El Granjero came highly recommended by a number of people who claimed they’d experienced some of the best authentic Mexican cuisine in all of Michigan. We were intrigued and our hopes were high. Fortunately for us, El Granjero did not disappoint.
Located near the corner of Lane and Bridge, El Granjero is owned by Mercedes Lopez and her daughter Paola. Formerly of Mexico City, the family moved to Grand Rapids 5 years ago and opened the restaurant 3 years ago. We had the pleasure of chatting with Paola and her sister Gabriela, who told us about El Granjero, and gave some great recommendations as to what we should order.
We started with the chips & salsa and the Queso Fundido which was served with flour tortillas.
The chips were served with 2 different kinds of homemade salsa.
We looked at the menu for quite a while and everything looked so good, we had a hard time deciding what to get. In typical Local GR Eats fashion, we ordered a bunch of everything. The first thing to come out was the burrito. Believe me when I say, this was the biggest burrito I have ever seen. The pictures actually don’t do the size justice. The burrito was about 4 inches high and as long as the plate. For a mere $7.89, this wet burrito could feed a small army.
In addition to the burrito we tried a bevy of items from the a la carte menu. This was a perfect way to sample a variety of dishes. El Granjero is awesome because they allow you to choose the meat you want in each of the items. They have standard choices like chicken and beef, but they also have unique options like spicy pork (marinated in pineapple…awesome!!), Mexican sausage, and beef tongue, just to name a few. Here is the tostada with chicken and in the background is the taco with the spicy pork.
If you’ve never had barbacoa, you really are missing out. You can find it at authentic Mexican restaurants and at El Granjero it’s one of the meat choices. We wasted no time ordering at least one item with the barbacoa. Here we’ve got a gordita and the barbacoa taco served with guacamole.
You can order one or two of these a la carte items for a snack, or add a few more for a meal. You really can’t go wrong with any of the selections.
Restaurants like El Granjero remind us why we love our Local GR Eats outings. Paola and Gabriela were incredibly nice and they spent time chatting with us about their restaurant. Every single item we ordered was fantastic. Upon leaving, we all agreed this is definitely a place we will be visiting again.
Hey Local GR Eats. Really like the site and the photos are great. Would love to add you guys to my blog roll, and maybe organize a GR Eat Up. Check out my site and let me know. Again, awesome blog!
Thanks for the positive feedback and we would be happy if you added us to your blog roll. I looked through your blog somereservations.wordpress.com and also enjoyed your photos and almost got inspired to do some cooking. Let us know if you have any great restaurants to recommend.