Wednesday, August 26

AVOID: Ken's Tacos and Subs

A few of you have emailed us and asked if we have ever tried Ken's Tacos and Subs at the corner of Rundberg and Cameron in Northeast Austin. We actually have never heard of it and after seeing a few good reviews on Yelp we decided a trip was in order.

Cornbiter D. and myself were pleased by the menu's small number of offerings and decided to try one of almost all of the tacos (we didn't try any subs, 'cause that's not what we do!) The tacos arrived a few minutes later and to say they were big is an understatement, these things were monsters and for 2 bucks each, things were looking up! That is until we ate them :(

Big Ass Tacos

The tortillas were store-bought, soggy and not warmed beforehand, the Beef Fajita was chewy and flavorless, the Chicken Fajita was probably the best thing, but the tortilla drowned out anything good about it, the Bean & Cheese was mediocre, the Egg Potato & Bean tasted like wet cardboard and the Carne Guisada what not great and had tons of fatty parts.

Let's start by saying, what the fuck, Yelpers?? 26 of you reviewed this place and it has a 4.5 star rating, seriously? seriously!?! That shit is ridiculous, there is no way that many Austinites think these things are edible. There has to be a taco conspiracy happening here. Whatever, I'm done with this place, stay away if you can.

Ken's Tacos - 1 star - jarod

9408 Dessau Rd
Austin, TX 78754
(512) 837-9370

Friday, August 21

La Condesa – The Truth shall set you free!

I’ve been struggling with this review and sitting on it for quite a while now. As a food writer/criticon, I believe in writing about the whole experience – los sabores, impressions, feelings, attitudes – todo. I also believe food bloggers should be honest about their experiences and do it in a way that is constructive; helpful and honest. Just because something wasn’t just right doesn’t mean the place & the food sucks!

So here’s my take on La Condesa

A while back we stopped by on a Sunday morning looking for some downtown tacos. First off, the place is really nice, has modern Latin American feel to it & I hear the bar is really good. It was brunch time but we weren’t too hungry so we just ordered the Pot Belly taco plate. It was our only option. When the food arrived, it was definitely photo worthy. The tacos were dressed really nice with caramelized onions, cabbage, pineapple, cilantro & topped with a green salsa. What a picture! I was very excited to eat this little taco and yes, I do mean little – it was more of a callejero taco which are traditionally made with mini-tortillas. I was about to dig in until I saw little green bits of avocado on the salsa. Apparently, “sometimes the chef likes to add new ingredients to the food” as it comes out; before I ordered I checked to make sure there were no avocado ingredients in this taco – yes, I’m allergic – I know, lame. Anyjuays! They had to bring me another plate without the green killer!

Mira, que pretty!

Meanwhile, my taco buddies went to town on their tacos only to find out that they weren’t so good. They were super greasy and pretty much that ruined their experience. When I got my tacos, I was surprised that they just plopped down two little tortillas with meat on a small plate – no cebollitas, no cilantro, no cabbage – for some reason they didn’t feel like impressing this taco eater. As I picked up the taco to eat it, I did notice an overflow of grease dripping down towards my plate. Now don’t get me wrong, I love me a greasy pork taco but I expected more from this place. It was waaaay greasy. The kind that just sticks to the roof of your mouth and teef! I did let them know about their greasiness and the manager’s response was, “that’s how pot belly tacos are, they’re just greasy.” Now I know pork and I know greasy tacos, from homemade carnitas & chicharrones to tacos callejeros en el D.F. and I’ve never had tacos that greasy. I wouldn’t have minded the greasiness if the tacos weren’t 2 for $12! Yes, they’re 6 bucks a pop & they don’t even make their own tortillas. I’m sorry but if you’re going to charge me $6 for one taco, I’d expect to see La India Maria making the tortillas in kitchen!

La Graza!

They did apologize and offered to serve us something else from the menu but we had to go! At the end, they comp’d our meal so that made me feel better. Earlier I did talk with the chef and I asked him why it was so expensive and his reply was, “I gotta pay the bills.”

Well, that was few months ago. I’ve heard mix reviews but I do hope they’ve improved on their prices and tacos!

1.5 Stars (only because it was comp'd)

@elmundodemando

La Condesa

512-499-0300

400 A West 2nd Street

Austin, TX 78701

Tuesday, August 11

El Taco Rico in East-East Austin

There’s no betta way to cool down than to show up to a parking lot of an old laundromat, walk up in the hot pavement of the newest taco truck in East Austin, sit down in a bench with zero shade and eat us some tacos! Yeah, it really didn’t cool us down but the tacos were good! El Taco Rico is a new taco truck in the Montopolis neighborhood – it’s the bright blue one with no name on it, it’s just blue. It’s in the corner of Vargas Rd & Felix Avenue.

So last week, we ventured into deep East Austin with $4 in cash – luckily, our friend Tony (Mr. Money-Bags!) was with us and we managed to have enough for a good sampling (suadero, fajita, chicharron, bean and cheese, al pastor), shared two Mexican Cokes + tip, and a pleasant conversation with Yolanda (♫Sabes que te quiero♫), the charismatic taco queen. Yes, you guessed it, like most small taco joints in Austin, this place has a puro effectivo policy – cash only!

We got our tacos made with fresh corn tortillas – yes they make them on the spot! We kinda had to guess the suadero from the fajita to the al pastor since our orders were combinadas. The suadero was good – kind of like a crunchy brisket. The al pastor had a unique sabor to it – not a traditional al pastor – it was more tame, less Achiote. I really liked the beans – they were creamy and fresh. The chicharron was pretty good too if you could get passed the soft texture of pork rind. They also had a good green and creamy salsa with a kick. Overall, we had some ricos tacos!


Striking a pose: Yolanda and her taco assistant.

So why don’t you venture into East East Austin to the Montopolis area, where you can find a nice blue taco truck with no name on it. Ask for El Taco Rico!

3.5 Estrellas - El Mundo de Mando

El Taco Rico

Hours: Tues – Friday 11am – 10pm

Saturday & Sunday 8am – 10am

810 Vargas Road

Austin, TX 78741