this beef fajita meat is pretty good, substantial chunks, unlike say, the kind of thin-strip jerky shank you tend to get from Arandas and its clones. The meat was marinated and cooked right, so the flavor and tenderness were there. this could be the best thing on Maudies menu besides the standby tex-mex enchiladas..

originally posted 10/31/06.. this review is in issue 61 of the Austin Daze! Check it out..
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
South 1st street in the ATX: Taco Row, The Isle of Mex, whatever you wanna call it, you could slip on an enchilada and fall into basket of tacos one step off the sidewalk. This is where the taco obsession started for me, my taco homeland. I used to work in an office at Monroe and South 1st.. come lunch time every day, we would choose the next restaurant in line.. El Mercado, Jovita’s, Little Mexico, La Reyna, La Mexicana Bakery, Aranada’s #5, and of course, Polvo’s…

Polvo’s is about a “South Austin” as you can get.. Its not overly-trendy by any means.. it is real. The decor is funky and colorful.. the patio is always crowded and the wait staff is laid back and helpful. Its where the real Austinites go to eat. Its a great place to have some drinks, you’ll probably run in to an old friend and see a semi-famous Austinite or two there as well. The food is not tex-mex, rather, it is mostly authentic central mexican dishes, they are known for their fish tacos.

The salsa bar is there right when you walk inside, a round ice trough with 4 or 5 fresh salsas there for the tasting. Grab a bowl and see how many varieties you can carry back to your table without having an accident. My favorite is the dark red roaste ancho salsa.. its the perfect amount of tangy-spicy-ness. don’t forget to try the free escebeche… pickled carrots and jalapenos…tasty.

On this particular day, I was in the mood to sample some new stuff. I decided to order 3 different tacos..one beef fajita, a chicken mole, and a pastor taco with rice and beans to complete the meal. My runnin pardner, Cabeza, ordered the fish encholadas with the cartuja pipien sauce, which is a rich almond creme sauce that I have sampled in the past.. Its an amazing sauce that you have to try to understand.

Food came. My tacos looked beautiful, large, and steaming hot. The homemade corn tortillas were everything they should be, dense and strong enough to survive a large amount of fillings without cracking or getting too soggy. they are damn near perfect in that they dont distract you from the taco fillings. I went for the chicken mole taco. It was tasty, with shredded chicken and a generous amount of mole sauce drizzled on top. I keep trying mole in this town and I am always led back to Curra’s.. if you dig mole – its my hands down favorite. Polvo’s mole was respectable, but not worthy of much praise from Chappy.

The highlight of my taco triage was most certainly the beef fajita.. it was amazing.. the beef was marinated and cooked to perfection.. tender and exploding with flavor.. the grilled pablano peppers mixed in were a pleasant counterpart to the beef. I was having a taste bud oragasm eating this taco. I was not expecting this at all.. most the time the beef fajita meat is a standard afterthought, but here, and in the late afternoon no less, the beef fajita was the shining light of taco beauty that made Chappy want to die and ascend into the the heavens while eating on the last bite. I’m not kidding.

Cabeza’s fish enchiladas where a very respectable runner up to the beef fajita taco. FYI – a past highlight of the menu has been the exotic tacos – where you can get the aforementioned Almond Creme Sauce on an open face tortilla with your choice of meat.. its cheap and huge – 1 taco is enough for a meal.
All in all, a great Polvo’s experience. Another reason why I love this town. There are endless opportunities for fearless taco explorers to roam the streets in search of mexi-perfection. On this day, I succeeded.

Polvo’s Mexican Restaurant
2004 S 1st St (Cross Street: W Johanna Street)
Austin, TX 78704 View Map
(512) 441-5446

The Score:
Food: 9 (quality across the board)
Salsa: 8 (great salsas – good variety)
Tortillas: 8(perfect corn, standard flour)
Price: 8 (cheap meal)
Service: 7 (sometimes slow, but always friendly)

total: 80%
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Carne guisada is one of my favorite dishes.. its a mexican beef stew with a spicy kick that goes great as taco and burrito filling or just in a bowl like chili.. I tried my hand at making it on superbowl sunday thanks to inspiration from a recipe post on the Homesick Texan (one of my favorite food blogs!).  Lisa’s recipe served as the jumping off point for my creation.. I went with an orange and yellow theme – yellow tomatoes, carrots (to give it more of the pot roast vibe),  no onions, a lot of garlic, and then I kicked it up the scoville units with the slow burn of habanero peppers! I let it stew in my crock pot for about 6 hours… bring in the taco cabana tortillas, avocado slices and fresh cilantro on special teams.. then turned the Chippys loose on my creation at the super 43 bowl party..

I was lucky enough to discover this 24-hr drive thru taco shop directly across from the my motel in Tempe, AZ.. after a long night of playing and a hearty helping of booze, this place might as well have been the pearly gates of taco heaven.. we ordered a whole mess of regular beef tacos – these are deep fried tacos – similar to the kind you may have tried from jack in tha box, only these suckers are made with love and cooked to perfection.. the beef is shredded and savory.. the cheese is american, grated and generously applied to said tacos.. bottom line: these are the best tacos anyone could ever want at 3 in the morning.. toeing the line between heaven and hell..this food was sinful , greasy, delicious, perfection..
[more pics after the jump]

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

your tacos are only as good as your late afternoon chef’s meth buzz.

the shell’s that had once been immaculate were now over-grilled on grill that was too hot.. you could taste the smoke.. and the beef that was once savory was now a dolop of jerky chaw.. dissappointment.. i thought we’d found a winner, but you gots to try it more than once before you can hand out a crown.. and get the word out – tacotown eats late lunches..we dont tolerate slouching during that 2-5pm window.

my ratings after furthur review:

price: 7
salsa: 5
service: 5
food quality: 7
atmosphere: 6

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars