I have lived here my whole life.  And for most of that time I have pretty much eaten gringocized Mexican food.  You know, Ajo Al's, Macayo's, Garcia's, etc.  At this point, it is still a treat for me, but I would rather eat at the authentic Mexican dive with actual Spanish on the menu, dishes I don't recognize and very few white people in the place.  El Nopalito fits the bill perfectly.  This place first popped up on my radar after seeing frequent mentions on Chowhound.  It was right in my neighborhood, but I never got around to trying it until last week. \n\nWe showed up on a Friday night starving and exhausted from teaching small children and, sadly, laying off employees.  Ick.  We started with two Cokes and some homemade chips with both a green and red salsa.  Both salsas were outstanding, which in my experience is rare.  Generally if you get two salsas on the table, one is terrible and one is at least decent.  And Mexican cokes in the cool bottles?  Yay!  Then we ordered a bowl of tortilla soup to share.  This was flavorful and the tortilla strips were nice and crispy.  We only ordered one portion to share but the server brought us two full bowls and charged us for one.  Generous.  The only room for improvement was temperature.  The soup could have been hotter.  Next, we ordered green chile chicken enchiladas and...and...and I forgot the name of my entree.  It was, however, the server's recommendation and she didn't let me down.  My dish was steak with bacon, green peppers, onions and cheese melted over the top.  All of this was served over two corn tortillas.  Super good.  Everything was cooked to perfection.  The green chile chicken enchiladas were outstanding and the green chile was the best my boyfriend has ever had.  The rice was flavorful and tender and beans great as well.  I had the leftover enchiladas today for lunch and they were awesome all over again.  We'll be back to El Nopalito often.  I'm excited to try the 99 cent street tacos.