After considering several spots along the Burnet/Allandale corridor, some of which were closed by 8:00pm on a Sunday night, we settled on the #3 Taquería Arandas. It's one of those brightly-lit, brightly-tiled places with lots of posters with advertisements for American beers featuring Mexican pop stars. The menu was pretty standard for its genre, and included all the usual tacos, tortas, enchiladas, lengua, and imported Mexican Coca-Cola. It was conveniently printed in both Spanish and English - a great Spanish lesson while your mouth waters.
These enchiladas were great - not excellent, but solidly, predictably great. The sauce/cheese ratio was just about right. As you can see, they were very cheesy, but the sauce swam around the rolls, and the cheese was the white Mexican variety, rather than the Tex-Mex processed-American-cheese-product variety. The cheese inside was a little chewy, but this was more than made up for by the fact that the cheese in question was so good. The salsa verde was excellent - not the flavor-masking, overly hot type that you often run into when eating breakfast tacos on the street. It was warm, not hot, but still had a typical verde flavor to it - and it was pleasantly tangy, as well. Great texture, great color, great taste. So even though these were straight-up cheese enchiladas, without even the crunch of onions, they didn't bore the Field Marshal. She ate all three of them, save one bite.
The sides were, as usual, not really anything special. Although I think the Arandas beans have the edge over most other run-of-the-mill restaurants. They had a little more flavor than the bare minimum, and complemented the rest of the plate nicely. The rice was just right, as well - typical Spanish rice, with added vegetables (corn, the odd pea, etc.).
Despite suffering the substandard tortilla chip affliction, Arandas' chips and salsa were excellent. The salsa was hot, chunky-yet-liquid, and had visible cilantro sprinkled throughout each bite. This is the type of place that pours salsa out of plastic gallons, and probably the type of place that sells the stuff by the gallon. And it would be worth buying.
They also serve gigantic glasses of Dr Pepper - probably 50+ ounces. And the service was good without being intrusive.
Rating: 4/5
Taquería Arandas #3
I ordered my 2005/06 standby, enchiladas verdes, and I was not disappointed.
These enchiladas were great - not excellent, but solidly, predictably great. The sauce/cheese ratio was just about right. As you can see, they were very cheesy, but the sauce swam around the rolls, and the cheese was the white Mexican variety, rather than the Tex-Mex processed-American-cheese-product variety. The cheese inside was a little chewy, but this was more than made up for by the fact that the cheese in question was so good. The salsa verde was excellent - not the flavor-masking, overly hot type that you often run into when eating breakfast tacos on the street. It was warm, not hot, but still had a typical verde flavor to it - and it was pleasantly tangy, as well. Great texture, great color, great taste. So even though these were straight-up cheese enchiladas, without even the crunch of onions, they didn't bore the Field Marshal. She ate all three of them, save one bite.
The sides were, as usual, not really anything special. Although I think the Arandas beans have the edge over most other run-of-the-mill restaurants. They had a little more flavor than the bare minimum, and complemented the rest of the plate nicely. The rice was just right, as well - typical Spanish rice, with added vegetables (corn, the odd pea, etc.).Despite suffering the substandard tortilla chip affliction, Arandas' chips and salsa were excellent. The salsa was hot, chunky-yet-liquid, and had visible cilantro sprinkled throughout each bite. This is the type of place that pours salsa out of plastic gallons, and probably the type of place that sells the stuff by the gallon. And it would be worth buying.
They also serve gigantic glasses of Dr Pepper - probably 50+ ounces. And the service was good without being intrusive.
Rating: 4/5
Taquería Arandas #3
6534 Burnet Rd
Austin, TX 78757
(512) 452-9886
Austin, TX 78757
(512) 452-9886
3 comments:
Lard. The beans probably had lard. It makes everything better.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. But I was afraid saying it would make it true.
go to juan in a million on the east side!
Post a Comment