By Dennis Chu on August 6, 2011 • ( Leave a comment )

ON THE BORDER

Address: 909 Airport Road, Allentown, PA 18109

Last night, I took a trip out to Lehigh University in PA to visit my friend Bryan and to celebrate another friend Rich’s 21st. For dinner, Bryan said that we were going to OTB, and I immediately thought that we were going to a gambling parlor to have food (OTB -> Off Track Betting). However, this was proven not to be the case when he quickly clarified that OTB meant On The Border, which was located right over in Allentown.

On The Border leans more on the side of being a Tex-Mex restaurant, which is absolutely fine; the only difference is that the taste of the food might be different from a traditional Mexican restaurant’s offerings. When looking at the menu, I saw that OTB had a wide offering of Mexican dishes, from burritos to tacos to chimicangas. I went with trying out their two-item combo platter: beef enchiladas and chicken empanadas, served with a side of refried beans and rice. The enchiladas were a bit dry, the refried beans were a bit underseasoned, but the empanadas were fried well and served with a nice queso sauce. They also do serve unlimited chips and salsas while you are waiting for your food to arrive, so those were pretty good to snack on (I think I had too much before my actual food arrived).

The drinks menu also caught my eye, and I got a strawberry margarita from the bar. It was actually really good; the strawberry played down the intense flavor of the José Cuervo Tequila Gold and I finished the drink before I even knew it. Later on at the table, we ordered two pitchers of the frozen margaritas (José Cuervo again, mixed with lime juice and ice I believe) but I didn’t enjoy them as much as the strawberry one. Finally, to round out the meal, we got two plates of sopapillas, or Mexican fried dough dusted with cinnamon and sugar on the top, for dessert, served with fudge and caramel sauces. What a sweet note to end the meal on.

Here are my rankings for On The Border:

Food: 3.75 / 5
The food was kind of average. The enchiladas and refried beans kind of missed the mark for me, but the empanadas and the margaritas were really good.

Atmosphere: 4.5 / 5
The interior of the restaurant is a bit loud, but I felt like that added to the overall setting of the restaurant and made it seem very busy.

Service: 4 / 5
The waitress was pretty nice to everyone at the table, and the food came out in pretty good time.

Price: 4 / 5
For $10, the portion on my plate was pretty solid. The drinks will certainly add to your bill though.

Overall: 16.25 / 20 (82%)