Just returned from dinner at Ay Chiwawa Mexican Cafe and here is my review as promised. We started with some chips and a very nice chile ancho based salsa. We had the botana mexicana appetizer platter which advertised: 2 flautas, 2 quesadillas, 2 empanadas and 2 sopes. I was delighted to discover a black filling in one of the "empanadas" (I would have called them quesadillas, following Mexico City's lexicon): huitlacoche. For those of you unfamiliar with it, huitlacoche is a corn fungus that has been considered a delicacy for hundreds of years. It is delicious and definitely not an acquired taste. The other "empanada" was stuffed with squash blossoms, it was ok, not impressive. The quesadillas were, to my surpise, stuffed with a yellow cheese (big minus for my taste), although tasty. The flautas were pretty standard. There was only one sope, cut in half and topped with picadillo (the only real mexican dish made with seasoned ground beef). It actually tasted like picadillo is supposed to, which means, unfortunately, that I didn't like it... :) We both had the enchiladas suizas for entree and I was expecting to get what I would if I were in Mexico. Big mistake. They were tasty, but they were not, by any means, enchiladas suizas. I mean, you can't have enchiladas suizas without the salsa verde! They came with beans and rice, another no-no for suizas (the rice, not necessarily the beans). This is the only restaurant in Austin (except Fonda San Miguel) where the rice doesn't taste like cumin, big kudos! For dessert the owner recommended flan, telling us that he makes it himself and that if we didn't like it we wouldn't have to pay for it. It was good flan, the right flavor, a little too dense for my taste (I like it more airy/bubbly), but good. The owner said next time we should have one of the moles (green, brown or black) 'cause he makes them himself and they're pretty good. We'll see. Overall I'd say it's the most mex restaurant I've been to after FSM, but it also serves the tex-mex fare patrons expect in a mexican restaurant. I will be back, but I'll ask what the dish is like before ordering, just to be sure. I recommend it, we need more restaurants like this in Austin, with more mex and less tex. Not that there is anything wrong with tex, but there are plenty of places that have it, and almost none without.
Austin, TX