Monday, September 17

Las Cazuelas



I recently visited Las Cazuelas, located on East Cesar Chavez at Chalmers, for the first time. I've driven by this restaurant around thirty thousand times, and have always been curious, but the draw of Chapala and El Zunzal usually kept me moving right along. Luckily for me, the taco journalism lifestyle is breaking me of such lazy habits.

I was quite overwhelmed by the menu at Las Cazuelas. There must be 200 items on it, and all of them sound tasty. There is also a list of around 20 lunch specials at $4.95 each that seem like a great deal.

We were served a red and green salsa, both of which were decent. The red was a very straightforward salsa that had a good taste, but was a little too watery. The creamy green salsa was also a touch on the thin side, but was tasty, if a little mild.

After wrestling with the weighty menu for about 10 minutes, I decided to try the 'Enchiladas Potosinas'. According to the Chronicle's review, the owner is a native of San Luis Potosí, and I figured I'd try a dish representative of the region.


As you can probably tell from the photo, this is not your average plate of enchiladas. The deep fried, cheese filled corn tortillas come off as an interesting cross between an empanada and a quesadilla. They are served on a bed of lettuce and topped with tender cubed potatoes that are cooked with chorizo, sour cream and dry cheese.

It was a delicious dish, if a little heavy. The potatoes were especially lovely. The combination of the dry cheese and the chorizo soaked spuds was unusual and very satisfying.

At the end of the meal, I found myself at a loss as to how to rate this restaurant. I enjoyed my meal, but how does it compare to the other places we've reviewed? Very difficult to say at this point. I've decided to visit again soon and have some tacos so that I can make an apples to apples comparison and come up with a fair rating.

Las Cazuelas - stars tbd - Cornbiter Deluxe

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I got burned by this place once- real bad. we tried the lunch buffet- it was HORRIBLE. nasty, cold, old shit, and flies buzzing....Then the checkout dude raised the prices on us - cuz we were gringos I guess. We tried arguing, but the language barrier made it impossible. One of the worst Taco experiences i've ever had...i vowed never to return.

cabeza
http://www.tacotown.org

thereviewer said...

Love it. I think Lib will love it too. Def a necessary austin blog.

Mikey

Colin said...

I have personally witnessed a waitress taking the uneaten portion of free chips from a table, and pouring it back under the chip warmer to be server to someone else. I'm pretty sure that's a serious health code violation.

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