Tortilla Flat has been a fixture in Merrimack for more than 50 years and prides itself as being one of the longest lasting Mexican restaurants in New England.
Over the years, the company expanded to other locations. As recently as 2019, Tortilla Flat operated restaurants in Portland, Maine, and Epping. It closed the Epping location that year after a five-year run and the Portland spot last year after 44 years in town.
Now only the flagship remains standing.
The 595 Daniel Webster Highway restaurant can still pack a good crowd, even on a Wednesday night, as My Lovely Dining Companion and I witnessed on a recent outing, when we encountered plenty of cars in the parking lot.
Neither of us had visited the restaurant in decades, but we both had fond memories of our experiences there. For me, that was back when the restaurant had Michelob Dark on draft in the early ’80s. Mexican food was pretty much a novelty in New Hampshire. I don’t think the Granite State even had a Taco Bell.
My dining companion remembered a slightly different configuration inside the Merrimack restaurant, with the bar in a different place, but it still features small dining rooms that make for an intimate experience.
As is our norm, however, we chose the bar area, where most of the crowd was gathered during our visit. Our server was kind enough to lower the volume of the jukebox near our table, which was pumping out Southern rock tunes.
My dining companion loves to order nachos pretty much everywhere we go, so after ordering margaritas, we started with a small order of Loaded Nachos ($12.99), which featured onions, peppers, tomatoes, Monterey Jack cheese (and by our request, no black olives). We had a choice of beef, chicken or chili and went with the beef, which turned out to be a great decision.
Loaded Nachos at Tortilla Flat in Merrimack.
The beef, our server told us later, is made with the restaurant’s house ranchero sauce. It reminded us of a Bolognese sauce with a slightly different spice profile, more tomato-y than spicy.
Our “small” order of nachos was a huge plate of food, and we enjoyed every bite, so much so that we ended up altering our original choices for entrees.
I had planned on a tamale plate ($16.99), which comes with one each of a chicken tamale topped with ranchero sauce and pork tamale topped with tomatillo sauce. The dish is served with the traditional rice and beans.
After the nachos, that sounded like way too much food for one human to consume in a single sitting. While I didn’t see it on the menu, I was happy to learn from our server that I could order a single tamale a la carte ($8.99)
Chicken tamale at Tortilla Flat in Merrimack.
Since I had already sampled the ranchero sauce, I went with the pork tamale with tomatillo sauce, which the server said was his favorite.
It was served on a corn husk bed, topped with the tomatillo sauce and Monterey Jack cheese. While I prefer a little more heat on my Mexican food, the sauce and the pork and corn meal blend had a great flavor.
My dining companion also ordered a la carte, choosing a chicken enchilada ($4.79). She enjoyed the dish but thought the ranchero sauce tasted more Italian than Mexican.
She likes her Mexican food mild but felt it needed a bit more spice. That’s generally an easy fix so we will know to ask for some extra kick when we return.
We happened to hit Tortilla Flat on “National Margarita Day” and enjoyed some free samples of a grapefruit-flavored blend from one of the servers, who also was handing out T-shirts and other schwag.
We went home with a pair of Sam Adams Red Sox beer glasses and some Pacifico beer coozies.
While we indulged in some margaritas, our food bill only came to about $27, a great value for a filling meal.
Tortilla Flat 595 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack; 603-424-4479, tortillaflatmexican.com Cuisine: Mexican. Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Tuesday-Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday; noon to 9 p.m. Sunday. Pricing: Appetizers/salads, $9.99-$15.99; combination dinners, $13.99-$20.99.
