GREAT EATS HAWAII: SERG'S MEXICAN KITCHEN

SERG'S MEXICAN KITCHEN
MANOA, HAWAII

Finally made it to Manoa to try Serg's Mexican Kitchen. Reviews on this place have been pretty good. Serg's sits in what is like a parking lot next to a Pizza joint and a Crepe parlor. There are a few parking stalls on both sides of the restaurant. Seating is outdoors under a large tarp. We ordered at the counter and several minutes later our named was called and the food was up. During our wait for the food, I asked the guy at the window for some salsa. He pointed to the right and there was a little salsa bar with bottles of around five types of salsa plus marinated jalapenos, onions and carrots. I poured samples of each salsa into the small plastic cups placed next to the bottles. Really liked the Tomatillo Hot, Avocado Hot and Red Hot sauces. These are really good salsas that really helped boost the flavor of each dish. The first dish we tried was Serg's Famous Flautas ($9.25) served with Beans and Rice. This is a 12" tortilla stuffed with your choice of chicken, shredded beef, pork carnitas, al pastor or vegetarian. The Flautas are topped with sour creme, avocado salsa and Queso Fresco cheese. We went for the chicken and found it to be rather dry and flavorless. I added a bunch of salsa and enjoyed the flavor mixed with the sour creme, avocado salsa and cheese. We tried several different tacos at ($2.75) each. The menu lists the tacos as Mexico City Style Street Tacos. The are simply large portions of meat in a lightly fried corn tortilla. Topped with a hint of onion and cilantro. I liked the Carne Asada taco best. I added the Avocado salsa to kick it up a notch. The chicken taco was a disappointment. Cubed chicken on a tortilla. The chicken lacked flavor and had no other condiments to boost the flavor. The Pork Carnitas was o.k. but really greasy. Again topped with nothing but a few small onions and cilantro. I have had tons of Street Tacos in Mexico. While these are good, they don't bring me back to those flavors of Mexico. The Fish Taco ($3.25) and Rice and Beans ($1.95) was not a bad dish. We went for the grilled fish. It was topped with a mayo based cole slaw. We were surprised that none of our dishes had any fresh tomato or salsa on the plates. Only the salsas in the large bottles. What I can say about Serg's is that I would like to go back. This is much better than 99% of the taco joints in Hawaii where I eat once and never return.

Click links below to view another post on Serg's Mexican Kitchen:

http://greateatshawaii.blogspot.com/2013/12/sergs-mexican-kitchen-revisited.html
http://greateatshawaii.blogspot.com/2013/09/wings-and-things-by-serg.html