The Unvegan » Mexican

Chipotle x 8 at Ocho Mexican Grill

The Unvegan — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:00:09 +0000

The S stands for stubby.

Chipotle is kind of the gold standard of Mexican fast food (I mean, unless we’re talking Taco Bell). You can find it pretty much anywhere, the prices are pretty good and there is no doubt that it’s fast. But it is not alone…all over there are copycats and similar joints that may or may not have existed before the rise of Chipotle. Ocho Mexican Grill in downtown LA is one of those copycats…sort of. A combination of my buddy Joel and a 50% Scoutmob discount convinced me to visit this downtown twist on Mexican fast food fare and I entered with high expectations.

I quickly found Ocho to be a twisted version of Chipotle. It offered burritos, bowls, salads and tacos, then just like Chipotle, there were troughs of ingredients to pick and choose from. I learned that the “Ocho” stood for the 8 different “meat” choices and I use meat in quotes because one of those choices is vegetarian. This was definitely more options than Chipotle, with the exotic options of mahi mahi and tiger prawns making things a bit exciting.

Mmmmm cheese sauce.

I opted for the grilled steak and then moved on to where Ocho truly upped the ante – toppings, salsas and sauces. Sure, I went with classics like their organic brown rice and organic pinto beans, but got a little crazy with their hica-mango (a mix of chopped jicama and mango. They had intriguing yellow and fiery habanero salsas, but I decided to play it safe with red hot, which was one spice level below the habanero. Finally, Ocho made it just a little more interesting with sauces like southwest, agave vinaigrette and buttermilk ranchero. There was only one sauce that I had my eyes on, though…three cheese. Oh and let’s not forget the regular shredded cheese on top of that. Then, while I usually shun away from chips at Chipotle, I put my 50% off to good use and picked up some chips and guac.

Name that guac!

Once it was all rolled up, my burrito looked a bit stubby and while I lamented the larger size of Chipotles, I also considered the resulting food comas and thought this might just be the perfect size. I tore away the foil and went to town. Town was delicious, by the way. They had clearly stuck to the safe side as far as the Chipotle elements, as the combination of steak, rice, beans and hot red salsa were right on par. But where these parts lacked in originality, the hica-mango and three cheese sauce took the burrito to a shiny new level. And while I hate to say it, the cheese sauce was even better than Qdoba. The chips and guac were quite tasty, but indistinguishable from Chipotle in the same vein as the steak.

It’s hard to review a place like Ocho, because while it is awesome and brings a few new things to the table, it seriously lacks in originality. I hated to mention Chipotle so much in this review, but it was too hard not to. Cafe Rio took the Chipotle concept and completely blew it away with unique offerings, but Ocho seemed content to maintain much of the status quo. It’s executed well, and the new choices make for a great meal, but in the end it is just a damn good copycat.

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Impregnated by El Nopal

The Unvegan — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:00:44 +0000

Impregnate me!

For a few months now, I have driven by El Nopal in Palms nearly every single day. And on just about every one of those days, I say to myself, “I want to eat there.” But it is not simply because I love Mexican food, it is because of what is written just below the name of the restaurant on their sign: Home of the Pregnant Burrito. I’m a pretty literal guy and assumed there was some sort of burrito fetus residing in the larger burrito. This proved to not be the case, but it does give me an idea for an awesome burrito if I ever open up my own Mexican place (read: never). Anyway, onto the burrito.

Inside the restaurant, we were greeted by a passionate and friendly host/waiter. Excitedly, he told us about all their food, but all I cared about was the pregnant burrito. This guy came with chicken, onions and avocado. Simple as that, and served wet-style. But I made it my own by removing the onions and getting ground beef instead of chicken. Soon enough, my pound-plus burrito arrived, looking quite beautiful. He brought out onions on the side in case I wanted them (do you know who I am?!), and they were left on the side to rot for eternity.

I dug in and met with meaty bliss. Sure there was avocado in there, but this was pretty much ground beef, wrapped in tortilla and doused with cheese and enchilada sauce. It was an unvegan dream come true and it even tasted pretty good. It wasn’t quite as good as the spectacular burrito from La Paz, but was certainly good enough that I would have eaten more after I finished my full pound-plus burrito. I may have felt pregnant, but only 1st trimester pregnant and I wanted to feel myself dilating. Pretty picture, eh?

