Let's start off with one of my favorite restaurants in Londonderry... Cafe Teresa.
Now Cafe Teresa is a little unusual as they provide both Italian and Mexican fare under one roof. Now I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of Italian food. I prefer more spice in my food so I choose to peruse the Mexican part of Cafe Teresa. I will let Megan review the Italian side of Cafe Teresa.
Cafe Teresa is a restaurant and bar. When you walk in, you will find the bar to the right. Again, I will leave the bar part of the review to Megan as I not much of a drinker. The restaurant's seating area is located to the left. The decor is very basic yet clean. Typical cafe setting - wooden tables and wooden chairs.
Once seated, a waitress will bring over tortilla chips and a nice homemade salsa. With that, I will segue into the wait staff. I have to admit that they aren't the friendliest bunch. I have had better service at other restaurants. I will give you an example. One time, I went to Cafe Teresa with my husband for his birthday. We were seated at a small table in the corner. Our waitress brought over our dinners but failed to pick up the salsa and chips. We didn't have enough room on our table for all of the food. We decided to put the chips and salsa at an empty table near us. Our waitress popped by at that moment. Instead of apologizing for not picking up the chips/salsa, we got reprimanded for putting our leftovers on a clean table.
Now for the food. One of my favorite appetizers is the Chipotle Shrimp. Eight succulent shrimp in a spicy chipotle cream sauce. Not for someone that doesn't like spicy food. The Chipotle Shrimp is served with hot bread for dipping. I actually think this dish should be an entree instead of an appetizer. Sometimes I order this dish as my entree and I prefer to eat it with Mexican rice instead of the bread. The bread doesn't do the dish justice. The Mexican Rice enhances the flavors of the chipotle, vermouth and cream. Some of the other finger lickin' good appetizers to try - The Barbados Fingers and Asian BBQ Chicken Wings!
Now for entrees: If you look around when seated at Cafe Teresa, you will notice a lot of people eating the Fajita salad. This is also a favorite of mine. It is a fried tortilla bowl filled with fresh greens, shredded cheese, black olives, scallions, tomatoes, peppers, and your choice of char grilled chicken breast or char grilled marinated flank steak. Garnished with guacamole, sour cream and a choice of salad dressing or salsa. I prefer to get the steak and have it with salad dressing. A must try is the cilantro ranch dressing. Other entrees that I have tried are the Vegetarian Quesadilla (yummy!!),the Enchiladas (rather common tasting) and the Combo #3. Let's start with the Vegetarian Quesadilla. Normally, I could care less for Mexican vegetarian food because most places substitute refried beans for meat. I also find most places don't cook the veggies enough for me. Cafe Teresa has the perfect combination of onions, peppers, tomatoes, olives and no beans in their vegetarian quesadilla!! The Enchiladas are also good but nothing unusually different. Combo #3, is another vegetarian dish that surprises me. They offer a guacamole soft taco that is the perfectly tangy and flavorful.
The one thing that Cafe Teresa lacks are desserts. When we first started dining there 4 years ago, they used to make their own desserts. One of the desserts they used to offer was flan. Megan and I used to love going there for their flan. A few years back they stopped making flan. As far as I know, they have stopped making their own desserts. Instead they offer baked goods from Blackberry Bakery located in Derry. I will review Blackberry Bakery for another time.
Cafe Teresa is located at 103 Nashua Road(Route 102),Londonderry, NH 03053. Phone number - 603.432.8850. Their website is http://www.cafeteresa.com/
