On a recent visit, though, one of my biggest surprises was the quality of the Salsa. Restaurants in El Paso are consistently good in serving flavorful and fresh salsa to start off a meal. The one at Julio's, though, was unusually flavorful without being so hot it numbed the mouth before the food arrived. Sometimes good restaurants do not put as much effort into the salsa as the main dishes, so the quality of the salsa is not necessarily a good indicator of the food overall. When the salsa is as good as the one at Julio's, though, an excellent meal is likely to follow.

Chicken flautas at Julio's

The one dish I have been able to sample recently is Chicken Flautas, an order of about nine rolled crispy tortillas filled with chicken and topped with guacamole. Everything about this plate showed the high quality I used to experience in the Ciudad Juarez Julio's restaurant. The shells were thick enough to provide a tortilla flavor and not just corn oil that had been absorbed while cooking. The chicken was good quality; perhaps not the very best in El Paso, but certainly near the top. The guacamole was fresh, thick, flavorful, and a little bit spicy. This is an example of the type of flavorful Mexican food that almost overwhelms the senses, and is becoming all too scarce with the explosion of Mexican restaurants in the city that are trying to compete by offering cheaper prices. Julio's is not terribly expensive, but they charge enough to put the quality into the food that used to be commonplace in the borderland.

I personally do not always like Ciudad Juarez food better than the style that has developed locally just in El Paso and the immediate area. Some of the Ciudad Juarez cooking is more greasy and the chiles are not as good. In the case of flautas, though, having them prepared the traditional way that is found in the better restaurants in the state of Chihuahua is about as good as it gets. Julio's Cafe Corona certainly seems to live up to this expectation.

I think Julio's is also known for some meat dishes and certain other items in addition to the flautas. No restaurant can be the best in everything, but Julio's seems so be one of the better restaurants for a lot of them.