Tio Gordos

Quickly, if you are wondering who I am, check out the About Me section of the site for more info, you probably aren’t concerned about that at this point, you just want to know where to get some quality food. But just in case, it’s worth noting.

At this point I turn my attention to a restaurant in downtown Port Huron sporting one of my favorite cuisines: Mexican. Tio Gordos Cocina, a large, mid-priced restaurant in historic downtown Port Huron, serves up a variety of Mexican dishes in an authentic attempt to recreate mexican cuisine with a slight American twist. Now, from my former days in high school spanish I happen to recall the word “gordo” translates to “fat” and the word “tio” translates to “uncle”. This leaves us with the name “Fat Uncle’s Kitchen”. Yay! Spanish class. Now, I don’t have a fat uncle, especially not of the latino descent. But I would like to imagine that if I did, he would make a mean taco. One so delicious it would leave me no choice but to become a very “gordo” uncle myself in the future. With this being said, you can see how I would walk through the door with very high expectations.

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, just past noon. A mix of mariachi, salsa, and South American pop music played through the speakers as we were seated at our table by a host with a friendly smile. I recall being surprised by how empty the restaurant was for a Saturday afternoon, only two other tables were filled, should I be worried? Any worries I may have had were immediately put to rest when a moment later a basket of freshly prepared tortilla chips and salsa were deposited at our table. The chips with light and crispy and the salsa had the freshness of tomatoes mixed with a slight heat that was at the same time not overpowering. At this point the friendly waiter made his way from behind the bar to take our order. To get a sampling of what my fat uncle was offering at his kitchen, I decided upon a Mexican cuisine classic in 3 different varieties: the taco. The first dish I had the pleasure of diving in to was my side of refried black beans, which took me back to a time sampling authentic bean dishes in my Venezuelan aunt’s kitchen, so I guess Tia Gordo’s Cocina, and they told me I would never use high school spanish. Back to the beans however, the black beans were cooked into almost a delicious crushed paste with an added kick of spice which, while it may be too spicy for some, I found to be just right and fairly authentic at the same time. If you are looking for a little less heat in your side dish I would recommend the refried pinto beans, which while equally delicious, contained a little less spice and were more on the mild side.

Next I made my way over to the tacos, of which I sampled multiple varieties. The pork carnitas taco was juicy and delicious, topped with a tangy salsa verde and all the trappings of an authentic street taco. The corn tortilla was warm and delicious and the shreds of pork were slow cooked and succulent with excellent seasoning. Round two of taco-mania came in the form of a shrimp taco, which was the highlight of my meal. The shrimp, glazed in a wonderfully spicy chili lime sauce, was cooked to perfection and had that light exterior crunch and tender interior that is the telltale sign of a well cooked shrimp. The smoked cheddar added a subtle hint of smoky flavor into the mix that provided for a greater depth of flavor throughout, while the pineapple chipotle salsa cut through the dish with a sweet undertone that surrounded the tastebuds in a harmonious experience of both spicy and sweet. My only disappointment of the day came in round three of my self-proclaimed taco-mania. The fish taco, containing grilled mahi sat alone on my plate daring me to dive into another round of taco induced joy. However this time my tastebuds were met by a piece of mahi that had been overcooked on the grill and had become dry. Now let me set this straight, we aren’t talking Sahara levels of dry, but somewhere in between Lake Michigan and the sleeping bear dunes, we find the perfect description for what was inside my taco. This combined with the poblano cole slaw, which in my opinion was also a touch dry, made for a lesser experience than what I was accustomed to from the previous two tacos. The flavor of the taco, the seasoning and combination of flavor profiles was still there, but a bit of the joy had been lost in the overcooked fish. For me the overcooked mahi is not a deal breaker, and overall I left my fat uncle’s kitchen with a full stomach and fond memories of a fairly authentic mexican cuisine experience and a new restaurant to add to the list of my recommendations. People of the Blue Water Area, if you are in search of the flavors of South America in a casual-fine dining environment, look no further than Tio Gordos Cocina.