Nonetheless, I was glad I walked to El Nopal, because the walk back made me feel a little less pregnant and also gave me time to reflect on the goodness of the Pregnant Burrito.

I shall be back, that is for sure.

Compunding Words at MexiKosher

The Unvegan — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:00:30 +0000

Fun with puns!

Who doesn’t love a good pun? Or even better, who doesn’t love an awesome compound word. Combining giant and enormous gave us ginormous. Combining lion and tiger gave us liger. And combining terrible and institution gave us Ohio State University (yes, I know that is technically three words, but I stand by it). Now joining the ever-growing list of compound words is a restaurant named MexiKosher in (surprisingly) Pico-Robertson. I love a good compound word as much as the next guy, but could this new Kosher Mexican restaurant make a happy unvegan? I intended to find out.

The set up of the place is pretty awkward and we we walked in we had no idea where to order or who to order from. Eventually, we found our way to someone willing to help us out. It seemed they were trying to do things the Chipotle way, without pork or cheese, but still hadn’t gotten the organizational efficiency together.

Of course, as an American, I lamented the lack of cheese. Jew or not, I expect cheese on my Mexican food. To those who know true Mexican food, however, the lack of cheese should not have been surprising. Few Mexican dishes actually involve cheese, so I was still excited. What didn’t excite me, though, was the price. The cheapest meat offered clocked in at 10.99 for a dish.

Just like bubbe used to make.

I chose one of these 10.99 dishes, the grilled chicken tacos. This came with three tacos and my selection of toppings, which I simply limited to guacamole (an extra 75 cents) and cilantro. They were incredibly generous with the guac and I ended up with guacamole tacos with a bit of meat in each. I also got some beans and rice in my family picnic-style divided plate. Then, at check out, we discovered something amazing. Checking in on Facebook resulted in a 20% discount. Now I don’t do that Facebook check-in stuff to remain incognito (just don’t ask me about foursquare), but my buddy checked in and we piggybacked his discount.

That's what I call a salsa bar.

We snagged a table and I went to work devouring the tacos. What I found was pretty delicious. These weren’t some sort of Jewish fusion, but simply tacos prepared with delicious Kosher meat. The chicken was moist, with a hint of citrusy goodness, and then there were the crazy sauces offered. These sat near the register in condiment bottles, keeping the place unique compared to your ordinary Mexican salsa bars. These bottles changed the game in two ways: 1) No more accidentally mixing salsas with an unsteady ladle and 2) they could be easily shaken up to ensure even distribution of flavor. I tried a few of them and found each to be pretty tasty and creative. The Chipotle Marmalade and Serrano Aioli were definitely my two favorites.

Yet, as delicious as this all was, I realized that I couldn’t justify the price of Kosher. Not when I could walk down the street or stroll up to a taco truck and get a similarly tasty Mexican meal for half the price.

Mexikosher is certainly a good addition to Pico-Robertson. For those who keep Kosher, it certainly provides the necessary taste. But for the treif in this world, MexiKosher is probably only worth a dabble.

A New Beginning at Taco Plus

The Unvegan — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:00:49 +0000

This is more of a burrito plus.

Moving to a new place is never easy. Driving habits and living habits have to change, but more importantly, eating habits have to change. This can be easy for some, but when you have a meat blog it can be tough to say goodbye to the Taco Bell that once resided across the street. But it is also an opportunity to try new things, so as I woke up on my first real weekend in my new place, I realized it was time for a stroll around the area in search of food. Quickly, I found Taco Plus.

Yes, I had driven by Taco Plus countless times in my life, but there are so many little nondescript taco places in LA, they all blur together eventually. Taco Plus is now no longer a blur to me, and is instead a local taco reality. But was that reality any good?

I ordered an old classic, the Burrito de Carne Asada. At $6.35, the price was competitive with the likes of Chipotle and I hoped the flavor could be even better. It came with the steak, beans, rice, cilantro and onions. As always, I ordered mine without onions to keep away from the veggies. I also noticed they had the option to turn the burrito wet for a buck or so more, but I wasn’t ready to eat so heavy with my first meal of the day. While waiting, I loaded up with some salsa from their salsa bar and after a couple minutes the burrito was ready.

The "Plus" means meat.

