Ahorita: A Taste from South of the Border

Written and photographed by Sarah Pittman

This month’s restaurant has been causing quite a stir on the Gwangju Facebook page, so I decided to check it out. Ahorita is inspired by the owner and main chef’s time spent in Mexico with her father. She fell in love with Mexican cuisine, and when her family moved back to South Korea, she decided that she wanted to share her love of Mexico with Gwangju.

Firstly, the décor of Ahorita is fantastic, if maybe a tad bit over the top. The bright colors and traditional crafts give the restaurant a fun vibe. I loved hearing the Mexican rap songs and older mariachi songs in the restaurant.

After taking a look at the menu and drooling over the tasty-looking photos, I decided to order the margarita gelatina, two of the pork tacos, and two of the arugula shrimp tacos. One nice thing that I appreciated about Ahorita is that they included an allergen warning for people with peanut allergies by putting a tiny peanut next to the name of the menu item.

The first item to come out was the margarita gelatina, accompanied by the tricolor gelatina. The owner was kind enough to include the tricolor for me to try, as it is advertised as the best choice on the menu. Even though the gelatinas, at 3,000 won a cup, are advertised as alcoholic, it was a barely noticeable addition to the desert. I loved the sour and salty flavor of the margarita, and the cherry and lime gelatin in the tricolor was very tasty, too.

Next to come out were the arugula shrimp tacos. These tacos are definitely on the larger size, which I appreciated with the 8,500-won price tag (12,000 won for three). The arugula was fresh and crunchy with a good bitter flavor like dark leafy greens should have. There was a creamy white sauce drizzled all over both of the tacos, but it was so mild in flavor that I was not too sure what it was supposed to be. I think that it was probably a sour cream sauce. The shrimp was cooked very well and was very tasty.

The flour tortillas were very soft and would rip apart at barely the slightest pull, which made eating the taco a difficult, yet delicious, challenge. The arugula shrimp tacos came with a side of pickled pink cabbage and beets, which helped cut some of the spice of the basil chili sauce that also came with the shrimp tacos. I liked that Ahorita lets you control how fiery your meal can be by putting the spiciest component in a cup, so you can choose to pour it all on at once or spoon it onto each bite.

The pork tacos were definitely unlike anything that I have ever tried back in California. I like how the carnitas-style pork, the pepperoni, and the cabbage worked together, but I am not too sure about the addition of the almonds. The star of the show on the pork taco plate was most assuredly the smoky, spicy tomato sauce. I wish I could buy a bottle of it to take home and put on my breakfast eggs every morning! It reminded me of this handmade rojas salsa I used to have at my favorite fish taco joint back in California.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed my visit to Ahorita, and I would definitely like to visit with some friends sometime soon. Be forewarned: Ahorita does have a siesta break every day at 3:00–5:00 p.m., so if you want to enjoy a late lunch there, the last order is at 2:15–2:30 p.m.

The Author
Sarah Pittman is an English teacher with a degree in psychology from California State University, Fullerton. She discovered her love for photography while working at Disneyland and has been honing her craft with practice and YouTube videos every since.