Cheen-Huyae

• Cuisine(s): Mexican
  Hours: Sun 12pm-9pm, Mon-Thu 11:30am-10:30pm, Fri-Sat 11:30am-11:30pm
  Price: $$
  Payment Types: All Major Credit Cards
• Attire: Casual
  Features: Kid Friendly, Patio/Sidewalk Dining, Private Party, Takeout, Wheelchair Accessible
  Serving: Dinner, Lunch
  Alcohol: Full bar
• Reservations: Accepted, Recommended for Large Parties, Call-Ahead Seating Available
  Parking: Lot Available

Description

Chéen-huaye is the sort of clean, feel-good restaurant that timid American tourists visiting the Yucatán would approach with enthusiasm. The eager-to-please menu includes a modicum of Yucatecan specialties rolled into a conventional cornucopia of Mexican-American classics such as quesadillas, enchiladas, and tacos al pastor, the last an especially delicious trio of soft corn tortillas stuffed with grilled nubs of infatuatingly fatty pork subtly sweetened with pineapple and onions. Sopa de lima's two slices of lime provide the requisite spike of citrus in a piping-hot, full-flavor chicken broth stocked with tortilla strips and juicy shreds of chicken. And another worthy starter, salbutes, are properly presented as a pair of fried, homemade, miniature corn tortillas piled with moist chicken strips (cooked pibil-style in banana leaves), lettuce, pickled onions, vinegared cucumber slices, avocado, and tomato. Cochinita pibil is arguably the most famous Yucatecan dish, and Chéen makes a mean version: The moist morsels of pork are aromatic from achiote, tangy from bitter orange juice, and herby from their being cooked in banana leaves. Too much raw garlic flavor marred an otherwise tender and terrific chili-rubbed arrachera steak (the flank cut), but the meat, with rice and beans, is just $11.89; all other entrées cost less than $10. Salads and desserts are Americanized, but Chéen-huyae succeeds as an inexpensive neighborhood spot for tasty, mildly sanitized Mexican-Yucatecan food.