I'm fairly certain I nearly wet my pants when I stumbled across a Facebook post about this place. By "this place" I mean Maciel's Tortas and Tacos. It took the place of the little pizza shop between Flight and Family Dollar, near Main and Monroe. I saw the post about this place at roughly 4pm. I left work, near the airport, at 6:30pm. I placed a take-out order at 6:42pm. I do not fuck around when it comes to tacos, and I've REALLY been missing having a walkable mexican place downtown.
Rio Loco used to fill that void, but they tragically and unexpectedly just closed one day, never to return. The location is now Belle Diner.
When Agave Maria opened I was ecstatic. Until I went there. The food was ok but not amazing, and the place is drastically overpriced, at least in my opinion. Unless your name is Rick Bayless, I'm not going to pay you $15 for three 2" diameter tacos, thanks.
At long last though, it appears as if my own personal winter of discontent has ended. As I was saying before I started rambling, I ordered some food from Maciel's. The menu is pretty simple, tacos, quesadillas, nachos, salad, tortas. Add in some standard sides and a few deserts, and that's about it. The place is tiny, maybe 10 tables, and the kitchen is exposed. My order was ready when I arrived maybe 10 minutes after phoning in my order.
Wanting to try as much as possible, I got the spicy pork nachos, the tinga tacos, and the asada quesadilla. No I did not all finish it all, though I wanted to. I also received a couple of different kinds of sauce, a red sauce and a green sauce. This ran me a total of about $19. I left the change and $3 for a tip. Not bad at all!
I dove into the nachos first, lest they become soggy.
Rio Loco used to fill that void, but they tragically and unexpectedly just closed one day, never to return. The location is now Belle Diner.
When Agave Maria opened I was ecstatic. Until I went there. The food was ok but not amazing, and the place is drastically overpriced, at least in my opinion. Unless your name is Rick Bayless, I'm not going to pay you $15 for three 2" diameter tacos, thanks.
At long last though, it appears as if my own personal winter of discontent has ended. As I was saying before I started rambling, I ordered some food from Maciel's. The menu is pretty simple, tacos, quesadillas, nachos, salad, tortas. Add in some standard sides and a few deserts, and that's about it. The place is tiny, maybe 10 tables, and the kitchen is exposed. My order was ready when I arrived maybe 10 minutes after phoning in my order.
Wanting to try as much as possible, I got the spicy pork nachos, the tinga tacos, and the asada quesadilla. No I did not all finish it all, though I wanted to. I also received a couple of different kinds of sauce, a red sauce and a green sauce. This ran me a total of about $19. I left the change and $3 for a tip. Not bad at all!
I dove into the nachos first, lest they become soggy.
I'm gonna be totally honest here. I was absolutely starving, so for the first half of the nachos the only thing my brain registered was "OM NOM NOM NOM NOM". I wasn't paying attention to the sauce, or the cheese, or the chips, or really anything other than the fact that it was tasty. I guess that's not really a bad thing to say about a dish. Once I slowed down a bit I started to actually pay attention to the elements. The pork was a very nice level of spice for me. You could certainly taste it, but it wasn't overpowering. By the time I got my wits about me the sauce and cheese were mixed together. I guess I'll just have to order them again to suss out the different elements. Oh the horror! Oh, and I didn't ask, but I'm fairly certain the chips are made in house, you get some odd ones like a few that stuck together during frying.
Even if they aren't made in house, they're certainly fresh made somewhere near by, and they're pretty damn tasty.
I went with the taco next. I got a Tinga (spicy chicken) taco. It was pretty stellar. Spicy flavorful chicken with nice texture, double corn tortilla, onion, cilantro, and a couple of limes. Simple and tasty. I will be consuming these in very large numbers while hungover. (Except they aren't open on Sunday, my most likely hangover day, grrrr)
I went with the taco next. I got a Tinga (spicy chicken) taco. It was pretty stellar. Spicy flavorful chicken with nice texture, double corn tortilla, onion, cilantro, and a couple of limes. Simple and tasty. I will be consuming these in very large numbers while hungover. (Except they aren't open on Sunday, my most likely hangover day, grrrr)
Last came the quesadilla. I was really impressed with the quality of the steak. A lot of the cheaper Mexican places seem to serve canner quality steak that's like 90% gristle. The steak in the quesadilla was very tender and flavorful. It also came with beans and rice, which was a surprise. It shouldn't have been, since it says on the menu "served with beans and rice", but I guess I can't read, so it did.
I used the one piece of quesadilla I ate to test the sauces.
The green is super tasty. Vegetal, very mild heat, lots of flavor. The red will creep up on you. It doesn't really seem hot but after a few bites you find your mouth on fire. I LOVE it.
I fully intend to explore their menu (I need tres leches in my life very soon, and I mean it's my journalistic duty to at least try a torta, right?), but my first impressions are very positive. The food is quality, the service is very friendly, the prices are reasonable. Start opening on Sunday and delivering and I'll be looking for a treadmill.
I fully intend to explore their menu (I need tres leches in my life very soon, and I mean it's my journalistic duty to at least try a torta, right?), but my first impressions are very positive. The food is quality, the service is very friendly, the prices are reasonable. Start opening on Sunday and delivering and I'll be looking for a treadmill.