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| La Cava del Tequila |
Three sad Mice…three sad Mice… I suppose everything changes, but this was one unpleasant surprise for our little family. We’ve come to really look forward to visiting La Cava del Tequila in EPCOT’s Mexican pavillion, not just for the amazing tequila selection, but for the excellent tapas. In fact, La Cava was the inspiration for this blog and rating system. The first time we visited, I looked at Mr. MouseChow and said, “Wow, I wish this place were in our neighborhood. We’d be here every week.” Thus, my previous 4 Mouse review. I should have known something was up when on our third visit the vegetarian chicharones had been replaced with regular tortilla chips. The slide toward mediocrity had begun.
But let me back up a little and tell you the sad tale of our September visit. It was the final day of our long weekend in Disney, and we’d planned to spend the day snacking our way around World Showcase, playing the Kim Possible game. Our first stop? La Cava del Tequila of course! We were there 15 minutes prior to opening, cooling off in the darkness of Plaza de San Angel and anticipating yummy Mexican snacks. While the family shopped around the empty plaza, I spent some quality time with the tequila menu.
Finally the doors opened and we bopped inside and grabbed our favorite spot – the settee with the low coffee table and stools. All was looking good until we picked up the menu and…
Wait! Where are the taquitos? The vegetarian chicharrones? The MANCHEGO AND GUAVA???
They are gone, gone, gone. Now you can get chips with either queso, guac, or salsa, or go crazy and get chips with queso, guac, AND salsa. The crab tostadas are still there, and now there is shrimp cocktail. With salsa. And chips. Can you tell how sad we were?
The drinks were pretty much the same, but they were never great. The draw was the creative and tasty app menu.
So this time, here is what we had:
The “Trio Combo Sampler”
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| Trio Combo Sampler |
We didn’t see them making the guac, and it wasn’t served in the molcajete, but it was OK. The queso was nothing special. Melted cheese with some jalepenos. The salsa was actually the highlight of the plate. It had a nice dark chipotle en adobo smokiness.
The Margarita menu was the same as far as I can tell.
The pineapple and jalepeno margaritas were fine, but smaller than they look.
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| Pineapple Margarita |
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| Jalepeno Margarita |
The best drink we had was the non-alcoholic Pinata. It’s a frozen combination of strawberry and coconut, and it’s very yummy.
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| Pinata |
I can only imagine that it was not profitable to stock the fairly diverse number of ingredients that comprised their former menu. So now they have to buy onions, avocado, cilantro, lime, prepackaged queso and salsa, shrimp, canned crab, and tortilla chips.
So sad.
Update as of 12/10/2011: Menu still the same.
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MouseChow 
This is one of my favorite places in Disney. I love the private feeling it has b/c it has never been crowded when we stop in and we never feel rushed even if we're only enjoying a margarita and some free chips (a perk for their twitter followers). I was quite sad when their menu changed, I wonder if it is b/c of the new place that opened up across the way? Either way, their margaritas make my day and compared to local prices by me, are CHEAP and strong. While I wish they had more food choices, I would still eat there every week if I lived near by.
After I posted this, La Cava replied on twitter that they are reworking the menu. I'm headed back next weekend, and will report back. I do so hope they get their mojo back. It had become one of my favorite spots. The atmosphere is great! The only time I've ever seen it crowded was during the Food & Wine festival in 2010. There was an hour wait t get in, and once in it was raucous, loud, and completely fun. There were no kids to be found, just a large group of Mexican soccer fans and a bunch of foodies drinking their way around the world. (Including my brother and me.) Fingers crossed that the new menu is in place when we visit.