Anonymous wrote:You may have had a bad one. I think a bad tres leches cake could be pretty awful. A good one tastes strongly of sweet milk, with a pleasingly wet texture, kind of like a bread pudding is soggy in places but in a good way. Maybe try it again at a different restaurant
+1, this is true of a lot of Mexican desserts. Flan is similar -- good flan is wonderful, like caramel panna cotta. Bad flan is revolting.
I think with tres leches the key is that you need the cake itself to be very spongey but not too light, or it won't hold up to being soaked. It's actually not super easy to make a cake with that perfect texture and I think a lot of Mexican restaurants just do not emphasize desserts and don't put that much effort into it.
I have had tres leches that was delicious but only in a setting where it was made special for the meal. A friend of mine is Argentinian and served it at a birthday party once and it was delicious. But I think I've only ever had it in a restaurant once or twice and was not impressed.