I bit right in and quickly found myself with a mouthful of steak. And good steak too. I could tell it had just been sliced up and wasn’t sitting in a tub somewhere waiting to be served. Plus, it was loaded with meat. This wasn’t some small dollop of steak, topped with a load of beans and rice for filler. This was a burrito made for a carnivore, with beans and rice just hanging out to enhance the experience. Yet, with all the meatiness, it wasn’t quite perfect. It still definitely needed the salsa from the salsa bar, because the steak itself wasn’t the most seasoned. I could definitely see where making the burrito wet would have made experience even better.

So, did I find a replacement for Taco Bell? No, but no real Mexican food can truly replace Taco Bell. Instead, I found a pretty great burrito in a really great location. I can’t wait to go back and try out their wet burrito, because I have a feeling that cheese and sauce will make Taco Plus and A+.

Sorry for the terrible pun, but you have to expect that when you name your restaurant that way.

Unexpected Fruitiness at TnB BBQ

The Unvegan — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:00:23 +0000

What the what sauce?

On a one-night bender, I found myself facing down three strange taco trucks on Main Street in Santa Monica. None looked familiar and none looked particularly amazing. But it was 2 am in Los Angeles, when food options are usually limited to subpar diners and…well…taco trucks. The trucks here seemed to be some sort of missing link between gourmet and roach coaches and so after much circling we wound up at TnB BBQ.

This truck seemed to fuse Korean food with tacos (how creative), and after much deliberation, I chose the beef quesadilla for a whopping 7 bucks. This had to be a damn good and big quesadilla or I was going to be one unhappy drunk. And in my drunk, I was reduced to my most basic unvegan self and made sure to ask if there were any vegetables involved in this pricey quesadilla. The man told me no, and I stepped back to let them prepare my food.

Within minutes, my ‘dilla was ready and I looked upon it in curiosity. It wasn’t huge, but wasn’t slacking in size either. It also came with a little cup of some sort of salsa. I chomped in and what I found was some pretty decent Korean-Mexican fusion. It had your average sweet Korean beef taste and enough cheese to scare off a lactard. But what truly separated this quesadilla from every other Korean taco fusion I’ve ever had was the salsa. Not content to be a simple salsa, this stuff was fruity. And not just “oh heyyyy, lets put mangoes in our salsa” fruity. No, this was fruity to the core, with the most prominent flavor being strawberry. It made for one hell of a twist on your typical dipping sauce.

But was it good? Was it bad? I don’t really think it was either. It was just kind of…well weird. But if nothing else, TnB introduced me to something I never knew existed. Yes, I could have lived a happy life without ever having tasted strawberry salsa on a Korean quesadilla, and now that I have tasted such a thing, my life will continue on as it would have otherwise. Not better or worse, but having eaten something damn strange.

Down in Mexico With Red O

The Unvegan — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:00:24 +0000

Wait, is this China?

Rick Bayless is apparently a pretty big deal, and not just because he got his PhD at the University of Michigan. No, he is actually a famous chef who specializes in Mexican food. Now, when I headed off to dinner at Red O, I was entirely unaware of both the existence of man named Rick Bayless and the fact ~~the Red O’s kitchen was run by him~~ that he was Red O’s consulting chef. Clearly this was not going to be an everyday ordinary Mexican meal. The exterior had a design reminiscent of the Bird’s Nest in Beijing. The interior wasn’t too shabby either, but this style came at a price. One of our party was sporting khaki shorts and was nearly denied entry, despite everyone else in the restaurant wearing shorts. This almost knocked the place down a notch to me, but I was willing to forgive if they could deliver some amazing food.

And the presentation is flawless.

We had been warned ahead of time that we had to try the guacamole, so we started out with a bit of that at our table. While guacamole can sometimes be a risky move, because places like to mix tomato and onion into it. Red O, however, did not pollute its guacamole with such veggies. Yes, there were some diced onions and radishes on top, but these were easily avoided and passed on to my eating companions. With these concerns abated, I found myself eating some the the best guacamole this side of Mexico. The consistency was all at once creamy and chunky, but the greatness didn’t stop there. While maintaining a great avocado taste, the seasoning was also incredible. But all this wouldn’t have mattered if the chips had lacked. Fortunately, Red O held their chips to the same high standards as the guacamole and were both flaky and crunchy.

