Cancun Mexican Restaurant offers excellent Chicken Chimichanga for Carry Out

By Knoxville Daily Sun Staff

I've been around a little, so I know what authentic Mexican food is and Cancun is certainly authentic.

After a four day writing binge there was no food in the house. I didn't feel like going grocery shopping. I didn't feel like sitting in any restaurant, and I wasn't in the mood to eat fast food. So what does a person like me do?

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I started surfing the net for authentic Mexican food. Unfortunately, the closest Mexican restaurant (Cancun) doesn't have a website. I then surfed Google pictures for about 5 minutes until I found something I wanted. At the same time, I came across Cancan's phone number, called them, ordered, and asked how long it would be. "Five minutes," he said." "Five minutes?" "Yeah, 5 minutes."

What do you get for your meager $7.50? A lot. The "Chicken Chimichanga" was incredible with just enough peppers to give it some kick. Deep-fried and topped with a perfect, tasty cheese sauce I really don't see how it could have been any better. The chicken was tender white meat and so juicy that it almost melted in your mouth.

The sour cream, lettuce, guacamole and pico do gallo was all perfect and served on the side to give you a choice of toppings. The guacamole was superb as were the tortilla chips and the salsa. The beans and rice were about average although it may help to season them just a bit more.

Cancun could certainly use a website. Other than the obvious reasons, the pictures and text on their carryout menu are black and white and way too small. It was a little too obvious that they were trying to fit everything onto a one 14" three-fold piece of paper in order to cut costs, but Cancun might want to reconsider this idea. They could also hire a Spanish speaking American to take phone orders and deal with common questions.

The only other downer was that they either forgot, don't have, or didn't understand that I wanted habanera peppers on the side. Nevertheless, Cancun, Chapman Highway, receives 7 out of a possible 10 stars.

Published November 20, 2010