I had written about Tacos Martinez a while back, so no need to go through the entire place with a fine tooth comb, but I did want to offer a comparative analysis of two well-visited taco places after our report on Taqueria la Tapatia which is a bit closer to The Five Oh.
My wife and her mother enjoy this place for tacos, but in my personal opinion (based on a one time lunch) their plates aren't that great. My wife says I went at a bad time (lunch?). Anyway, I will tell you that for breakfast tacos, they are quite tasty indeed.
If you recall, I reported that La Tapatia has fairly smallish tacos. Tacos Martinez serves up some much bigger portions, but I think the price is just slightly higher as result.
My wife ordered a potato con chorizo taco and a barbacoa with avocado, both on the home made corn tortillas. I'm not a fan of corn tortillas unless they involve enchiladas, but I have to admit, these things are pretty good. Needless to say, my wife was sitting in the booth doing her happy dance.
I laced em up tight and ordered my usual carne guisada with government cheese, chorizo and egg, and a country sausage and egg. Is it any wonder I am morbidly obese?
This carne guisada is worth making note of. I'm not sure what the story is behind the recipe, but there is some sort of spicy flavor to it, and it is extremely tasty but certainly not over the top to ruin it. Man it was good.
The chorizo and eggs (and this is true for most places you order chorizo from) are pretty darn greasy. You may want to take a napkin and soak it up before you start eating, or you can just do like me and double up on your high blood pressure meds! Just kidding. The soft freshly made flour tortillas are great for sopping it up.
I was not impressed with the country and egg at all. I soaked it in green sauce so as to mask the taste of what may have been week old sausage. Or it could just be prepared differently, who knows.
Like La Tapatia, this place seems to be always packed with a steady stream of diners. But for the price, you get bigger tacos and more importantly, the carne guisada race goes to Taco Martinez. Give 'em a try between heart bypass surgeries.
This morning, my wife, daughter and I met my mother-in-law and and some visiting family who came in from California and Houston because they needed to taste a real San Antonio type taco. It took a while, but we got it done at the newly opened Taco Martinez on Military Drive just north of Hiway 90 near Lackland's Hamburger Hill.
The location of this new restaurant which apparently opened just this week, is very familiar to us. For years, it was a Bonanza Restaurant, then, when the franchise left, they called it Bandana, so if you happen to drive by, you might confuse the lettering and think that it was still Bonanza. Inside, it looked the same, operated the same, had the same menu as Bonanza, and all of the same Bonanza employees.
When that pooped out, the space took on a Chinese flavor, then perhaps a different Chinese flavor, and now, Taco Martinez #2. I have driven by the other Taco Martinez, but never had the pleasure of eating there.
Okay, to the point. You must gauge everything I say with the understanding that we had a party of 13 people and further, it was easily 10 to 15 minutes before all of us were in place. Though we never communicated to anyone that we would be having an ever expanding group, I was content to accept that the staff was not waiting on us so that we could get everyone in place. I fully understand that it takes a really good wait staff to handle large groups efficiently and it is only made tougher when there are many large groups. Looking around, I could see multiple groups of 8 or more.
When we first sat down, we were entertained by a lady who was complaining about a jalapeño seed being in her husband's taco. In a Mexican restaurant? The Hell you say!
The waitress, then a more senior waitress seemed to roll with the punches and take off the cost of several items on the ticket, though it was clear that this family had eaten about all they were going to eat before finding a reason to complain. How convenient.
Okay, so at about 30 minutes into our being seated and catching up with visiting family, we had still not been on contact with our waitress (other than when we first walked in and got three menus) and several of us were getting quite antsy. I no longer eat at Denny's for lessor of an infraction. As we looked around and saw that a smaller table of diners next to us were already being served drinks (it appears their order had been taken during the commotion of hugging and picture taking), I was taking note of the multiple faces of distress at our long line of tables.
Finally, one of the cousins went to find a manager to request a waitress, and within 15 minutes, we were having our orders taken.
Again, a few things to keep in mind as you read this: The place was packed, it is brand new, and we had a large group. But, I had already made up my mind that I would never set foot in the place again until it had reverted back to Bonanza or at least Bandana!
Good food has a way of fixing bad service. I'll skip the further service related breakdowns involving the fact that we didn't receive any forks, napkins or our drinks until long after we had received our food (and at the insistence of several vocal personalities at our table), and just tell you that the food was superb!
Within our group, some people had plates with rice & beans and fajitas, others had soup, a few had gorditas or chulupas, and I had the Carne Guisda with cheese and also chorizo and egg tacos. The size of the tacos and the quality of the contents made for a great value. By all means, order light as most of the people at our table required take-out boxes.
I would say that Taco Martinez would probably be a good "to-go" place initially until they get the staff up to speed, but make no mistake, the food was outstanding. Not a single person in our party complained once we were stuffing our faces. It was as if the previous hour of waiting for things to come together had been forgotten.
I'm a sucker for good hand made flour tortillas. Taco Martinez gets 3.5 Tasty Treats for the food and a big fat zero for service. But, again, don't let our experience with a large party during the opening week stop you from giving them a try. I will go back, but it won't be with more than 4 or 5 people at a time.
My wife and her mother enjoy this place for tacos, but in my personal opinion (based on a one time lunch) their plates aren't that great. My wife says I went at a bad time (lunch?). Anyway, I will tell you that for breakfast tacos, they are quite tasty indeed.
My wife ordered a potato con chorizo taco and a barbacoa with avocado, both on the home made corn tortillas. I'm not a fan of corn tortillas unless they involve enchiladas, but I have to admit, these things are pretty good. Needless to say, my wife was sitting in the booth doing her happy dance.
This carne guisada is worth making note of. I'm not sure what the story is behind the recipe, but there is some sort of spicy flavor to it, and it is extremely tasty but certainly not over the top to ruin it. Man it was good.
The chorizo and eggs (and this is true for most places you order chorizo from) are pretty darn greasy. You may want to take a napkin and soak it up before you start eating, or you can just do like me and double up on your high blood pressure meds! Just kidding. The soft freshly made flour tortillas are great for sopping it up.
I was not impressed with the country and egg at all. I soaked it in green sauce so as to mask the taste of what may have been week old sausage. Or it could just be prepared differently, who knows.
Like La Tapatia, this place seems to be always packed with a steady stream of diners. But for the price, you get bigger tacos and more importantly, the carne guisada race goes to Taco Martinez. Give 'em a try between heart bypass surgeries.
