Mexican Radio

I was in Columbia County yesterday, with a late afternoon appearance in Gallatin Town Court and an early evening appearance in Austerlitz Town Court. This left me about 2 hours to kill around dinnertime, so I decided to try a nice dinner.

At first I was going to go to Chatham and try one of the restaurants there, but then I remembered Mexican Radio in Hudson. I keep seeing it listed as best Mexican food in the Capital Region. My wife and I had talked about going there sometime, and this seemed like a good chance to check it out.

I started with a chilled avocado tomatillo soup. This was both interesting and good. I then had a fajita entree, mixing steak and shrimp. This option was not on the menu, but they accommodated me. Fajitas are one of my favorite Mexican dishes, and I'm afraid this did not live up to my expectations.

Partly the problem is the way the steak was served. I'm used to the meat being sliced in fajitas. Here it came in fairly large chunks. The sliced approach is more appropriate for how you eat fajitas -- wrapped in a tortilla. It was good quality meat, but didn't have that much flavor. I did like the array of veggies that came out with the meat, with squash, peppers, mushrooms and more. But for me it just didn't come together. Not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but not outstanding either. Another minor irritant was the very small quantities of pico del gallo and guacamole that were served with the fajitas. And there were only three fairly small tortillas.

One other negative was the slow service. The place was not crowded, and there was plenty of staff on hand, but I seemed to wait for long periods and my glass of water did not get refilled very often. A minor detail is that I didn't get any chips. I'm used to getting free chips and salsa in Mexican restaurants and I guess you don't get that here.

It was good, and certainly as good as any other Mexican restaurant I've been to around here. The menu is more adventurous, and that's a positive, and the interior is quite nice, but the overall experience was not so great that I would make a special trip. Still, if we happen to be in Hudson I would certainly eat there again.

I should add a couple things. First, there were a couple of "mole" (pronounced moh-lay, I think) dishes on the menu that might appeal to others. That's never been my thing, but they did look interesting.

Second, they had a flyer promoting a Restaurant Week for the county and a Chili Cook-Off in Hudson. Restaurant Week is September 24-28, 2007, with prix fixe lunches ($20.07) and dinners ($30.07) at several restaurants in the county. The chili cook-off is on the 29th, in Hudson and "Catskill Point." You can get more information on the Mexican Radio website.