I tried Gadzooks on Friday night to satisfy my perennial craving for enchiladas. Its simple sign, “Gadzooks Enchiladas and Soup,” taunts me almost daily on my commute to work.
The ordering process seemed similar to Chipotle, and I may have annoyed a person there by comparing it to the chain a few times, but it has its distinctive flavor. He emphasized that all ingredients, including the sauces and toppings, are made fresh daily.
Here’s how it works:
- Pick among enchiladas, tacos, salad or tortilla soup.
- Pick between flour or corn tortillas.
- Choose your unique filling: roasted tomatillo chicken, green-chile pork shoulder, Modelo-braised bison, smashed Jack potato (what I ordered), sauteed spinach mushroom, Guajillo braised short ribs, or Chihuahua or asadero cheese.
- Cover it with red or green sauce, or get both, “Christmas.” Top it with asadero or Chihuahua cheese.
- For an extra $1, you can add goat cheese, fried over-easy egg, or guacamole.
- Pick a salsa: pico, salsa verde, arbol red, habañero lava.
- Top it with crema, cotjia cheese, vinaigrette slaw, or pickled onion, if you’d like.
- Dress it with jalapeño ranch, buttermilk, three-chile vinaigrette, or honey-suckle vinaigrette.
- Lastly, get your beverage and perhaps add chips and salsa for $2.
Friday night dinner at Gadzooks was made for a low-key and affordable date-night meal. Next time I’m looking forward to trying the spinach mushroom ‘ladas. Yum.