For my main course, I struggled a bit on what to order. This was not because of a small or veggie-laden menu. No, this was because I wanted so much. And also because this was some expensive Mexican food. Not overly expensive, but kind of in that range where you cross your fingers and hope the food is better than you corner taco shack. I did, though, find something that looked both reasonable and delicious. This was their lamb soft tacos. Described much more eloquently on the menu as “Sonoma County Lamb in Chile Colorado, guajillo chiles, roasted garlic, cumin and black beans,” this sounded like a perfect unvegan meal. My only concern was that this woudn’t be enough food, but a quick chat with the waiter told me that it would serve me at least four tacos. This satisfied my concern and I quickly turned this concern into excitement.

Why would you ruin this with onions?

When my skillet of lamb arrived, fajita-style, I was all set to eat, but had to stop myself. You see, sitting atop my meat was an array of onion strings that seemed to be spitting in my face. Sure, these were pretty fried up, but they were still vegetables and had not been mentioned on the menu. This was upsetting, because they had taken the time to describe so much of the dish, but not the onions. I was sad, but I could easily brush these aside and get into the real food. I put together my first taco and bit into meaty glory. The lamb meat was incredibly tender and combined with the cumin flavor, there was almost a hint of Greek in my taco. No, this wasn’t part of the taco fusion craze of LA, but it was definitely interesting to have some new flavors in a taco (or four).

The meatballs had greens, but at least I didn't order them.

I also managed to snag a bite of the short rib meatball tacos being eaten at the other end of the table. These meatballs were actually better than my lamb and the potatoes that accompanied the meatballs were enlightening.

So in the end, the tacos turned out to be incomparable to those of a local taco stand. Red O managed to elevate its Mexican food above and beyond the norm and didn’t just create upscale versions of normal Mexican food, but added unique flavors and ingredients to make it a place worth revisiting. It’s not going to remind you of the food you may have eaten in Mexico, but it will certainly not disappoint.

Make Way for Cafe Rio

The Unvegan — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:00:30 +0000

The pearly gates of Utah.

I have a coworker who has a problem. The problem is she is a vegetarian. Gross, right? But not by choice. You see she is lacking the enzyme that breaks down meat in her body, so the simple act of eating meat makes her violently ill. It’s really the only acceptable form of vegetarianism, yet there is one place she will always eat meat, stomach be damned. That place is Cafe Rio. It’s a seemingly generic Mexican place that I have driven past many times in Manhattan Beach and brushed off. But little did I realize that Cafe Rio is huge in Utah. Like real huge. And it’s about to get even huger. There are currently 40-something locations, but they are planning an expansion on the scale of 100 restaurants. So when one opens across the street from you, remember you read about Cafe Rio on The Unvegan first. With my coworker in mind, we finally stopped at Cafe Rio to what all the meat fuss was about.

The place is set up in an assembly line format similar to Chipotle, but with a whole lot more options. Looking at the menu, apparently we made it pretty well-known that we had never been before. Suddenly, we were greeted by a guy working there who explained everything on the menu and offered us samples of any meat we wanted. And first he gave us a sample of their fresh-made tortillas to test out. It was delicious. The menu said their Sweet Pork Barbacoa was their specialty, so I tried some of that, their Chile Roasted Beef, their Fire Grilled Chicken and their Fire Grilled Steak. I was surprised to find my favorite to be their Chile Roasted Beef, which somehow beat out the Fire Grilled Steak due to some amazing flavoring. The barbacoa was my second favorite and another customer told us their secret: they cook it in Coke.

Have wet with my burrito.

So I went with the Chile Roasted Beef burrito for $6.75. In it, I had them add pinto and black beans, lime-cilantro rice, cheese and hot salsa. Then, they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. This was to have them splash more salsa on top of the burrito, top it with cheese, heat it up and make it a wet burrito. Um, yes please. But I wasn’t yet sure how hot the salsa was, so I had them douse my burrito in medium. It was a beautiful sight and I couldn’t wait to dig in.

Best roasted beef ever?

And when I did, what I tasted was nothing short of amazing. Stomach aches? Weak. I would risk kidney stones to down a burrito such as this. The flavor of the beef is beyond comprehension, but all at once it’s semi-sweet, salty, juicy and meaty. The meat was definitely the centerpiece to the burrito and while the rice, beans and cheese were all nice, they had nothing on the meat. Which brings me to the salsa. I quickly discovered that the salsa within the burrito was not too spicy at all and could have easily been the salsa for the burrito to swim in. But, I’m glad I tried the medium salsa, because it was awesome. In fact, it was literally sweet. Coupled with the savoriness of the rice, beans and cheese, this salsa added a strange, yet delicious balance to the burrito. Next time, I’ll swap the salsas and get that sweetness on the inside.

