That being said, here is the first taco review. Let's talk some taco.
Julia Blackbird:
Located in the very trendy Highlands area this "mother owned and operated" restaurant recently moved into a larger building to allow for all the awesome patrons that would come to demand "real northern new mexico home cooking." The ambiance is nice, very southwest, fairly obvious. We sat outside on the patio, it was nice, back off the street you couldn't hear much traffic, it was like being at someones home, kind of.
The food.
Simple, average at best. The guacamole was marginal, the queso was strikingly similar to velveeta and salsa casera, again like being at someones home. The tacos took forever to arrive, and there was only three other tables we saw. The entree included three mid-sized blue corn tortillas with tillapia, onion, tomato, queso fresco and a pound of salt. I would have taken a picture but the lighting sucked. Just like the tacos. Especially after paying as much as I did. I hate restaurants that think they can talk about all these fresh local ingredients, then you show up and they charge a crapload to oversalt, dry out and smother everything. Just because it is "mexican", or in this case "new mexican."
The ratings.
0 to 30, 10 possible points for each category.
Taste: 3, salt lick. My god, it's fish, how hard is it to fry tillapia?
Texture: 4, the tortillas were ok, but fell apart about two bites in.
Value: 1, I know it's my first taco for this blog, but it better be the most I pay for any taco. Period. Ridiculously expensive. Three tacos for over ten dollars. Also, the top shelf tequila was Patron. Patron. Call a liquor rep.
Redeeming qualities:
The staff was great, very accomodating, the place was clean, the drinks were good, although overpriced as well. It's mexican beer people, the whole point is that it's cheap and good. Also, they had Daniel Luna artwork all over, he is a real community artist and a talented painter. Pretty cool stuff.
