The obvious first question about Employee Meal is whether it’s better than any number of places in Southwest Detroit, especially when tacos are two for $12 rather than four for $10. Since I live in Southwest, it’s not worth my drive to Birmingham, especially with some of the dishes rising no higher than OK. If you’re from the Birmingham barrio, though, you might want to check it out.
There were touches I liked at Employee Meal, such as flower-patterned bowls like those a Mexican family would buy at the market, and the tables stamped with ads for Superior brand beer, and napkins larger than any you would find in Mexico (my perennial, only tourist complaint). One evening, to really approximate the Mexican feeling, there were even child vendors approaching the outdoor tables to sell M&Ms (swiftly shooed off by the staff). I enjoyed listening to an up-tempo version of “Cielito Lindo” but didn’t appreciate the plastic water glasses or the $7 “salsa flight.” In any Mexican restaurant I know about, at least two salsas just appear, no charge.
Employee Meal’s chef Hector Gonzalez does better on meat than on seafood, judging by the dishes I sampled. Lamb ribs were crisply charred, with the high-umami lamb flavor coming through and served with lightly braised red onions for a pleasant tingle. Though they were on the “plato fuerte” (main course) list, they were served without side dishes, and four ribs of a baby lamb are a lot tinier than four ribs of a big old pig.
I also loved beef barbacoa tacos, one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes, a pair served in housemade tortillas that were crisp but not hard. These are luscious and a bit spicy, served with an oniony beef broth as a dipping sauce. Fish tacos, a special, were less successful, a bit dry, though well loaded with mahi-mahi.
Other tacos involve cremini mushrooms or a daily rotisserie meat. The “Arabe” version of the latter sounds intriguing — labne, zhug, beets, and red onion are added, on a flour tortilla (more like pita). All the taco ingredients are available on tortas, and you can also try Jalisco’s iconic torta ahogada (“drowned”). I didn’t order this because I’ve had it in Jalisco and I think it’s weird: a very thin tomato broth is poured over your sandwich. You can’t pick this up with your hands, it’s knife and fork, but why do this to bread, if you still have all your teeth?
I found EM’s fish-octopus-shrimp ceviche OK but unremarkable, and very large, enough for maybe six people as an appetizer, what with the warm chips. It could replicate the colors of the Mexican flag if the tomatoes were redder (and really, restaurants, you need to try harder here — it’s summer).
More interesting was ceviche’s cousin aguachile (“chile water”), which is shrimp and strips of carrots, cucumbers, and red onion in chile-inflected lime juice. It’s interesting that the name reflects the liquid rather than the solids, but with reason — the “water” is heavenly bright and citrus-y. I was looking for something to put it on so I wasn’t just slurping — probably should have drowned a torta.
The most expensive dish I ordered was Tortilla Crust Salmon with poblano rice and coconut pineapple salsa, at $28; I wanted to see how tortillas were turned into a crust. Turns out the crust was pretty subtle and the fish as well, not as much flavor as one would hope.
Two desserts were top-notch: Acapulco Cake, which the server described as “closest to tres leches cake,” was indeed, with the addition of coconut, and the largest helping of that rich confection I’ve ever been served. Even better, though tiny, were warm sopapillas with honey and cinnamon — even better than churros. Tortilla dough is fried until it puffs, creating a hollow center that’s filled with the sweet stuff.
Employee Meal serves Argentinian and Chilean wines and has a cocktail list that’s all about ways to mix tequila and mezcal with tropical fruit: pineapple, mango, lemons, strawberries, limes, oranges, grapefruit, passionfruit. Or you can get a $10 shot (a “beso”) that’s pretty generous; I tried mezcal with cucumber and cilantro and found it offbeat and refreshing. Now’s the season for that sort of drink, sipped outside.
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