For several years now I’ve been on a quest to find the best enchiladas in Orange County. Although that research is far from finished, I’m making progress. Here’s proof: The cheese enchilada at La Chiquita Mexican Food in Santa Ana is perfect in every way.  

“Onions OK?” asks the waitress when I order the #16 combination plate. 

The plate comes with one cheese enchilada, a crispy ground-beef taco and rice and beans. When the waitress raises the issue of onions, she’s referring to the chopped onions that automatically get folded inside the enchilada with finely shredded cheddar and jack cheeses. 

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Onions are essential to cheese enchiladas. A cheese enchilada without onions is like a french fry without salt, or Fleetwood Mac without Stevie Nicks. However, weirdly, most restaurants these days don’t bother with the onions, and the harmony’s never quite right. So when the waitress asks, “Onions OK?” I get very excited. 

“Finally,” I think to myself. “Maybe, finally, this will be the cheese enchilada I’ve been searching for.” 

“Don’t touch the plate. It’s hot,” warns the waitress, moments later, as she plunks a plate onto my table. “I’ll be back with your taco in a minute.” 

While she makes a lightening-fast lap around the dining room, refilling iced teas and replacing empty Corona bottles with cold ones, I study my still-bubbling enchilada for a minute and determine that it’s upside down. I grab a stack of napkins to use as an oven mitt and gently rotate the plate without scorching my fingers. “There, that’s better.” 

I’m looking at a swirl of browns — reddish brown, yellowish brown, copper-penny-brown — the boundaries between each shade blurred and seeping into the other. There’s absolutely no attempt by the kitchen to make this dish look fancy, or even pretty. 

Since this is my first visit to La Chiquita, I can only guess that this is how they’ve been doing it for 72 years. The restaurant opened in 1950. The cheese on top isn’t merely melted, it’s liquified, almost burnt, just shy of crossing into oblivion. The edges of the tortillas, curled up at the ends from an intensely hot oven (more likely a salamander), are delightfully chewy, the sauce redolent of chile powder. Finely chopped onions inside give the enchilada its all-important depth and intrigue. 

The beans manage to find a common ground halfway between whole and refried. The rice is classic, fragrant and delicious. Reach your fork into that mess, and it can be difficult to guess whether it will come back with a scoop of beans or rice or maybe both. It’s a Rorschach Test that — no matter what you see when you stare at it — can only be interpreted as delicious. 

The taco eventually arrives on its own schedule, trailing a plume of steam. I can instantly see that it’s hot. No need for a warning. The edges of the taco are crimped like an empanada, its overstuffed belly bulging with fatty ground beef. It looks like it’s been fried in a skillet rather than a deep fryer, probably turned by teflon fingers instead of tongs or a spatula. As I clamp my teeth around it, I can almost hear the taco groan with satisfaction. Or maybe that was me? I can’t be sure. 

The only thing I can be sure about in this moment is that La Chiquita’s combo #16 makes me very, very happy. The taco is outstanding. The rice and beans are classic. But most importantly, this cheese enchilada ranks among the very best of its genre. 

La Chiquita Mexican Food

Where: 906 E. Washington Ave., Santa Ana

When: Lunch and dinner, Monday-Saturday

Cost: $12.95

Phone: 714-543-8787

Online: instagram.com/lachiquitarest

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