Rating:
Okay, just the goods.This joint is right behind my house, at Berkman & Briarcliff Dr. (on da East Side near ol’ Mueller Airport) I say joint cuz the name translates to “the Big House”. Don’t be fooled- their food does NOT taste like prison food. Quite the contrary.Casa Grande is a classic Mexican meat market/grocery store. The great thing about these places is, they’ve also got a discotecca (Record Store) inside, and a cowboy hat store, and a clothing store, and a check cashing place, and they sell phone cards. Its great- like a little tejano mall. But the best part is the Taqueria, located to the left as soon as you enter.

This particular day, I had the honor of dining with the venerable Marvin Pair (a man well versed in the exotic world of mystery tacos.) We sat there for about 5 minutes trying to talk to the lady behind the counter (who no speaka engles) before we figured out the procedure- turns out you have to order your food from the check out isle over by the groceries, then your order gets relayed to the lady behind the taqueria. The nubile Mexican princess at the check out booth actually spoke a few words in broken English, so we were reasonable sure we’d odered the beef fajita plate. I think it cost $7 total for the 2 plates. Cheap as dirt.

On to the food- Be warned- they pile a bed of cilantro and onions on top of everything here, so if you’re not down with that, just say “no celantra o cebellos” or your favorite spanglish insult. I learned the hard way. but after pushing most of it off, I found a heaping mound of mouthwatering, flavorful beef fajitas. they are more like a marinated bistek a la mexicana with plenty of zesty sauce . Tender, decent cuts, not too fatty. The rice and beans were hot and more than adequate. The tortillas were homemade, and they are FUCKING AWESOME. corn and flour are both excellent. they didn’t give us any salsa, though. that was kind of a bummer. But we left very satisfied.

The other stuff on the menu is ayones guess. I saw some wierd shit behind the glass, and I’m not brave enough to try most of it. But at least I found one tasty stalwart, that should keep me coming back.

Another notch in the belt for the Cabeza.

Quality: 7.5
Price: 9
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 7 (for the nubiles)
Salsa: N/A, so I’ll substitute another category…
tortillas: 9

Rating:
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