Over and over again, a friend of mine has told me that I just have to go to Sky’s Gourmet Tacos. Considering I live so close, it took me a long time to finally make it there, but when I did I was expecting something pretty special. Before fusion taco truck became the coolest thing in LA, Sky’s was already serving up their own kind of fusion. In their case, the fusion is Mexican “with a splash of soul.” Since I’m a big fan of soul food, Mexican food and general food creativity, I was sure I would love Sky’s.
The interior of the place has under a dozen tables and little counter to order at. Above the counter is a menu with all of their offerings. I decided to start with their namesake and ordered a steak taco. This was made with lettuce, tomato, cilantro, Sky’s Sassy Sauce and cheese. I ordered mine without the lettuce and tomato, then looked into getting a quesadilla. They are called “Our Deluxe Quesadillas” and didn’t list any of the ingredients, which I figured was cool since I’ve rarely seen a quesadilla that consists of anything more than cheese and whatever meat I choose. In this case I chose chicken.
After a surprising 10 minute wait, the food arrived and looked nothing short of delicious. The taco was veggie-less and the quesadilla was uniquely prepared in that there was meat and cheese just stacked on top of the double tortilla. First I dove into the taco, which was quite good. The meat was nice and juicy and it’s always good to have cheese on tacos even if it isn’t the authentic way. Sky’s Sassy Sauce was an interesting sort of salsa unlike any I’d ever had before. Rather than being sweet or spicy, it was actually somewhat sour and vinegar-y. It wasn’t bad, but wasn’t what I expected. Nonetheless, it worked well with the taco and made me hunger for the quesadilla.
With meat and cheese on top, it was a little tough to dig into the quesadilla, but I managed to find myself one of the sections and pulled it off. And what I found almost made me cry. This was a quesadilla that had gone too far, because inside I found tomato, shredded lettuce and tons of sour cream. Mixed into that was a little bit of cheese and cilantro, but it was essentially inedible. Look, if you want to be creative with your food, I am all for it, but you need some sort of disclaimer when you take something as simple as a quesadilla and turn it into a veggie-filled monstrosity. Part of it is my fault for not asking, but I have to put a lot of blame on Sky’s for taking something simple and putting too much of a twist on it. The one bonus part was that at least there was cheese and meat outside of the tortilla and I didn’t have to dig through veggies to find little morsels of edibility.
As for the chicken itself, it definitely had soul and tasted pretty good. Unfortunately I had to consume it outside of the quesadilla and I think I missed out on whatever unique blend the fusion was supposed to offer.
So in the end I was disappointed. The taco was great, but it was only great because I had known what ingredients were inside. The quesadilla, however, made Sky’s Gourmet Tacos a very unvegan unfriendly restaurant.
