El Guanaco
61 Bridge St., South Hadley, 413-536-5598
Open Mon.–Sun. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
Entrées $5-$7.85
Located on a busy street near the Falls Bridge in South Hadley, this humble pueblo is home to a monster burrito on its Mexican menu and fried yucca on its Salvadoran menu. Just a bike ride away from Mary Lyon’s grave at Mt. Holyoke, and across the Connecticut River from Paper City, the restaurant draws a diverse crowd. The night we were there, taking in the scenery from the parking lot’s lone picnic table, a cast of characters out of a Fellini film came and went.
A friend who sees this place as her own little Tanglewood recommended dining outside. Armed with a bottle of wine, we put in our order for fried yucca with the first in a series of people who waited on us and put down a tablecloth under uncertain skies. The song of grackles mingling with the jingle of beer bottles provided a backdrop for the evening.
Waiting for our first order, we watched a trio of women come in looking as though they were dressed to meet a conquistador. They were followed by a couple of dusty, muscle-bound guys picking up takeout and a family of three who ate inside.
At El Guanaco, the menu is divided into Mexican food and Salvadoran food. In both cultures, beans, rice, cheese and corn flour are mainstays. The quality of these ingredients will dictate the quality of all the dishes, no matter how exotic. For example, our order of chorizo, a spicy sausage served with beans and rice, was quite delicious even though the homemade sausage was dry. El Guanaco is pretty authentic—you won’t see guys in sombreros singing Happy Birthday in Spanish. It might just be that Salvadoran sausage is not as fatty as gringo sausage. This was new to us, which is always good.
We ordered a Special Burrito, chicken tacos with onions, cilantro and green sauce, and the aforementioned homemade chorizos with rice and beans. Like the actors in the Spanish soap opera on the restaurant television, the service staff played their roles as if we were barely there. A beautiful Mexican girl waited on us and disappeared, never to be seen again. But the food came, sent to the proper parties, and we were able to tuck into our meals.
The burrito was huge. Once dissected, it revealed layers of fresh steamed spinach, a mild cheese, olives, lettuce, pico de gallo and green sauce (with lots of cilantro), all wrapped in a flour tortilla. The appeal is obvious. This is as tasty as it is large and could feed a family of stevedores. The chicken tacos in corn tortillas with onions, cilantro and green sauce were perhaps bland, but I think a kid would be all over them. The little chunks of chicken were ever so lightly seasoned in hot sauce and the quality of all the ingredients was quite good.
The Mexican fare on the menu is what you’d expect with the aforementioned burritos (the Special, with spinach, olives, onions, peppers and mushrooms, is a fat meal torpedo of taste that could fuel the biggest, toughest guy through a long afternoon) as well as tacos, taco wraps, dorados (golden tacos), enchiladas with steak as an option, guacamole, tortilla soup, nachos, of course (not enough cheese), and quesadillas that can be ordered with the usual chicken, steak and sausage as well as cheese and guacamole.
It never rained that night, but the food authenticated the experience. If you go, try the pupusas from the Salvadoran menu. Similar to corn tortillas, they are thicker and stuffed with beans, pork, cheese and jalapenos with cheese and zucchini. The revueltas (beans, cheese and pork)—a bargain at $1.75—are a revelation.•
