Lola's Kitchen

I recently asked some of my co-workers where I can get some decent mexican food at in Barstow. It seems that everyone in Barstow seems to have their own favorite joint that they will fight for until death. While a lot of my co-workers immediately recommended Plata's, a large amount of people pointed me to the direction of Lola's Kitchen. I had never even heard of Lola's before but my co-workers insisted that it's a tall step above the typical fast food Mexican joints that are flooding the streets of Barstow. I made the trip out to Lola's, first thing to note is that Lola's is a hole in the wall style restaurant located in a grocery store shopping center. There's no more than 20 seats in the restaurant and the outside is all but inviting. It turns out that I would in for a pleasant surprise once I opened the doors and stepped into Lola's Kitchen.

The first thing that caught my eye inside the restaurant was how beautifully decorated it is, there were beautiful paintings on the wall and a nice color scheme/decoration throughout the restaurant. From the front counter you can see the ladies in the back making your food fresh to order. My wife ordered the green enchilada plate, the sauce on the green enchiladas was simply amazing, everything about it screamed homemade and the enchiladas themselves tasted fresh and greaseless. The queso fresco on top of the enchiladas gave them a highly authentic feel and added an amazing texture to every bite. The beans and rice at this place are on point also. The refried beans had large chunks of bean in them that added a whole new texture element to the dish and easily set them apart from other restaurant's puree style beans. The rice tasted fresh, authentic, and perfectly cooked. There was a little bit of spice to the rice but it all balanced out to make an amazing spanish rice.
My first item I decided to try was the carne asada sope. A sope is kind of like a tostada but instead of a hard shell, a sope comes in a corn tortilla bowl. Everyone that sent me to Lola's told me that I have to try the carne asada, they definitely steered me in the right direction. The carne asada was extremely flavorful and extremely tender, I was able to cut through the meat with a fork. It's safe to say that this carne asada had been marinated over night and was given plenty of tlc before it hit the grill. There were shades of cumin, garlic, lime, and peppers in the carne asada and it kept my taste buds intrigued the entire time. I would easily go back to Lola's just to get a plate of carne asada, rice, and beans. This carne asada easily places in my top 5 best restaurant asada.
I also got a couple carne asada tacos to go with my sope, the tortillas weren't what I expected (pre-packaged tortillas) but it didn't matter because the carne asada stole the entire show. The rice and beans went perfectly with the carne and left me trying to find room in my stomach for more. The salsa at Lola's was also very tasty, it had a red chile feel to it but still had a lot of tanginess and heat to accompany. Lola's is definitely one of my best restaurant experiences iv'e had in Barstow to date. The food is out of this world and the prices are pretty reasonable too, for the above items and 2 drinks the total rung in at just over $20. Lola's Kitchen is located in Barstow at 1244 East Main Street inside the Von's shopping center.