El Vallarta Mexican Restaurant

This was my second time eating at El Vallarta in Tomah while visiting from out of town.  The service is decent (they were pretty busy tonight, so the food took a while, but it was worth it), the atmosphere is simple, but festive, and the food is very good.  
I enjoyed the #6 (taco, enchilada, mexican rice & beans) and my dinner companion enjoyed the chicken fajitas.  The price was good for the amount of food.  I'll come back if I find myself in Tomah again :)

My favorite little Mexican joint(and I've been to a lot!). The food is usually very fast and the service is good. The food is delish! Fresh and Mexican, yum. Their salsa is good as well, recently I feel it has gotten more hot, which is good! Plates are pretty cheap too

On day four of our Wisconsin trip we had lunch at El Vallarta in Sparta.  Again, Yelp helped us find a place to eat.  We had just eaten Mexican the night before, but we never really get too much.

The chips to start with were above average with good corn flavor.  I do not like the paper thin tasteless "restaurant style" and these were much better than that.  The salsa was very standard tomato, onion and cilantro.  It had too much onion for either of us and was served very cold, way too cold.

Ms T had a Taco Salad.  "But is it healthy you ask?"  "Of course it's healthy, it's a salad, isn't it?"  this healthy salad came with tons of black peppery meat which was good and a very runny cheese sauce which really was not.

My Chilaquiles were decent.  I ordered them with spicy beef.  The sauce was very rich red chile with some tomatillo.  This was good sauce, but there was an excessive amount and it was kind of overwhelming.  The beef itself was quite good, tender, grilled well with thinly sliced bell peppers.  Some sautéed onions were included, but not too much.  The whole thing was very richly flavored and had too much sauce.  It needed more of the tortilla pieces to dilute the richness.  I did not have rice, which also could have tempered the richness a little.  The beans were a little over salted and there was some of that cheese sauce which was also salty.  This dish did not lack for flavors, but (something I rarely say) needed to be toned down a little in the use of salt and the quantities of sauces.

This is an OK place, probably a cut above the standard family small town Mexican.  The chilaquiles showed a little more creativeness than is usual.  They also have a lot of seafood specials.  The portions are good, the menu is extensive.  We were surprised to see how many people came in to eat here mid-afternoon on a weekday.