Handfuls of crispy edged pork arrive tucked neatly into doubled homemade corn tortillas, each warm and topped with soft sauteed onions, fresh cilantro and a verdant slice of avocado. Raw radishes and wedges of lime bring heat and acid, and a bright, spicy green salsa adds tang.
This dish – tacos al pastor — is one of my favorites, and this version is a delicious one.
You’d be smart to assume I ate said tacos in South Omaha, where I’m often dining since it features the city’s best Mexican food.
And you’d be wrong.
On this evening, I was eating at 156th and West Dodge.
El Milagro is the latest restaurant to open as part of restaurateur Javier Villa’s growing suburban Omaha empire. This time, he’s taking a stab at higher-end Mexican, serving a menu that he describes as he and co-owners Yolanda Reyes and Gabriel Martinez moving “more to our roots.”
When they commit fully to that direction – one that promises flavorful, high-quality, well-seasoned food – their restaurant delivers a slice of South Omaha 132 blocks west of 24th Street. But, as we learned after two visits, it isn’t always that focused, or that flavorful.
The same night we tried the al pastor tacos, we also tried the carne asada, made with a 12-ounce skirt steak cooked to order and served with a cheese enchilada, grilled jalapeno peppers and sliced avocado. It starred cambray onions, which are Mexican green onions, and panela cheese, a fresh cow’s milk Mexican cheese melted over the top.
The carne asada was nicely seasoned and cooked as we requested, the marinated meat super tender. The seed-in roasted jalapeno brought plenty of heat, and a petite cheese enchilada on the side was surprisingly savory and flavorful. Packed with smoke and heat, this was one of the best dishes we ordered.
Villa said Omaha has a lot of Tex Mex, and he’s right. El Milagro is focusing instead on the cuisine of Oaxaca, Mexico, in the southern part of the country and known for mole and grilled meat. The kitchen is taking its time making food from scratch: roasting peppers, making scratch salsas, frying tortilla chips to order.
Villa also runs three locations of Javi’s tacos, a fast-casual Mexican spot that also has a food truck and catering branch; Helados Locos, an ice cream shop; Frosty Mug, a sports bar; and Rise and Shine, a breakfast concept.
He said the labor costs and the price of the ingredients is higher at El Milagro, and that means its menu is more expensive. Note for the budget conscious: Dishes are large, often sized to feed two people. We found portions more than ample on dishes like the carne asada, which is $24.99, and the chicken fajitas, which we tried another evening, also $24.99.
“The price is higher, but so is the quality,” he said. “This is not a downscale Mexican restaurant.”
I could taste the quality of the firm and tender chicken in those fajitas. But I wished for more seasoning – the meat was rather pale. The platter arrives with an impressive sizzle and plenty of steam; the chicken is paired with sauteed onions and peppers and fresh pico de gallo.
House tortillas are savory and soft, flavored deeply of roasted corn.
Villa told me that the chicken, along with the pork, beef and the rest of the meat, are always fresh, never frozen. He said the restaurant could save money with a different choice, but prefers this product. The same went for the green chicken enchiladas, though the house made sauce did lend more flavor here.
Each entree comes with a sizable side serving of refried beans and Mexican rice along with lettuce, tomato, guacamole and sour cream. The size of these side dishes also make the higher prices feel more reasonable.
Villa said the restaurant has been working on its complimentary basket of tortilla chips, thinking they might be too greasy, but I liked them: hot, crispy and salty, they come with the very good mild to medium heat house salsa and a bowl of bean dip topped with shredded Mexican cheese.
El Milagro is also still working on its drink menu — Villa said it should be available in the next couple of weeks — and it will feature a paloma, a michelada, flavored margaritas and a cantarito, a Mexican cocktail made with grapefruit soda, citrus juice, tequila and a salted rim.
We tried both a classic and a skinny margarita, and both were good. A mezcal margarita read too sweet for my dining partner, who appreciates the smokiness of the spirit. Sweetness overwhelmed that flavor.
El Milagro has the bones of a legit Mexican spot in west Omaha. It also has some kinks to work out. With time, and a bit of focus, I bet it can get where it aims to be.
