Overview:
While driving along the city streets of Peoria, I found myself getting hungry and while I was deciding in my head about what I wanted, a thought popped up. I turned to my girlfriend in the car and said I have an idea, to which she also had one and at the same time we shouted: “MEXICAN FOOD”. With the widest grin on our faces, we began to look at options near us saw a few places that looked good, until we saw a familiar name that caught our attention: CASA DE ARTE. We had this place on our radar, and finally decided to give it a shot.
When walking in to the house-like structure, you are greeted with a comfortable a friendly vibe. If I had to describe the atmosphere, I would say it was as if a coffee shop were selling Mexican food. The bar area has many drink options available from alcoholic beverages to sodas and the tables are evenly spread with both table and booth seating options available. The main attraction of the restaurant, however, are all of the pieces of art that are displayed throughout the entire store (hence, why it’s called ‘CASA DE ARTE’). There were pieces that depicted various different subjects, ranging from the Big Bang to the Last Supper, and even some sculptures on display as well. The artwork was very nicely done, and was a sight that was unlike many others.
My Experience:
We were greeted very nicely at the register, and the style of restaurant is one where you order and pay up front, you receive a number for your order, and the staff brings the food to your table. All of the staff members treated us with genuine kindness, and made sure to make us feel welcome. As we sat down, we took notice of the different art pieces and it took a little while for the food to get to our table, but that usually means that the food is made really well and prepared thoroughly. I was delighted to see how big the torta was the I ordered, as it was a sandwich that contained steak, lettuce, tomato, mayo, onion, and jalapenos. As I took the first bite, I got a very strong taste of bread because of how thick the buns were. As I scarfed down the torta because of hunger, I was a bit disappointed by it. It was flavorful and the meat was cooked well, but the taste of the bread was so overpowering that it was hard to get many other flavors involved.
The tacos that we also ordered looked delicious as well, as we were able to not only pick the meat, but pick the toppings that went along with it as well. We ordered three pastor tacos and one steak taco, each topped with onion and cilantro and wrapped in two corn tortillas. The steak tacos was very good and had a lot of flavors that I wish I could have had with the torta. The pastor tacos were also good, but there were a little too sweet because of the pineapple flavor that was in the meat. Still, they were good and very easy to eat. We also ordered some churros and they were probably the best tasting food we ordered. They were very soft and had the perfect amount of cinnamon and sugar. The only thing that would have made them better was if they were filled with some custard.
Overall, this was a good place to eat and the artwork was very well done. The food was good, not necessarily out of this world, but still very good. I would recommend this place to people if they asked about it, but would be sort of in the middle of my list.
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
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