to try their mole again. I went with a friend this past week, who was also excited to try the huitlacoche! Disclaimer: this meal was complimentary, no money exchanged hands, nor was I asked to revise my original blog post. All opinions are my own.

Amanda was our server again, and after explaining who I was and the circumstances as to why I was there, she brought me tastes of both the original mole negro that I hadn't been in love with and their mole amarillo. While you can't tell from the photo, I could immediately tell that this mole negro was thicker than what I had been served before. The previous one I believe, had just been thinned out a bit too much which also diluted out the suble flavors. This one was wonderful in taste and texture! I liked the amarillo (yellow mole) too but not as much as the negro. 😃 

Tasting the mole negro and amarillo

We also had the huitlacoche empanandas, which I loved. Again, it's a corn fungus that was first used by the Aztecs, and is considered prized with some of the indigenous cultures. I particularly loved the crisp masa dough with the earthy flavors inside, and served with a great roasted salsa. 

Huitlacoche empanadas

We then shared the queso fundido, with mushrooms, and this night's selection were trumpet, shitake, and lion's mane, which surprised me. Lion's mane supplements are great for brain and memory power, but seen less frequently in food preparations. The queso was served with fresh tortillas and a green salsa, that my friend loved as it instantly reminded her of what her father's family from the San Luis Potosi region makes. 

Queso fundido with mushrooms

She had the cochinita pibil, and I had the carne asada, which was a perfect medium rare. And served with dreamy goat cheese mashed potatoes. I drizzled a little of the chile oil (salsa macha) on the steak just to give it a little extra kick.

Cochinita pibil

Carne asada with goat cheese mashed potatoes

And for dessert, the tres leches with a drizzle of a bit of raspberry reduction on top, which was the perfect end to the meal.

Tres leches cake

Many thanks to Chef Iliana for having me back to El Naranjo. Their mole negro is quite wonderful, as was all of our food! 

El Naranjo

There's been a good amount of positive buzz on El Naranjo, a new interior-Mexican foods trailer, on what has become a very hip Rainey Street. In about a 2 block area, Lustre Pearl, Clive, Garaj Mahal, El Naranjo were all thriving on a warm Thursday night (for Austin summers, the evening was actually quite decent). LP & Clive (same owner, I am fairly certain) are both in renovated houses, GM is a trailer with a fancy awning &  yard art (see February's food trailer tour story), and El N is a trailer parked in the driveway of a house that's undergoing renovations for the future permanent home of El N. Not sure what will become of the trailer at that point, but it comes with a good pedigree; the owner had a restaurant of the same name in Oaxaca for years that was very well-received.

Two friends and I arrived a little before 7 pm. We ordered, and sat at one of the picnic tables that's covered by a very nice semi-permanent canopy, complete with fans and bug zappers (need more low-tech fly paper!) First up were the molotes and empandas. They offer 2 types of molotes, and there are 3 pieces to an order. These are little cigar shaped lengths of masa, with different stuffings, that are fried. Our helpful order taker offered to do 1 veracruzano (w/plaintain & Mexican cheese) and 2 oaxaqueno (w/chorizo & potato) as we couldn't decide what to get. They had no trace of grease/oil whatsoever, but unfortunately, were not real flavorful; the masa was a bit dense, and therefore it was hard to taste the fillings. The empanadas were a little on the greasy side; they're stuffed with mushrooms, epazote & some serrano pepper, and were very crisp & tasty; a fresh red salsa (salsa rojo) accompanied them, and a green (salsa verde) with the molotes. Wish the empanadas came with more choices of fillings!

On the recommendation of the recent Austin Chronicle review, I ordered the chicken tinga soft tacos, which come 2 to the plate, and are topped with a slice of avocado. While it was very finely shredded chicken tossed in the salsa verde, they were underwhelming in flavor; a tiny bit of zip from the salsa, but it needed more. One of my friends got the cochinita pibil tacos (also 2 per order), which had been criticized by the Chronicle as too vinegary. Either it had been an off night in the kitchen, or they read the review and corrected it, because they were outstanding! The tender, well-seasoned pork was nicely complemented by pickled red onions. My other friend got the fish taco special of the evening -- 3 tacos per plate, with slaw and a chipotle crema Mexicana. I did not try them, but she said they were great. All three taco plates were served on what I presume to be homemade corn tortillas; they were very tender white corn, but perfectly round, so who knows!

I have heard that El Naranjo makes an outstanding mole sauce, and as I have said before, I do love a good mole. I would actually be highly disappointed if a place with Oaxacan roots didn't have a good mole, given the "seven moles of Oaxaca" were made famous in that region of Mexico. We asked the owner if there was a set day for moles, and she said Wednesdays, so we will have to go back and investigate for ourselves. They have a website, but it is under construction; they also post a little bit on Twitter (@elnaranjoaustin). A chalk board on the grounds had the hours posted, Mon - Sat, lunch & dinner; closed on Sundays. I was glad to see they take all major credit cards, and have trashcans for recycling glass & plastic bottles.  Everything was well-prepared, and except for the swarm of flies, it was quite comfortable out.  Can't wait to get back for the mole!