February 11th, 2008 By Jenna Walker
East Side Review: La Cabana
This week we visited a Mexican restaurant that has been open a couple years, but is tucked away at the end of South Green River, so it is still somewhat of a hide away. La Cabana offers Evansville a taste of what real Mexican food is about.
From the outside, it looks like a dive. The restaurant is tucked away in a tiny spot in a mostly vacated strip mall. La Cabana is a very small restaurant with a Mexican grocery next door. It has enough room for both a bar and a dining area. The decoration is in the style of exactly what one would think of a dusty, run-down restaurant in a ghost town in Mexico. The decor isn’t over done, and in fact makes you feel like you are really there and about to be served truly authentic Mexican food.
We ordered the Huevos con Chorizo, Chicken Chimichanga, and Burrito Special. Huevos con Chorizo is eggs scrambled with a Mexican sausage, served with rice, beans, and tortillas (I suggest corn tortillas). This came out looking and tasting delicious, the eggs and chorizo were cooked more in an omelet style and then chopped and tasted great. A chimichanga is a fried burrito-creating a crispy shell around the meat. This was filled with tons of shredded chicken and was eaten before I could even try a bite-clearly very tasty. The Burrito Special said it was served with lettuce, tomato, cheese, and sour cream, but the tomato turned out to be pico de gallo to our dining partner’s dismay since he cannot eat onions. That was a minor setback in what turned out to be an excellent dining experience.
The menu offers much more than your typical Mexican restaurant-more than just chimichangas, tacos, enchiladas, fajitas. Authentic, but not so typical fares are offered such as Caldo Sieta Mares (seven seas soup), Hunchinango Al Mojo De Ajo (whole red snapper marinated in garlic sauce), Tostadas de Ceviche (fish cooked in lemon), Tacos al Pastor, or Mole Special (chicken with mole sauce).
I greatly enjoyed this new find, and I would recommend it highly to others. There is so much different food there that it is a great place to go to find some Mexican food that you won’t easily find elsewhere in Evansville. The atmosphere in the restaurant also really drew me more into wanting to be there and find out how the food would be. Go out and try it!
La Cabana is located at 821 Green River Rd. (812) 477-3351. Mon-Thurs 11am-9:30pm, Fri & Sat 11am-10:30pm, Sunday 11am-9pm.
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bibliophile81
February 11, 2008 @ 01:10PM
Did they have vegetarian options?
Jenna
February 11, 2008 @ 04:01PM
yes they did!
ch
February 12, 2008 @ 09:15AM
eat there all the time…great food, great service…always quiet and relaxing.
Jenna
February 12, 2008 @ 04:26PM
Went back today, absolutely delicious! Today I tried the lunch #9 an enchilada and tamale with rice—WOW. Just delicious, and the tamale was huge and packed with pork. Yum. Justin tried their special fish tacos and just loved them.
bibliophile81—they have, I think, 6 vegetarian combos with various bean and cheese things like quesadillas, enchiladas, burritos, even chile rellenos
Good place you guys!!! Go try it!
Kate
March 08, 2008 @ 08:09AM
Jenna,
I tried to map this restaurant on Google maps and it shows it as being right in front of Eastland Mall, which doesn’t make any sense based on your description, “at the end of South Green River”, “tucked away in a tiny spot in a mostly vacated strip mall”. Could you elaborate more on the location? Give the nearest intersection? Thanks.
ch
March 08, 2008 @ 09:15AM
This is on SOUTH Green River…not North. Re-google the address and problem will be solved.
Jenna
March 08, 2008 @ 10:35AM
Yes, it’s on S. Green, sorry I didn’t include the South in the address line. Anyway, it is across the street from the Post Office on S. Green River. It is next to wear Colonial Garden’s used to be.
Jenna
March 08, 2008 @ 10:37AM
(kate: about halfway b/w boeke/green and washington/green, but closer to the hacienda/sonic part)
Dan
July 26, 2008 @ 05:50PM
After reading the reviews of the various mexican restaurants on this site, I decided to try something new…La Cabana.
I got bored and counted up how many times I’ve ate at various mexican restaurants throughout the midwest. (I travel alot) The total…113. And no, I’m not 400 pounds. lol
That being said, La Cabana is a little above average. My wife got the Chicken Chimichanga, which was overcooked. It was supposed to include extra rice, but it didn’t. I got the Chicken Nachos Fajitas which was awesome. The Fried Ice Cream was good. It came out on a deep fried tortilla cut in quarters. The service was below average. Never got a refill. My wife was grossed out by a cockroach while we were eating chips and salsa. She said she won’t go back, but I will!
Justin Williams
July 26, 2008 @ 08:03PM
The service at Cabana stinks unless you are a regular and they like you.
Jenna
July 27, 2008 @ 09:16AM
Agreed, good service at Cabana is hard to get. I’ve been going there on a regular basis since this review, so about 6-7 months now, and only just now am I starting to get good service :) I just have always taken the bad service as a characteristic quirk. :) And I’ve been wanting to try those chicken nachos fajitas for a while, so maybe I’ll have to! And getting a refill is the hardest thing to do in the place. I have come to accept that most likely I won’t get one and to ration my drink. Lately tho I’ve been getting them every now and then.
Still, Cabana is pretty much tied with Acapulcos as my favorite Mexican in town.
Dan, when you go back, at lunch get the tortilla soup with your meal. Um, YUM!?!?!??!