There's an old joke I should start with to preface this review. Two old women are at a restaurant, and one says, "The food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions, too."

Well, at the very least, Little Mexico remedies the latter part. If nothing else, a trip here gets you a lot of food for a reasonable price. It makes perfect sense to locate this restaurant so close to Virginia Commonwealth University since college students are guaranteed to be able to bring home lots of leftovers with them without breaking the bank. That's a good thing, I guess.

I just wish the food were better. It's not quite "really terrible," but it's certainly no great shakes as far as Mexican food goes.

The good? The complementary chips and salsa bowl is terrific. The chips are thin and crunchy, and the salsa tastes fresh: lots of cilantro and tomatoes with just the right amount of heat. This may seem like a silly thing to highlight, but I rank Mexican restaurants by that initial chips and salsa platter, and Little Mexico has a darn good one.

Unfortunately, it all went downhill from there. My friend and I split a mushroom quesadilla ($3.25) appetizer for starters. We got two huge portions (more than we could eat, but it's the thought that counts) to compensate for the relative mediocrity of the dish itself. The cheese was pervasive but tasteless, and the mushrooms were slightly rubbery. It wasn't offensive to eat, just sort of … meh.

For the main entrée, I ordered the Veggie Yucatan ($9.95) plate. It seemed promising — mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, zucchini, squash, and red and green peppers, all served over Spanish rice with guacamole (it also came with sour cream, but I'm not a big fan of that. Watching my figure, you might say). I practically got a Dutch oven-sized amount of food, too.

That said, I couldn't have been more disappointed. Maybe it was a "too many cooks" situation, but none of those flavors registered except the tomatoes, and they weren't that special. The mushrooms were chewy, the onions were too crunchy, and the zucchini, squash and peppers were limp and bland.

To call the textures "inconsistent" would be an understatement. Even the rice was slightly over-done. Only the guacamole had any distinct flavor, and there was not that much to spread around and salvage the whole mess.

My friend's mixed fajitas ($11.75) were similarly abundant and unimpressive. The vegetables mixed in her dish (red, yellow and green peppers, and onions and tomatoes) were just as overcooked as mine were, and she had the added "bonus" of enjoying dry chicken and tender, yet flavorless, steak alongside them. Her refried beans were good, but when you pop them from a can (and these tasted like they were), it's really hard to screw them up.

We finished off with an order of Chocolate Flan ($2.95) that was nigh inedible. I'm biased; I like a firm flan, and this was pretty gooey and drippy. But even still, the custard had no real flavor to speak of, and the chocolate was just bitter. For the first time in my dining history, I asked to have a dish taken back. In all fairness, our waitress was very apologetic about this, and she did not charge us for the dessert.

I can't recommend Little Mexico. Yes, the prices are reasonable. Yes, the service is courteous and friendly. Yes, the food is abundant. It's just not very tasty. You can do a whole lot better picking Mexican cuisine; you got Nacho Mama's right up the street, as well as the awesome and underrated El Caporal off Broad Street near Regency Mall.

Compared to those, Little Mexico is just small potatoes.

Little Mexico
1328 West Cary St.
Richmond, VA 23220
804-525-4216