New family owned restaurant opens in Macon offering authentic Mexican cuisine
A recently opened family owned and operated restaurant is serving up authentic Mexican cuisine in Macon.
El Sazon Homestyle Mexican Food is located in the Forsyth Landing shopping center at 4524 Forsyth Road, No. 308.
“Everything is homemade,” said co-owner Brenda Torres. “We cook it just as we cook it at home.”
The restaurant expects to distinguish itself by its authentic Mexican cuisine as opposed to Tex-Mex and Americanized offerings, Torres said.
All in the family
Her mom, Lorenza Torres, is co-owner and the main cook with their menu offerings based on her mom’s “seasonings and good tasting food.”
Brenda helps her mom with the cooking; her sister, Daisy Torres, runs the front of the restaurant, and their dad, Jose Hernandez, helps wherever needed.
Brenda has worked at a Mexican restaurant. Her mom is known for her cooking, catering for family and friends for about the last 10 years with the demand growing.
“She was like, ‘You know what, let’s go ahead and open up a restaurant or let’s go ahead and try our luck and see we if we can come up with something bigger’ and so that’s why we decided to embark on this journey,” Brenda said.
The food
At El Sazon Homestyle Mexican Food, customers may choose from a selection of burritos, tacos, tostadas, tortas, quesadillas and corditas and soups.
Tacos and burritos are the most popular menu items. Taco protein choices include asada (steak), pollo (grilled chicken), tinga (stewed chicken), chorizo (pork sausage) or birria (beef) in a corn or flour shell.
“It’s authentic. It’s not crunchy tacos. It’s regular tortilla tacos, cilantro and onions,” Brenda said.
Protein choices for burritos include asada, pollo, tinga or carne molida (ground beef) wrapped in a 12-inch flour tortilla filled with refried beans, rice, lettuce, tomato, cheese and sour cream.
A salsa bar offers six different salsas along with lettuce, tomatoes and onions for toppings as well as Nopalitos Cactus Salad.
The most popular sandwich is the Cubana, which has lots of meats including milanesa de polo (battered fried chicken), chorizo, egg, salchicha (sliced hot dog meat) and ham.
The restaurant also offers a buffet with rotating dishes Monday through Friday.
Saturday specials
“On Saturday, we make our own homemade tamales,” she said. “We also try to make soup.”
A Saturday soup might be Caldo de Res (beef soup), Menudo (beef stomach soup) and Caldo de Calaron (shrimp soup).
They’ve kept the menu simple, may add some Tex-Mex dishes based on customer requests and may expand offerings along the way.
“Right now, we just started,” she said. “We’ve never actually owned … any type of restaurant … So we’re kinda of just starting little by little.”
When the restaurant obtains its liquor license, they plan to sell only beer and margaritas initially.
The restaurant is open from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and offers dine-in and takeout. The number is 478-305-7477.
