Like the creme-brulee-esque four cheese S’Mac with bread crumbs, the best bite features nothing more than the top layer of slightly crisped cheese (asking for it well done didn’t offer any extra char) mixed with the revelation of the day: tortilla crumbs! Just imagine the possibilities!  Mexican chicken cutlets! A bacon-wrapped, deep fried hot dog covered in a cheesy, tortilla crumb crust! Bizzaro world nachos where tomato, onion and cilantro stand in as the chips and tortilla crumbs and cheese are the topping! As Martin Short once said in the underrated comedy “Clifford,” “My heart. … It hurts.”

Sarita’s Macaroni & Cheese

Take out open until 1AM Friday & Saturday

Deciding What Size to Order

For two people, two Nosh-sized orders of mac and cheese will fill you both up.  A party of three or four would be fine with either two Major Munch-sized orders or four Nosh-sized.  One Mongo could happily feed three people.  All of the mac and cheese is so rich that you should always order less and if you’re still hungry go back for more. Having leftovers isn’t as great an idea as it seems, the mac and cheese really loses its life on the re-heat.

Cheeseburger – Cheddar, American and ground beef, $6.25 Nosh

Definitely the tastier of the two varieties featured in this post. The crunchy, buttery bread crumbs lock in the flavors of the sharp cheddar and sweet American cheese, creating a decadent charred-cheese crust that’s simply delicious.

The ground beef, as I’m noticing with all single-meat ingredients in S’Mac’s mac and cheese, is too sparse to provide any real flavor or texture.  To the Cheeseburger’s credit, however, the ground beef had more of a positive effect than the Alpine’s nearly non-existent slab bacon.  At one point, I added a little Louisiana hot sauce to a bite but decided that it’s better without.  I would definitely order the cheeseburger again and maybe add broccoli (+$1.50 Nosh).

Alpine - Swiss, gruyere and slab bacon, $7.25 Nosh

This is one of the simpler offerings on the “Sarita’s Recommendations” menu.  The combo of cheeses is tasty and slightly sharp, but there’s really no punch.  The boost one hopes slab bacon would add never arrives, mainly because there are so few pieces of bacon in the order, there’s no way it can compete with the strong-flavored Swiss and gruyere.  I wouldn’t opt for the Alpine next time out, but if I did, I have a feeling some roasted tomato (+$1.50 Nosh) would be a welcome mix to cut through the sharpness of the two cheeses.

Sarita’s Macaroni & Cheese

S’Mac’s 4 Cheese with Bread Crumbs is more like Mac & Cheese crème brulee.

The Answer is Bread Crumbs

I ordered 4 “nosh” sized flavors of mac & cheese, each varying in cost, only one was topped with bread crumbs and it was by far the best:

Clockwise from the left:

1. Buffalo Chicken ($6.75) – Cheddar, American, boneless chicken, buffalo sauce, topped with crumbled bleu cheese upon request. Extremely flavorful, not very spicy. A little too intense sauce-wise to get a larger size portion.
2. Four Cheese ($5.75) – Cheddar, muenster, gruyere and a touch of pecorino. Balanced flavor and amazing with the crispy, cheesy breadcrumbs on top. My favorite one of the whole bunch.
3. Napoletana ($5.75) – Fresh Mozz, roasted tomatoes, roasted garlic, and fresh basil. While the flavor was good, it was the most watery of the four, probably as a result of the fresh mozzarella and tomato.
4. Create Your Own ($6.25 Nosh size plus $1.50 for three toppings) – Muenster, cheddar, broccoli, chicken, slab bacon. This seemed like a no-brainer combo, but there wasn’t enough broccoli to go around and the bacon was too sparse and chunky, as opposed to crumbly, to really provide the flavor kick I was hoping for. Chicken was mediocre, didn’t provide much of a presence. I think this would have benefitted from the addition of bread crumbs and the replacement of muenster with pepper jack, to add some spice.
   

The bread crumbs made the Four Cheese extra crispy and extra delicious. It was by far my favorite. Why?

• Mac & Cheese’s best quality is the convergence of crispy and cheesy, the bread crumbs provided this with every bite.
• I was expecting to have lots of burnt cheese to scrape from the skillets, instead, only the four cheese with bread crumbs offered this deliciousness.
• The bread crumbs provided a solid wall to prevent heat from escaping the mac and cheese as we ate it. This was the only mac and cheese of the four I tried that was still hot by the time I took my last bites.

The only question remains, how good would the other flavors be with bread crumbs?

If you can answer that question, let me know in the Comments section.

S’Mac