And there will be a next time. And a time after that. And a time after that. Because Cafe Rio is awesome. From the amazing customer service (seriously, everyone there seemed to feel honored to work there) to the meat to the salsa, it was a burrito to remember. Move over, Chipotle.

Komodo Heads Indoors

The Unvegan — Mon, 09 May 2011 16:00:34 +0000

Some prep kitchen.

A long long time ago, I managed to get myself into the Komodo Truck launch party. It was a good time for all, and apparently the truck has been pretty successful. So successful, in fact, that they recently opened a storefront at Pico-Robertson. I wasn’t there for the debut of this one, which may be a good thing. While the debut of the truck was plagued with long lines, when I walked into the restaurant I found myself the only patron. The friendly cashier made sure to tell me that although things seemed pretty grim, the restaurant doubled as a prep kitchen for the truck. So although I was the only one giving money to the restaurant that night, the place was indirectly earning them some money wherever the truck may be.

Now when I went to the truck they were only offering tacos, but the restaurant had themselves burritos modeled after those tacos. At 8 bucks, they were a little pricey, but the ingredients looked awesome. Although I was a little disappointed by the lack of actual komodo dragon meat (yes I would eat dragon), the Asian Marinated Chicken burrito looked great. Filled with the chicken, jalapeno stir-fried rice and mandarin oranges, it was fit for an unvegan. Although the place seems set up for some sort of a Chipotle-style assembly line, I was happy to see my food cooked fresh on the griddle rather than sitting in a tray for hours.

This is no small burrito.

And when finished, the burrito was massive. By weight it was certainly worth the 8 bucks, and I hoped it would retain this value in taste. It did. The chicken was really flavorful and although the rice was the biggest component of the burrito, it had a nice flavor to it that didn’t make it feel like filler. The mandarin oranges were an awesome addition and added a nice burst of flavor at random bites. I actually wouldn’t have minded a bit more of the mandarin oranges, but then I may not have appreciated those random bursts of citric sweetness as much. The tortilla was a bit thick, but did a great job of keeping the onslaught of food at bay as a ravished the burrito.

No rice overkill.

I also had an opportunity to taste the Komodo 2.0 burrito, which was filled with skirt steak, jalapeno aioli and corn salad. I actually found this one to be light on flavor and was glad I had gone with the chicken instead.

So the Komodo restaurant has done a good job of carrying on the name of the Komodo truck by providing unique burritos. The only unfortunate thing is that they haven’t really expanded their menu. With the availability of a full kitchen, I would like to see them experiment a bit more with ingredients. A simple menu at a truck is ideal, but people expect a bit more from a restaurant and hopefully they can grow their menu and really make the restaurant work.

Quesoing at Qdoba

The Unvegan — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:00:50 +0000

The Q stands for queso.

On the fringes of the Mexican fast food world lies a restaurant chain called Qdoba, which I’m pretty sure is pronounced queue-doh-ba. Qdoba functions in an assembly-line vein similar to Chipotle and the food itself tastes pretty similar except for one special thing: queso. For those who understand the language Spanish, queso simply means cheese and it would be no surprise to you that cheese is on the menu of a Mexican restaurant. But, for those of you who are well-versed in the language of Qdoba, queso means so much more.

At Qdoba, the queso still means cheese, but instead of regular cheese it’s a cheese sauce. It comes on the queso burrito, along with pretty much any burrito topping you’d like. I ordered mine with pinto beans, rice, chicken, medium salsa and some additional cheese. All rolled up, the burrito looked like little edible baby that I was ready to eat. This thing was so stuffed I even grabbed a fork in preparation of my burrito baby overflowing.

When I dug in, my mouth was met with a ton of rice. And not so much in a good way, because rice is a bit of a burrito filler. However, the best way to make rice taste better is by adding cheese and the queso sauce was just delicious. The chicken tasted pretty good and just about everything came together nicely, but the rice was truly overwhelming. I would have preferred a smaller burrito with less rice just so the rest of the insides would have had stronger flavor not washed out by rice.

The queso sauce was a great twist on the burrito and really helped my burrito baby along. However, when it came to size, I would have preferred a bit more quality over quantity. Rice is good and all, but it shouldn’t be the centerpiece of a burrito.

