Taqueria el Granjenal - Review #1

Date of Visit: March 4, 2006

899 W 19th St
Costa Mesa, CA 92627

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Listing on Ask.com's Citysearch

No known official website.

This is the last of three backed up articles I've had to complete. It may be hard to believe but I haven't been to a Mexican restaurant since I went to this place last Saturday for lunch. I used to go here all the time but, as fate would have it, I hadn't been to it in about three or four years. Fortunately everything seemed the same about it.

Taqueria el Granjenal is one of the most authentic Mexican places around. I hear it is owned by a Korean but one would never guess that. Apparently the owner steps out of the way and lets the Mexicans run the food service aspect of things properly. It has a very homey, relaxed atmosphere and when you order your food and sit down at one of their tables to wait for your order don't be surprised if a local comes and sits down at the same table with you while they await their own order.

I ordered the combination plate with a carne asada taco and a chicken sope and they came loaded with toppings. Every order also comes with chips and escabeche and they have what I want to call a Mexican condiment bar. Not exactly a salsa bar because some of the ingredients are dry. Maybe it's more like a chili pepper bar, but you can put your condiments in little paper boats for eating there or into plastic baggies for taking with you.

I think I have ordered a licuado (milk shake) every time I have been there and this visit was no exception. This time it was a strawberry shake which they sprinkle a little cinnamon on top of. Mmm mmm, good.

They had a big banner outside today advertising a hamburger special but I wonder if anybody ever orders hamburgers from here.

I got to read el clasificados while eating, plus my drink had rabies


The above picture is actually from a cantina in the same
parking lot; I just like paintings like this


Lots of good fruit juices and shakes here

Overall Taqueria el Granjenal earns a four Speedy Gonzales rating:



UPDATE: There's a few more pictures at this flickr album of Julian Bleeckr's.

UPDATE (June 8, 2009):

Here's a couple more pictures from my lunch earlier today:

Ostioneria: Playas de Sinaloa - Review #1

Date of Visit: March 4, 2006

1320 E Edinger Ave
Santa Ana, CA 92705

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Listing on Ask.com's Citysearch

No known official website.

I've been planning on going back to this place for a while and getting some good pictures. The decor inside makes me think that the Brady Bunch turned Mexican, dropped some hallucinogens, and were let loose with paint brushes. The walls are painted bright citrusy yellow, green, and orange. One wall has a big ocean scene with a big mermaid dead center. Unfortunately they don't have the psychedelic table cloths they used to have. Hopefully they will bring them back sometime.
Out of all the places I've been to so far this is the one place that was most thrown off by a gringo coming in. Not that they weren't welcoming; they just never seem to expect that someone like me would patronize their establishment. This was my second visit where a waitress did not know English, but I have found that even partially remembered high school Spanish can get you by pretty good in situations like these.

Overall Ostioneria: Playas de Sinaloa earns a four Speedy Gonzales rating:

Las Barcas - Review #2

Date of Visit: March 4, 2006

21032 Beach Blvd
Huntington Beach, CA 92648

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Official Site

We now have our second reader review. This one was sent in by my friend James and he included a couple pictures as well. I believe James is the one that told me about Las Barcas about a decade ago.

Baby drinking glass not included with meal


The lemon's trying to escape

I went to Las Barcas restaurant on Saturday afternoon at 2:30pm. I ordered a taco & enchilada comination plate, my wife got the machaca burrito, and my mother got the chicken tostada. All three were very good! I used to live about a block away from Las Barcas and I would phone in orders and walk down and pick them up (usually the chicken tostada, which back then was less than $4.00). I love the chips and salsa there too -- the salsa is probably the best I've tasted. This time I tried to figure out if their salsa has vinegar or Mexican oregano in it, and thought I detected the latter. The food leaves little to be desired, unlike many run-of-the-mill combo plate Mexican places. I think they deserve an extra "Speedy" for the salsa & chips too.

I'd give them four Speedys:

Thanks for the review, James. We've still gotta hit Mexi-casa and Miguel Jr. sometime . . . and Blue Agave again. And some other places.

