This building has since been demolished, and I am not aware of La Kermex relocating, so I am presuming that this restaurant is closed. If you have any further information about the fate of La Kermex, please let me know by commenting on this page!

This week, we headed out to dinner at the highly-regarded La Kermex Mexican Restaurant. Researching this post, I came across several glowing reviews of La Kermex, including some that put this unassuming Buford Highway fixture at the top of the heap for mexican food in all of Atlanta. High praise!

When we arrived there was a massive 25+ group dining, several other booths and tables of people who all looked like they were waiting for some thing or another, several un-bussed tables/booths, and only one waitress and one cook to be seen.

One couple was standing and looking agitated. After about 5-10 minutes, they looked at each other, cast furtive glances to the back of the restaurant, and walked out the door. They either skipped out on the meal, or decided they didn’t need their credit card back. I’m going to go ahead and assume it was the first option.

Shortly afterward, the waitress arrived with menus, chips and salsa, and an apology for our wait. We ordered water and horchatas and perused the menu for a bit. The menu had a large section devoted to breakfast, which I haven’t previously spotted on BuHi. Most menu items had photos next to them, to assist you. Or, in our case, make it so hard to settle on just two meals!

The salsa was different than I am used to, but still good. Thin, but not watery, if that makes any sense at all. We thoroughly decimated this appetizer – at first due to hunger, and later, after the salsa ran out, due to a lack of anything else to do while we waited.

Same goes for the horchata. I tried to save it, because I knew we had ordered a spicy dish and wanted its soothing creaminess for later, but I just couldn’t do it.

The interior of the restaurant had (like so many Buford Highway restaurants) the look of having had a lot of loving care bestowed upon it at some point in the ever-more-distant past. It isn’t decrepit by any means, just a little careworn. There also seems to be a large patio that could be fun (you know, when the pollen count isn’t at 4,000+).

We ordered the Three Red Enchiladas special plate (~$7.99) and the Camarones a la Diablas special plate – shrimp in spicy sauce (~$11.99). We were warned that the shrimp dish was hot, but we smiled and persisted.

The food, as you can see, was beautiful – and not just because we waited forever for it. It was also quite tasty. The shrimp were indeed spicy! It was one of those slow burns that builds and builds, and leaves your mouth tingling for a while after the meal is gone. Yum!

The enchiladas were good, too, and not typical of the ones I usually get in Atlanta. They were more like sauce-drenched tacos, and the sauce has more texture than I am used to. It wasn’t a bad thing, just different. Usually the enchiladas I see are like little burritos sitting in sauce with a ton of melted cheese.

By this time, the children of the large group had gotten restless and were wandering and running all over the restaurant in small packs. At one point there were as many as nine little ones running about yelling, opening and closing the patio door (the alarm makes a chime when you open it), playing tag, ogling the bar, playing with dishes on the un-bussed tables, or peering at us eating over the edge of nearby booths.

On the whole, our hour-and-fifteen-minute experience at La Kermex was not really a positive one. As I mentioned, we had long waits at every stage of the experience (even getting our credit card back), and the roaming bands of children were cute at first, became tiresome. However, we’re not really sure how much blame La Kermex deserved in all of this. The restaurant is apparently not used to large crowds (we were served our drinks in styrofoam, indicating that they had run out of clean glasses), and it wasn’t clear if they are usually slow (so one cook and one waitress is adequate) and they were just caught off-guard that night, if they were missing a waitress or cook (due to illness or whatever), or if they really are just understaffed and poorly organized.

In a rare show of something, we are awarding La Kermex a sympathy point/star for the tireless performance of the waitress and cook, and rate them at 3 stars. A follow-up visit seems necessary to rate them definitively, considering all the good reviews they have on their side.

La Kermex
5000 Buford Highway NE
Chamblee, GA 30341