Menuless at Gardens of Taxco

The Unvegan — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:00:18 +0000

Course number one is a cheese a dilla.

About a year ago, a coworker of mine walked up to my desk, slapped a golden matchbook on it and told me I had to go to this restaurant. The restaurant he spoke of was called Gardens of Taxco in West Hollywood and despite the strange-sounding name, he told me it was amazing. One year later he is no longer a coworker of mine, but a Living Social deal popped up for the place and I took it as a sign from the tax gods that it was time for me to pay the Gardens a visit.

We arrived for our reservation and were immediately seated. I ordered a Dos Equis to start off the evening and soon after our waiter came out to ask if we were ready to order. We hadn’t yet seen any menus, so we were thrown off a bit by this question. He informed us that Gardens of Taxco was a Mexico City-style restaurant, which meant no menus outside of the one memorized in his head (I later confirmed with a friend of mine that Mexico City certainly has menus, so if this was Mexico City-style, perhaps it is a style that no longer exists in Mexico.). He asked each of us which type of meat we would like and immediately recited 4 or 5 dishes from each from his head. You could tell he truly loved this part of his job as he described each dish better than a J. Peterman catalog. The girlfriend opted for Chicken Taxco, made with their namesake sauce. This sauce was of the cilantro cream variety and was said to be a bit spicy. I, on the other hand, went with their Carne Asada, but we agreed to try out each others’ dishes.

Get that carrot off my spoon.

But this meal was not just some simple entree. Nay, it was a five-course meal, beginning with a delectable quesadilla. Filled simply with cheese and topped with guacamole, I was amazed at how delicious the quesadilla was. I don’t know if the cheese was laced with crack or what, but this was by far the best plain cheese quesadilla I had ever eaten. This was followed by a far-less-exciting soup. Although at first I was disappointed to find said soup loaded with veggies, I dug in and discovered chunks of tasty meat inside. This did much to improve the soup and made it worthy of being considered a course in and of itself.

Get off my taco, olive!

Course number three was a bit of a chicken taco. Because I had ordered beef as my main course, my taco was chicken, while my girlfriend’s taco was beef. Mine was covered in red sauce to make it the first wet taco I’d ever seen and it forced me to use a knife and fork on the poor little thing. Or maybe it was an enchilada? I thought he said taco, but I suppose a wet taco would just inherently be an enchilada. Whatever it was, on top, there was a diabolical olive, which I had to scrape off in order to begin eating. Fortunately, I found that within the taco/enchilada there were no vegetables and it was strictly some delicious and tender chicken. I tried the beef one as well, and it was also a delicious, and wet, taco.

Melts in your mouth, not on your plate.

Finally, the main courses arrived and these things were just gigantic. My slab of carne asada was one huge strip of thin-sliced steak just itching to be devoured. It was surrounded by rice and beans, and although there was a vegetable garnish or two, they fortunately did not get in the way of the devouring experience. I easily sliced through the carne and bit in. The biting wasn’t really necessary because the carne melted like butter in my mouth. It was so tender, in fact, that I attempted to cut through another slice using only my fork and was spectacularly successful. It wasn’t strongly seasoned, which was good because the carne itself had such great flavor. Just thinking about that buttery meat makes my mouth water right now.

Ever had chicken born in cream?

And then there was the Chicken Taxco. I recalled the waiter describing a different chicken dish by saying it tasted like the chicken was born in the sauce. The Chicken Taxco felt the same way. The chicken was just so incredibly tender, it felt like it had been creamed along with the sauce. And the sauce was just incredible. The combination of cream, cilantro and spice worked together in such perfect harmony that my shoe would have tasted great in it.

Where's the pie?

More than fully stuffed, our final course arrived. Fortunately it wasn’t a big dessert. I dug a spoon in, tasted and realized I was essentially eating banana cream pie without the pie. Instead, it was served in a sundae dish. Since banana cream pie is one of my favorite desserts of all time, this banana cream made a perfect finish to a delicious meal.

For a five course meal, Gardens of Taxco truly delivered. From the menu recitation all the way through to the final bite of banana cream, I couldn’t have asked much more of the place. For the Carne Asada alone, the meal would have been worth it. But instead I consumed an amazing quesadilla, a tasty wet taco/enchilada and even some interesting soup meat. For a Mexican night on the town, Gardens of Taxco is a great place to find yourself.