Sharky's Woodfired Mexican Grill - Review #1

6725 Quail Hill Pkwy
Irvine, CA 92603

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Official Site

Sharky's Exterior - Hard to photograph with
all the palm trees in the way

I broke my rule of only going to three Mexican places a week by going to four or five in the last week. Now I'm backed up with three restaurants to write about and I've never been that backed up before, so these next three reviews may be short on words. But pictures are worth a thousand words, aren't they?

Sharky's tempura-battered shrimp taco plate

Sharky's is hard to review because it's just like so many other places such as Rubio's, Baja Fresh, and La Salsa. They do have woodfired pizzas there (which I will try sometime) and tempura-battered shrimp tacos (which I did try on this visit) so they get at least an extra half Speedy Gonzales for that. They have some yuppie-ish but not too yuppie-ish, attractive decor and they are good about keeping the place clean (although I wish other customers would learn how to not be so sloppy when they are at the salsa bar - any salsa bar at any Mexican restaurant for that matter).

Sharky's Interior - No palm trees in the way this time

I really want to give them a three and a quarter Speedy Gonzales rating but I'm feeling extra nice today so I'll round Sharky's up to a three and a half Speedy Gonzales rating:

El Fortin - Review #1

10444 Dale Ave
Stanton, CA 90680

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Official Site

I'd found out about this restaurant from Gustavo Arellano's Orange County's 61 best Latino restaurantes OC Weekly article (although I went to the Stanton location rather than the location in Fullerton that was mentioned) and checked out El Fortin's official website, and saw that grasshoppers were mentioned in numerous spots on their menu. What I didn't know is that I would end up actually eating some (my apologies to Jiminy Cricket).

Upon arriving at this inconspicuous establishment hidden near a corner of two little-used streets in Stanton mi hermano and I were greeted by Robert who was so personable we felt more like we were being welcomed into his home. I told him how I'd found out about his place and that I would be reviewing it for my blog and asked if I could take pictures and he said, "Go ahead!"
Robert then brought out the requisite chips and salsa but along with it also brought a cup of mole negro. I dipped the corner of a chip into it and tasted it and, while it was pretty good, I detected enough walnut presence to know that my walnut allergy wouldn't allow me to eat any. There's other items on the menu with nuts in them so people with allergies need to be careful. But there are plenty of items without nuts and Robert was very helpful with making suggestions.

El Fortin's menu focuses on food from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. On our server's recommendation I tried the Plato Especial, which included tasajo (salted beef round), a Cecina enchilada (spicy chile paste marinated, thinly sliced and fried), queso frito (fried cheese), Platanos fritos (fried plantains), a chile relleno, guacamole and black beans.

My brother ordered a plate of three quesadillas that ended up looking more like deep-fried tacos and were smothered in guacamole and hot sauce. I then went to their refrigerator and picked out a lime-flavored Jarritos brand soda. After taking our order to the cook in the back Robert came back to our table and asked if we'd like to try some grasshoppers. I asked if I could at least see them. He went to the refrigerator himself and took out a mixing bowl that must've been filled with two or three thousand little grasshoppers. I said, "I want to see you eat some first." So he popped one in his mouth and crunched away. I then poured some of my Jarritos into my glass so I could have something to wash it down with in case I didn't like it, then grabbed one, popped it in my own mouth and crunched away and it really wasn't so bad (yes, it is the whole grasshopper), almost like a cross between popcorn and shrimp . . . or maybe just like popcorn shrimp . . . with legs . . . and feelers. Do I get some sort of honorary mention on Fear Factor next week? I didn't order any item that had grasshoppers in it but would consider ordering a grasshopper quesadilla or taco next time.

While I love the Jarritos soda what I should've ordered but my brother did was their horchata, the funkiest I'd ever seen, which comes topped with chopped nuts (I believe Robert said they were pepitas [pumpkin seeds] but better make sure it's not walnuts, almonds, or pecans before I give it a try), melon syrup, and cactus fruit puree.

Overall El Fortin earns a four Speedy Gonzales rating:



UPDATE: "Elmo" from the Monster Munching blog requested a picture of the grasshoppers. Problem is, when you look at the bowl of them you can't even tell from three feet away what they are. When you take one out you see a little more detail, but not that much. Maybe I'll go back sometime and try to get some good grasshopper pictures. Until then, here's a picture off of their site:

Taco Rosa - Review #3

NEWS:

Click HERE to read ALL our extensive coverage of Taco Rosa.

