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2016-03-21
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So Mr. Taco Truck closed and the chef there, Eligio Escobedo, and co-owner of Mr. TT, Vivian Wong, have this new operation, with a much slicker look in Wan Chai. I don't know if either of them is this meeligan25 whose sole activity on OpenRice seems to be showing up in the Mr. Taco Truck reviews, and now the reviews for this place, and insulting people who don't like the food. Anyway, I won't pull any punches. This place is only OK. It's basically Mr. Taco Truck but nicer looking.I got an iced l
I got an iced lime soda. It was pretty good. Nice and cold, reasonably sized, with not too much sugar. Recommended, if you're into this sort of thing.
One aspect I liked about the place was that they serve you free salsas-- 3 of them in fact. No free chips though. You just sort of have to stare at the salsa until your food comes, and then put it on if it's appropriate to what you ordered. Nevertheless, free is free, so thumb partially up. (But really? No chips?)
I'm a native Texan and I happen to know that nachos are a Tex-Mex dish, and that authentically they have cheddar cheese on them. I think this is the Oaxacan cheese on the menu, which is also frequently used in nachos, but personally I disprefer it. I say all this not to dis the nachos, which are fine, but to counter some of the silly and counterproductive discourse people tend to have about "Mexican food." For example, on the "about' page for Verde Mar, designer Ricky Ho expresses his desire for "REAL Mexican food" and not "Americanize [sic] monstrosity." Well Ricky, some of the best Mexican cuisine is the Americanized stuff, and some of that stuff is on the menu here. Come over to the dark side.
Oh yeah, but I was saying! The nachos! Yeah, they're fine. Chips aren't store-bought, so that's good. There's salsa for the chips that got unlucky and got no toppings. There are plenty of things appropriate to super nachos here: beans, tomatoes, guac, and we got ours with steak. More on that in a moment.
I got three tacos: steak, al pastor, and carnitas. Here's some thoughts:Steak: you pay extra to get the steak. I'm guessing the steak is the skirt steak, which is sold on the menu as steak arrachera carne asada. A lot of places do steak poorly-- Cali-Mex has especially chewy steak-- but here the meat is reasonably tender. I did think the taco was a little bit lacking in flavor. In my opinion, a steak taco is best accompanied by caramelized onions and bell peppers. None of the tacos were personalized to the choice of meat: each just had some pico, some guac, and some cotija cheese. There was absolutely nothing wrong with this taco, I just thought it a little plain.
Al pastor: the al pastor taco was the worst of the bunch, which is especially disappointing, as al pastor is the king of taco meats. While eating the taco it distinctly reminded me of some other really bad al pastor I had had, but I couldn't remember where. After researching a bit, now I realize it was Mr. Taco Truck, lol. Good al pastor is shaved off the crispy layer of pork on a rotating spit. This is not crispy or charred it's oddly mealy. My guess is that it's overtenderized by some pineapple marinade, but that's just an offhand guess. Not recommended.
Carnitas: the thing that's so good about carnitas is the decadence. The pork is slow cooked until tender and juicy and falling apart, then fried in lots of oil til crispy. Or just the first thing, at least here. The pork here had a good flavor, but my wife especially was saddened that it didn't have the crispy, oily goodness of the best carnitas. Still, I liked this taco best of the ones I got.
My wife got the wet carnitas burrito, and it was relatively massive, but mostly consisted of rice, as you can verify from the picture. No one needs that much rice at one sitting. The burrito also had corn and peas in it. I'm a little uncertain as to what this is supposed to be. I mean, it's not like there's some recognizable authentic Mexican dish that's a giant tortilla filled with 80% rice. That much filler was just unnecessary. My wife's view is that she'd rather get a burrito at Cali Mex or Little Burro. They've got better sauce, comparably mediocre carnitas, and you can get more non-filler stuff inside.I really had high expectations for this place going in. If there's one thing Ricky Ho knows, it's design. The place just looks like it's going to be good. (Cf. Mr. Taco Truck, which doesn't even sound like it's going to be good.) But in the end, the food shows up and you realize, it's just OK. It's Hong Kong Mexican food, but it's not the bottom of the barrel (*cough* El Gringo Loco *cough*). For the prices though, I think I'll stick to making tacos at home.
張貼
