You know me, when I’m not all about the nachos, I am all about the ponies. No, I’m no Bronie, I’m talking about the REAL ponies here: horses. And none of that fancy dancy Kentucky Derby, or Preakness Stakes, or the Belmont Stakes, no, I’m talking about Saratoga Springs, and Saratoga racing, which you may have heard about in a song from the 70’s. Yessir, I go and watch all those horses run around that track, running around… like horses… Ok, you’ve got me, I know nothing about horses or horse racing, other than what I just looked up on Wikipedia right now to write those previous sentences. Sure, I went to Saratoga Springs, but it wasn’t for horses, it was for nachos. Namely the nachos at Cantina.
We put in our names for a table and were told that it would be an hour wait. AN HOUR!?! For most restaurants this would have been a deal breaker, but since Cantina is right in downtown Saratoga Springs and they will just shoot you a text when they have a table for you we said no problem and took a little stroll through the town. Oh, there were such sights to see in a town built for the nearby Skidmore College and all the richy rich folks who probably think this song is about them there for the horse racing: Artisanal chocolateers, kitschy bookstores, all sorts art and habadasher stores, new age crystal dealerships, you get the idea. We had barely scratched the surface of products I didn’t have the expendable income for when a text came in and we had to head back for a lovely dinner inside a nice Mexican restaurant. Or rather, the alley outside of it as it may be.
Now granted, this was the fanciest alley I had ever eaten in (and I’ve eaten in a few in my day) but it did raise an eyebrow right off the bat. An eyebrow that was fortunately lowered as soon as the complimentary chips and salsa arrived. They were house made and borderline rangoonesque in their style, which I love, so I felt confidant that my nachos were to be top notch, assuming they didn’t use different chips for those. They thankfully did not.
Can you scroll up and look at that fancy order of nachos? Looks good huh? Now, what if I told you that what you can’t see is the hidden salsa verde and roasted pulled chicken? And what if I told you that they were delicious? And what about that chipotle cheese sauce? When is the last time you had an amazing cheese sauce? Would you believe me if I told you that you would be able to say “Oh, I had an amazing cheese sauce the last time I went to Cantina” if you had these? Can you believe it is even possible to describe how great an order of nachos is in a paragraph comprised entirely of questions? Would you believe that a don’t talk with noticeable vocal fry in my day to day life after reading the past eight sentences, nine including this one?
So do you go to Cantinas and get the nachos? Yes, yes you do. They seem very simple, but they are very delicious. My one regret, not getting the $20, 33oz Chupacabra Frozen Margarita topped with two Coronitas, with the option to “Make it a Midnight!” for $8 more. I don’t know what any of that means, but I want to see if “The mythological Mexican Beast comes alive at Cantina” as its slogan claims. Really what I want to see more is a Chupacabra race over at the track rather than some stupid horses, but saying that in town would probably get you ridden out on a rail, so just keep that in your hearts, and nachos in your belly.