Taco Rosa
2632 San Miguel Road
Newport Beach, CA 92660
(949) 720-0980

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Official Site

Okay, a reader named Joy posted a comment on my most recent review of Taco Rosa and her comments were so lengthy and in-depth I felt they could pass as their very own entry. I've been hoping for other people to submit reviews of restaurants and now we have the first such instance so you other readers don't feel shy. Hopefully we can have some good quality pictures to portray Taco Rosa with whenever there might be a fourth review.

From here on out it is Joy's words:

Hi Christian,

Love your blog! Mostly in response to your posts, I dragged my SO and friend to Taco Rosa last night (well, dragged isn't quite the word) and we LOVED it! They had canteloupe and honeydew aguas frescas, and I started with the canteloupe thinking I'd have honeydew for my next glass -- I didn't realize it was free refills, that's great! Okay, so I'll try the honeydew another time.

We got the complimentary appetizers and didn't think we'd get chips, so we ordered chips and guacamole. The guac was *great* - lots of avocado. But they brought chips and three salsas out beforehand. All three were pretty smooth rather than chunky, and one was a chile verde; do you know what the other two were?

We went overboard on ordering because I wanted to try everything. Between the three of us we got: chips and guacamole, chile relleno, flor de calabaza (zucchini quesadilla), a calamari taco, and two orders of carnitas pibil -- these each came with piles of escabeche, and some with more guac and sour cream. The corn tortillas were excellent: much thicker than usual, and steaming hot, very flavorful. I convinced the men to help me with a single order of sopapillas, although I had to do more than my share. All told, we paid $68 plus tip, and took home four full boxes of leftovers = four more servings/meals.

Loved the chile relleno (very eggy), flor de calabaza, calamari taco, escabeche, aguas frescas, and guac. The men found the carnitas not quite to their taste -- not dry, as is often the problem, but not as flavorful, with a somewhat pasty sauce. I tried it and thought it was okay but not great: maybe they were having an off night, or maybe other folks like it this way?

I didn't care for the sweet tamale that came with each entree, but my SO brought his home and warmed it up for lunch today. He still didn't like it, but I liked it just fine on the second try. Guess you have to know what you're getting (and eat it RIGHT away).

The sopapillas were far too large for one person -- it was almost too much for the three of us! Delicious.

Liked the setting a lot too, although we ended up on very hard seats, like picnic table benches. Great service, too.

We are *definitely* going back. Is there anything in particular you'd recommend we try next?

Blue Agave Southwestern Grill - Review #1

Date of Visit: February 25, 2006

18601 Yorba Linda Blvd
Yorba Linda, CA 92886

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Official Site

I'm going to mostly let the pictures do the talking here. The visit was a little rushed due to attending a birthday party immediately beforehand that I didn't know I would be going to. Then at the party I sort of stuffed myself with hot dogs and pork and beans and macaroni salad and Tiki Punch and birthday cake. Once my friends and I arrived at Blue Agave we didn't have much time for lunch before I was off to another engagement. My friends, James and Lori, tried going to Blue Agave on Valentine's Day and said it was so crowded that they gave up and went elsewhere but they were anxious to eventually give it a try and I had never been before myself so we squeezed our visit in today the best we could and we all agreed that it was definitely good enough to go back.

Overall Blue Agave earns a four Speedy Gonzales rating:

Taco de Carlos, RIP

No, I'm not reviewing Taco de Carlos because it doesn't exist any longer but I was mildly excited earlier today when I finally found an image on the web that showed their old logo with the Carls Jr. Happy Star holding a fast food drink and a taco.

Taco de Carlos was an experimental spinoff of the Carls Jr. chain in the 1970's and early 1980's that featured, what else? Mexican food. My family went several times to the one that was at Brookhurst and Warner in Fountain Valley (right next to a standard Carls Jr. that is still in business). I don't remember anything about the food but I remember being very intrigued by the kitschy Happy Star character sporting a sombrero.

Does anyone else remember Taco de Carlos?