Nettie's Fine Mexican Food
We recently met at Nettie’s Find Mexican Food in Bellevue, Nebraska.
THE ATMOSPHERE:
It truly is located next to many residential areas, and it is obvious by judging the crowd on a Wednesday night that this is a local, as well as a city wide favorite. Upon entering the building, on the right is the full-service bar which lines the entire length of the restaurant. On the left is an entry into the kitchen. Patrons walk down an incline/ramp to get to the dining area. It truly looks like we had journeyed back in time, to a 1980’s sunken family room with a fireplace and multiple tables and chairs. As we entered the hostess was visiting with a table of customers and appeared to ignore us. My best guess is that she could believe that people were entering that didn’t know they were to seat themselves. We were seated and drink orders taken.
THE SERVICE and THE FOOD:
We were served a bowl of their chili with warm (packaged?) corn chips for dipping. The chili was spicy hot. Sarah is on a guacamole kick recently, so we tried their large guacamole ($10). They blend the guacamole to a smooth paste and serve with fresh fried flour chips. The serving of guacamole was generous and we ran out of chips to eat with it. No additional chips were offered.
My preference would be to leave the avocado with some texture rather than a smooth paste, but the flavor was fine.
Servings are HUGE at Nettie’s and you get more than your money’s worth. Rick and Jim ordered the medium “Toad Taco” ($7) which neither could finish. . A Toad Taco is a flour tortilla filled with beef or chicken, refried beans, their chili, then fried to a golden brown. Then lettuce, tomatoes and cheese are added. Both guys ordered a ½ order of rice and beans ($3.50). While the portions are beyond generous, the flavor was not outstanding. Hearty appetites would appreciate this. Jim is still waiting for his beans
Sarah tried the Potato and Pea Enchilada ($5) with a ½ order of the rice and beans. This is a carbohydrate-lovers dream, a dieter’s nightmare. A flour tortilla shell filled with diced potatoes, peas and smothered in cheese browned to delightful goo. Sarah missed her meat and vegetables at this meal.
Patty ordered the small beef, cheese and bean Nacho ($10) from the appetizer menu. Sarah’s meat was on Patty’s plate. It had at least a pound of ground beef on her plate. While the portion of nachos was generous, it needed more “zip”.
WE WISH: The place was a bit cleaner, freshed up, had smaller servings, and better guacamole.
SUMMARY: None of us could finish our small/medium orders. None of us would bother to go back. I think the locals love it for its homey-feel, low prices, neighbors at the next table and generous servings. Try it, you might like it.