We were lucky to have some old friends in town last weekend (whatup T$!).  So, we figured, “what’s a fitting way to mark such a special ocassion?  How bout an amazing Brunch at one of Austin’s most influential eateries: FONDA SAN MIGUEL?”  Just off Burnet on Hancock in North Central Austin, FSM is a tour de force of traditional Mexican and South American cooking. Let’s eat!

Various botanitas

Everything is served buffet-style out of huge clay pots and antique mexican vats.   There’s always 4 or 5 main entrees, in addition to a variety of fresh fruits and veggies, escabeche, side items, migas, ceviche, homemade tortillas, and a full bar ($3 mimosas hit the spot).  And, if you leave any room in your gut, the gourmet desserts will seal the deal.

Some particularly GREAT items were:
The Carne Guisada: a juicy and flavorful classic executed perfectly- the sauce was less of a gravy, more of a rich broth.

The Corn Polenta: sweet and creamy with thick crust – perfect with a dollop of sour cream and rajas.

Pollo en mole Poblano: classic dish – rich and complex.  Very satifying….recipe here

Bread Pudding: sweet nirvana

Price was a bit steep at $40/each, but the ambiance was top-notch (they had a mariachi band playing beautifully harmonized love songs – none of that la cucaracha bullshit) and nobody hits the real mexican cuisine in ATX like Fonda.  The whole building is like an art museum…if you haven’t been yet, i’d suggest taking the folks out for brunch, or maybe a special date for your pumpkin face.

Cabeza like.

Fonda San Miguel
2330 W North Loop Blvd, Austin, TX?
(512) 459-4121
<map> <website>

another day, another taco…made the short trek up slopac to where it hits Burnet.. the newest Tacodeli resides there in a fresh new urban-sprawl strip center.. we walked in to find a decent size late lunch crowd..the cute girl at the counter was nice enough… guiding us through the menu of gringo-inspired tacos, tortas, and burritos..  I ordered a blue plate (2 tacos, rice and beans) with 1 cowboy taco and 1 pork mole taco.. we got a basket of chips and salsa to start things off.. the red sauce with the chips was phenomonal.. i mean it.. it was a great red sauce.. i think may have been some chipotle in it.. highly reccommended..

Our tacos came.. we got a little bit of the hot jalapeno-avocado sauce on the side to kick up the heat factor.. I started with the cowboy taco which was Cowboy-rubbed Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Caramelized Onions, Grilled Corn, Roasted Peppers topped with Guacamole & Queso Fresco. It was a big, hearty taco with nice and fresh ingredients, but i couldnt handle the intense garlic flavor.. it was intense to the point of being bitter.. i like my garlic sweet.. so maybe this was an anomaly.. hopefully..it was, after all named in the list of great tacos that just came out in Texas Monthly..
the pork mole taco on the other hand was sweet and tender.. succulent.. it was a great taco. their mole sauce is uniquely sweet and mild.. not bad at all. the queso fresco that is sprinkle on top of most tacos is a nice touch..

overall, a good, cheap meal.. plenty of variety to keep us coming back.

Tacodeli North

12001 Burnet Road
Austin,TX 78758
(512) 339-1700

www.tacodeli.com

Rating: Food Quality: 7
Service: 8 (its a counter but they bring it out to you and get you anything else you need..)
Atmosphere: 6 (a bit sterile..but nice enough)
Salsa: 8
Price: 7 Total: 36/50: 72%
Rating: 3.6 out of 5 stars

taco deli on Yelp

La Parilla

So we made it a point this week to go exploring the north side of the ATX… in search of hidden gems.. hoping to strike mexi-gold. It was a trying experience for us..we hit Lamar at 2222 and headed north.. past Los Jefes, our last bad north lamar experience, north past 183.. and then we saw Mr. Pollo.. looked tempting so we parked it and started walking in.. only to be stopped in our tracks by 2 dudes walking out, claiming that they’d been burned! we had to take their word for it.. they seemed like dependable taco loving jerks (pictured at right), so we got back in the car and continued north..

beware

the next place we saw was called Tacolate.. it was what looked to be a former Micky-D’s building.. we were hungry as f*ck so our judgement was thoroughly impaired at this point..and mind you it was 30 degrees and windy outside so we shuffled in looking for a warm meal.. inside the place was dead.. a few meats under a heat lamp.. a few hispanic dudes looking at us suspiciously..the heater in there was apparently broke since it was the same temp as we had just walked out of.. we took in the vibe for a minute or so while the lady at the counter ignored us.. then we turned around and walked out.. strike 2 for north lamar.. damn.. this is why i call it south round rock.. it really doesnt deserve to be considered Austin in some respects.. weak..but we tredged on in search of a hot meal..we were considering chinese at this point..
so we continued up the way until we saw a nice looking restaurant in a strip mall.. La Parilla.. this looks a little more respectable. .they had holiday airbursh art in the windows.. a big screen with saucy telenovelas.. a light crowd.. a full bar.. nice.. this place has promise.. we get the chips and salsa.. a warm orange-red suace.. very mild, but tasty nonetheless. decent chips..

