No Way Jose Cafe
Baltimore (Cross St. Market Area), MD
 Price:$$$ Decor: Mexican Bar and Grill
 Summary: Unique mexican food stop
(3 crabs out of 5)

Karen-What I,d call "No Way Jose", which Paul and I just ran across on a noontime walk through Federal Hill, would be a decent alternative. It's one of those places that are found really solely in city limits, and in this case,
nestled into a random crack between two streets. Is the food a fabulous,
creative adventure? No, not exactly.
Our chips were fine, the supposedly award-winning salsa was good but nothing
to write home to Mexico about. My mushroom-cheese Quesadilla in a
whole-wheat tortilla was just that, although it had a relatively small
amount of salsa and sour cream for having advertised it on the menu. I will
say the blend of cheeses was nice and sweet to go with the smooth slippery
mushrooms, and that its soft cheesiness reheated well in the office Monday
afternoon.
What you get at a place like this is an alternative to fast food although
not fabulous, certainly many notches above Taco Bell. Instead of your
normal, garden-variety taco selections, at No Way Jose you get all of that
freshly made with quality ingredients, and with the added bonus of American
fare like barbecue ribs"although I must say, I have never seen bones in a
sandwich like Paul had in his.
I get the feeling the place may be more rip-roaring come nighttime, but even
as a random lunchtime pass, No Way Jose acts as a more dignified, less
sour-cream-from-a-hose, more charactered version of the lunch places your
palate may have grown accustomed to.

Reviewed-February 2002

$$$$$-over 20 dollars
$$$$-15 to 20 dollars
$$$-11 to 15 dollars
$$-5 to 11 dollars
 $-Below 5