For many reasons downtown Long Beach’s Cinco de Mayo is a great Mexican restaurant. Located on the corner of Pacific Avenue and 4th Street, this modest establishment provides basic, traditional dishes from breakfast through dinner, and enjoys a strong clientele throughout the day. The staff is kind and attentive, the prices are low, and the food is fresh and authentic.
It is its convenience to downtown workers that initially brought me in. Cinco de Mayo is quick and easy to get to and includes its own free parking lot. From my office I could easily walk there. It has an extensive menu of both Mexican and El Salvadoran dishes, and the food is quite inexpensive. While breakfast and dinner are certainly available, this is basically a great lunch spot.
Recently, Chris and I ate here for an early lunch. After munching our way through a nice basket of chips and decently spicy salsa, he ordered the Chorizo con Huevos and I ordered the Huevos Rancheros. The portions are plenty but not excessive. Comparable only by similar location, I think of nearby Los Compadres, which, while very tasty, does over serve its customers on many of its dishes. I appreciate a restaurant that avoids that propensity.
Chris is a big fan of chorizo, and he was pleased with the dish. The flavor was present without the typical greasy heaviness of chorizo. The eggs were fluffy and well-proportioned against the chorizo. Adding their salsa achieved his desired level of spice, and no additional “tapatio, Cholula or tabasco” was needed.
For me it was the Huevos Rancheros that peaked my interest. Wanting the flavor of eggs (with runny yolk) against the ranchero sauce, I went away pleasantly surprised. The surprise came with the style of the ranchero sauce. I am used to the heavy, dark, somewhat creamy sauces with this dish. But similar to Cinco de Mayo’s overall style, this ranchero sauce was very light, included large chunks of tomato and onion, and still maintained a strong flavor that stood its own against the eggs.
On that note it is important to highlight that this experience, as well as my previous ones, reflected the restaurant’s commitment to freshness, lightness and simple flavors. This pleasure comes both while eating the food, but also in the aftermath of your meal. Instead of feeling weighed down and ugly, you can eat great Mexican food and still feel good about yourself the rest of the day.
Accompanying both dishes were refried pinto beans with jack cheese and traditional Mexican rice. We both ordered sodas with our meals, and in the end forked over about $14 for a great lunch. In addition to their many $4.75, $5.75 and $7.25 dishes, Cinco de Mayo also serves $1.50 tacos among other deals.
This level of affordability is much appreciated. One last tip: take cash; sorry folks, no credit cards accepted here, but there is an ATM machine inside.
Cinco de Mayo is located at 351 Pacific Avenue in the same building as the Colonial Bakery. Just south on Pacific is the Varden Hotel. It is open from 9:00 am until 9:00 pm Monday through Friday, and 9:00 am until 10:00 pm on Saturday and Sunday.