the menu is pretty big.. lots of choices.. and i was still hungry as f*ck so I had a hard time deciding.. but for some reason I settled on the shrimp chile relleno.. food came about 10 min later.. Cabeza got an assortment of items.. a pastor gordita, a carne guisada taco, and a regular crispy beef taco.. Whiskydick got the mole chicken..everything looked pretty good… colorful dishes indeeed..

Shrimp Chile Relleno

I dug into the chile relleno.. it struck me that the red sauce surrounding it was a little watery.. the shrimp inside was plentyful, but they were the tiny popcorn shrimp variety.. not what I expected for some reason.. kinda dissappointed, but it tasted good enough and I was hungry as f*ck.. I ate on..

Cabeza didnt have anything good to say about his tacos.. the pastor tasted OK to me.. it was very red, which was strange.. too red. he had a general blah review for everything on his plate..

cabeza's assortment of fail

the mole sauce on the chicken was bunk.. it was obviously hershey’s syrup and a couple of other spices.. weak… dont think Whiskeydick could even eat it all…

I kept at my chile relleno..finishing my plate, and I payed for it.. with my bowels.. it was poporn shrimp overdose.. and you should know by now that my stomach can handle almost anything… the walk out to the car was utterly painful..

overall, it wasnt quite strike 3.. more of an infield popup.. I am just a little ashamed that north austin can’t represent.. I mean La Parilla is probly one of the best joints on north lamar.. and it sucked..so I will continue to call north lamar South Round Rock until someone proves me wrong and can present me with a decent mexi-meal up there.. dont worry.. I wont give up the search… a true taco explorer presses on thru the sleet and snow..

La Parrilla
9515 N Lamar Blvd Ste 102
Austin, TX 78753-4124View Map
512-491-9414

the score:
Atmosphere: 7 (nice digs)
Salsa: 6 (ok)
Service: 5 (blah)
Food Quality: 5 (blah)
Price: 6 (pretty cheap esp lunch specials)

Total 29/50 Rating: 2.9 out of 5 stars

Location: Arboretum area just West of the Arbor 7 cinema intersecting rice and beans.

This ain’t no roach party, this ain’t no shithole, and these folks definetly ain’t foolin’ around! So I’ve been living in Austin now for 7 years and am dumbfounded at how I’ve walked by this utopia of belly bliss probably well over 30 times after watching a movie and never walked in. All those times I could have left the theater to fill up and refuel after landing my butt in the theater the whole day gone to waste! Well those days are distant memories from now on because I’ve just had an epiphany due to sensory pallette overload!

Let’s start off first by mentioning the fact that I was turned off by the idea of eating anything after a bad taste in my mouth was already left by a terrible movie a buddy and I had just witnessed. Along with the headache from the marathon winning performance on the town the night before, I was in no shape to eat, especially at an upper scale, snazzy, public place with a woman with a chiwawa in her purse telling me to drink Scope rather than a margarita.

Anyhow, as soon as we walked up to the door the calming sound of the water leaving an infants weiner at the fountain immediately began to soothe my temples. Added with the sight of two devilish looking hostesses, I knew that no matter what I ordered, if I looked at them while eating, my food would taste good (maybe a torta).

The long foreplay before the food arrived was hard to get thru, but boy when it finally came, my taste buds exploded! I ordered the mole chicken enchiladas and I don’t even care what my buddy ordered because I knew without looking at his food that I won. The perfect mixture of sweetness and zing in the sauce covering white shredded chicken wrapped in homemade corn tortillas was exactly what my stomach needed. Along with the standard rice and beans to compliment, I was full and found the mexican version of BBQ’s famed mud butt label. Fast forward 30 minutes later……..zzzzzzz’s.

i love you curras
the mayan temple of pastor
and pork tamales with mole sauce

i just got back from lunch there and my mouth is still watering
not sure if i’ve reviewed them before , but the tamale plate is enormous!
6 tamales, each weigh in at about 1 lb. rice, beans, and sauce – get the mole sauce. .it will change your fucking life,..

trust me.

evan got the grilled tuna special and got burned..which is rare for that place.. try the mole dammit.