Ponce City Market is home to numerous Atlanta-owned businesses and restaurants. During my lunch break from work I went over to the recently opened restaurant, Minero, to try out their authentic Mexican cuisine. Inside, they have a bar to sit down at — which, due to their lack of an alcohol permit at the time, was sans margaritas — as well as table and courtyard seating. They have an open kitchen with numerous spicy smells such as bell pepper, onion and cilantro permeating the entire restaurant.
After sitting down at the bar, I read over the menu and was happy to find that they served Mexican drinks such as Jarritos, Mexican Cokes and horchata, a drink made from rice, cinnamon and vanilla. I ended up ordering the horchata, which was almost sickly sweet but I still loved it. It was very thick, almost like rice pudding, which makes sense with the ingredients being almost the same. For my entree, I ordered the “mula,” which looked to be a mix between a taco and a quesadilla, filled with cheese, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, cilantro and onions, served with a side of their signature red rice. The charred sweet potatoes in the mula were the perfect blend of sweet and spicy. The rice definitely had a lot of spice in it, but not enough to overpower the multiple savory and sweet flavors of the sweet potatoes in the mula. The menu was full of prime Mexican street food dishes like tacos with fish, chicken or steak, queso, burritos and even their own version of chicken wings.
The restaurant was quite busy since Minero had just opened that week, but with great service, ambience and authentic Mexican flavors, I could definitely see myself going back to Minero, hopefully with an adult horchata or margarita in hand.
