"There are some things that one just can’t find in Japan or at least where one might be in Japan." That thought was happily disproven for me tonight. There’d been a post on Facebook about a new Mexican food restaurant opening up in Niigata City and there was a great deal of anticipation around it. When a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to out for dinner this weekend we both pounced.
Arco Iris only opened last month and bills its food as “modern Mexican cuisine.” A brief glance over the menu showed my American eyes the kind of foods I would expect to see back home. The interior of Arco Iris is hip and spacious. The cushions of the chairs and booths are neon green, orangey-red and purple and lend a sense of casual fun to the atmosphere. A large bar between the entrance and the dining area provides diners with privacy from passersby on the street. My only complaint about Arco Iris’s atmosphere is that it is an all smoking restaurant. Fortunately there were no smokers during my visit.
Upon taking our seats at a high table right next to the bar the waitress provided my friend and I with double shot glasses full of sangaria drinkable salsa. It’s part of the ¥300 table charge that many restaurants of this market charge at dinner time but I was happy to pay the price (and ¥400 more for a second larger glass) because Arco Iris’s sangaria was quite good. A line of Corona on the bar next to me made me turn my eyes to the drink menu and joy of joys, Arco Iris has frozen margaritas! I hadn’t had one since I was last in my home of Colorado two years ago.
“We make our margaritas with fresh fruit,” my waitress told me. I watched the bartender blend my margarita with fresh lime juice and lime slices before bringing it to me in the broad brimmed margarita glass that I’d been longing for. It was every bit as tasty as the fresh ingredients could make it. So good in fact that I couldn't taste the tequila. Frozen margarita lovers, be warned, they taste really good but they kick hard.
Looking at the menu with an ordering eye revealed chicken wings, another American Mexican restaurant staple that I’d been longing for. Arco Iris’s chicken wings are of the small variety and they come with a mild, spicy, or “death” (super spicy) BBQ sauce. I played it safe and went for the spicy variety and was not disappointed. The spicy wings had enough heat to satisfy my need for spice without leaving me sweating and reaching for a glass of water. The creamy ranch dressing that came with the wings was also a welcome taste of home.
I ordered a beef burrito for my main course while my friend elected to have a chicken fajita. The burrito, though small, was filled with beef, beans, rice and cheese and came drenched in a delicious tomato salsa and topped with pickled onions and herbs. Every bite of that salsa was a taste of home. The star of the meal though was my friend’s chicken fajita. When it arrived the waitress flambéed it a measure of tequila before serving it. The chicken from the fajita was delicious but struck my taste buds as being sweeter than true Mexican food, but unlike true Mexican food neither the fajita or the burrito left us with heavy stomachs. Apart from the too-sweet-to-be-true-Mexican-food taste of the fajita I had two other small disappointments with Arco Iris's food: chips and guacamole and salsa are not included as a part of the meal, they are a ¥700 extra, and there were no authentic Mexican food desserts like arroz con leche or flan. This may be due to the restaurant’s recent opening but I mentioned it to the owner and he seemed to take my suggestion seriously. Arco Iris’s all-seats-are-smoking-seats plan does not appeal to me at all and I will look elsewhere if the restaurant is full of smokers. The food is pricey for what you get but it’s very tasty and left me wanting more. The margaritas alone have secured my desire to make a return trip. If you’re craving Mexican food and proper margaritas in Niigata, Arco Iris is the place to go.
