Chili Willi’s Enchilladas: A Bad Idea
Here is something about me that pretty much any of my friends knows: I love Tex-Mex food. My favorite place around here (aside from my own kitchen) is Chili Willi’s. I have eaten there easily 300 times in my short lifetime. Not everything at Chili Willi’s is great, but some of the things on the menu are a little piece of heaven. I was in there last week and had a somewhat lackluster experience.
So, I was in Huntington and it was getting late in the day and I had not had lunch, so I went to Chili Willi’s and sat at the bar. I decided to order a cup of the chili verde, cheese enchiladas, and a habenero-lime lemonade.
First off, I’m going to talk about the lemonade. This is an item that they seem to have added last summer. The first time I got it, it was this perfect blend of sweet, sour, and just enough heat to make it interesting. This day, they seemed to have toned down the habenero to the point that I barely even noticed it. It was quite good lemonade, just not the flavor explosion I experienced a few short months ago.
The next item was the chili verde. This was a little bowl of heaven. I wish that I had gotten a bowl, rather than a cup. The chili was meaty with a good pork flavor, a little green chile heat, and a nice tartness from the tomatillos.
Next, we get to where the meal fell apart. The enchiladas sucked. I can think of no more eloquent way of putting that – they just plain sucked. I don’t know why I went with enchiladas; pretty much no one gets them right. They came out to me bubbling and covered in cheese with a tomato based sauce around them. I took one bite and realized that they really only tasted of cheese – greasy cheese. There was easily a half pound of melted cheese in this thing and that’s really all I tasted. It was actually quite gross.
Next time, I’ll just go with one of my stand bys: the red onion and bacon quesadilla or the chile relleno. Both of those items, much like the chili verde and the Texas red chili, are food nirvana. The enchiladas, not so much.
Category: Our reviews
January 21st, 2009 at 12:16 am
I’ve been craving tamales. Know any good places in the Charleston area?
I thinking maybe Cozumel might do them justice.
Yea, ChiliWilli’s has always been hit and miss. They were once unique in the area, but not anymore.
January 26th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
I haven’t had the Chili Willi’s tamales in a while, but when they used to only do them on special occasions, they were mindblowing. I haven’t had them since they became a permanent fixture on the menu. Never had the Cozumel tamales, but most places don’t do them justice.
February 19th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Yeah, but once they put them on the permanent menu I think the price went from $8 to $12!!!!
We NEVER go to Chili Willi’s anymore here in HTN since they’ve raised their prices. Used to go twice a week maybe, but now I’ve been once in the past 4-5 months, and that was when someone else was paying…
September 29th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
[...] out what the folks at WV Gourmet thought about Chili Willi’s for a second opinion by reading their review here. Chili Willi’s 1315 Fourth Avenue Huntington, WV 25701 [...]