Mexico Restaurant’s Butter Lettuce Wraps with Chicken

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been reprinting some of our favorite Dishes of the Day from the last year or so while we enjoy some time out of the office.

Here’s a dish I order often at Mexico Cantina y Cocina–Butter Lettuce Wraps. 

After a busy morning of shopping or before an early-afternoon movie, one of our favorite places for a Saturday or Sunday lunch is at Mexico Cantina y Cocina in downtown Seattle’s Pacific Place shopping center.

I almost always order the low-carb, high-protein appetizer–Butter Lettuce Wraps with Chicken. You can also get them with shrimp, Ahi tuna, or salmon, but the perfectly grilled chicken continues to call me like a siren’s song.

It’s served with a plethora of fresh, raw vegetables, including jicama sticks (yummy crunch!), carrot slivers, cucumber slices, watercress leaves (with their peppery bite!), and bean sprouts (which I don’t eat because I’m scared of possible contamination no matter how much the kitchen rinses them!).

And don’t forget the smooth and oh-so-satisfying guacamole, the fresh and bracing salsa verde, plus the two dipping sauces–tomatillo and mango!

There’s also a slightly thick in texture, dense in flavor salsa that is served with the complimentary basket of chips. Although we now forego chips and tortillas due to our low-carb/high-protein lifestyle, Spencer still asks for the salsa and pours a hefty amount onto whatever he’s having (often the Tijuana Chicken Caesar).

I’ve written about other favorites on Mexico’s menu in my Northwest Notes blog. In fact, the restaurant’s Ensalada à la Evelyne–fresh organic greens with pepita-crusted provolone, roasted artichoke hearts , fire-grilled chicken, sliced plum tomatoes, cotija cheese, and sliced avocado–won Dish of the Day in 2009.

For continuing to offer fresh, clean, well-prepared food, especially my current favorite–Butter Lettuce Wraps–I award Mexico Cantina y Cocina my Dish of the Day.