Rating:
Upon the half-assed recommendation of my roommate, I decided to make a saturday afternoon trip to local east-side old timer Nuevo Leon for the first time. I could tell from his half-assedness that I was taking a gamble.The ridiculuous blue sign outside the restaurant was almost enough to turn me around—but the parking lot was full of nice, shiny, expensive looking vehicles. Could this be the east side taco den of the rich and famous? I boldly threw caution to the lion on the big blue sign out front and swaggered inside. Upon entrance, the trap was sprung. As we were escorted to our table in the back room, I noticed the biggest room was full of what look like a seriously rockin’ bat mitzvah. This would explain the full parking lot, as opposed my guess about the popularity of the restaurant.

Truly, Nuevo Leon is the Matt’s El Rancho of the east. I prefer to think that the metaphor speaks for itself. Could I really have been so stupid as to expect authentic Mexican food from a place that proudly displayed such a stupid sign! What kind of a name is “new lion” anyway?! I berated myself as I poured over the menu. Clearly, the signature dish was the beef taco plate, which contained a box around it on the menu to signify its importance. Merritt was there recently and told me that his beef tacos were “f*cking great” and tasted “amazing”, with double wrapped corn tortillas lightly fried.(sidenote: apparently the margaritas are also “strong as f*ck”). You’ll have to take his word for that, as we had neither beef tacos or margaritas.

The salsa was respectable, and for reference was almost identical to the salsa found at Maudie’s (except the spiciness was closer to that found at the lake Austin Maudie’s, rather than the painfully fiery concoction found at the S. Lamar Maudie’s). I asked our waiter which of the many items I should order that contained grilled chicken. He proceeded to tell me that I should get chicken fajita tacos. I ordered chicken fajita tacos. He then told me that chicken fajita tacos were not on the menu. I asked once again if I could order chicken fajita tacos. He calmly told me that I could not. We met in the middle and I ordered chicken fajitas. He then launched into an odd diatribe about how he liked to call himself the “chicken man”, and how he especially liked eating cooked chicken at home. This might have been amusing and cute if there was a spanglish language barrier, but seeing as he was very gringo it was odd and kind of scary. We smiled and nodded, and thankfully he left.

The food arrived in a reasonable amount of time, and we were both glad to have added a single tamale to our order as this was the best part of either meal. Moist, meaty, salty, and spiced to perfection—quite a treat. Sadly, the same could not be said of the rest. My chicken fajitas were tough little nuggets, with sparse peppers and onions. The rice and beans were standard, no more and no less. I was glad to see fresh pico de gallo, and homemade guacamole on my plate— rounding out a respectable deal on a ten dollar plate of fajitas. The tortillas were an embarrassment. The flour tortillas, whose asymmetry suggested that they were made on site, were literally dry to the point of crunchiness. The corn tortillas were clearly store bought and were average at best. Drew got the Frank’s sour cream sauce chicken enchiladas. To say he was disappointed would be an understatement, and truly I must admit his plate looked pretty pathetic. The sour cream sauce was so thin that it was translucent, and he had to cover his enchiladas in salsa to get any flavor at all. Judging from the size of the place and the size of the staff, this place must do a very respectable amount of business. Was I asking for trouble going in at mid-afternoon on a Saturday? Of course I was, I’m no sucka and I know that’s one of the worst times to get a decent meal anywhere. But restaurateurs beware, tacotown doesn’t take siestas, and you would much rather have a happy tacogod than a vengeful tacogod.

Quality: 5/10
Service: 7/10 (other staff members made up for our server’s, big ups to the 90 year old guy who was all over my water like yellow on spanish rice)
Atmosphere: 6/10 (bonus points for the nice patio overlooking that great train station park that no one ever uses on east 5^th)
Salsa: 5/10
Price: 6/10 (very reasonable considering the competition, but not exactly cheap)

Rating:

Nuevo Leon
1501 E. 6^th St
512-479-0097

www.nuevoleoninaustin.com