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| - Today was opening day at Que Onda. I've been anxiously awaiting the opening of this place for several weeks since I first heard about it. I'd seen today as their opening date but no information confirming this on their website or their facebook page. Hrm. Okay, so I called them to confirm, grabbed a lunch buddy and we made the several block walk down there.
The host promptly sat us, and the server was polite if not a bit overzealous at first. We got our drinks and were checking out the menu, he was good with the timing of giving us time to look but following up. The menu is pretty big, with a variety of items, mostly in the vein of authentic Mexican food, which I am a huge fan of. Today was also Taco Tuesday, $2 tacos! We both decided to get the taco deal since it would let us sample three different types of tacos for a really cheap lunch.
No chips and salsa were brought after several minutes, including up until after we had ordered, so we thought we weren't getting any. Some finally comes out, and the chips were good and fresh, and the salsa was good. I asked about spicy salsa and he brought out two types, a salsa verde and a habanero salsa. They were each in metal ramekin type containers that you would get ketchup in at a steakhouse. Both salsas were good, but I really enjoyed the habanero.
Problem was, the we got a portion of about half a ketchup container for two grown men, so I asked for more of the habanero, thinking he would bring out a larger portion. He brings out more, but it's just another tablespoon sized portion of the salsa! No biggie really, except that he didn't come back. Like, at all, for the rest of our meal.
A runner brings out our food, and the tacos look delicious. There is some onions and cilantro, but not as much as I am used to for Mexican street tacos. No limes either. WTF, have they ever had street tacos? I have, in Mexico... and around the US. Usually a good salsa verde, pepper based salsa, and limes come standard. Remember, we are out of our tablespoon of salsa.
Well, no one came by the entire time while we ate our meal. Not the runner, not our server, no one. I dutifully ate my tacos anyway, without spice or lime juice on them. My buddy and I agreed that the beef was the highlight of the three. It had good flavor and was tender, if not a bit overly juicy from the "braising."
The pork was good, mine was a tid bit on the dry side, he said his were fine. The flavor was good for the carnitas as well, again, a little light on onions and cilantro for what I'm used to and lacking the flare of lime and salsa, but the meat was decent.
My buddy actually got to the chicken taco before I did and he said he couldn't put his finger on it, but it tasted very plain. I pinned it down as soon as I took a bite of it. It tasted like a chicken breast, cooking in a crock pot full of water all day. It looked like it had spice on it, but it was basically completely devoid of all flavor. Just like, soppy, bland chicken nothingness. It was also supposed to have some sort of sourcream sauce on it, but we couldn't really taste it over the blandness of the chicken.
Not once did anyone ask us if we were okay or needed anything during our meal. I intentionally ate slow because I wanted limes and more salsa.
When we were finished, a busser came to the table and immediately took our glasses without asking if we wanted refills and then took our plates. They were empty, and to be honest, I could have used a little bit more before we left.
We then sat there for about five minutes, waiting for a check. Waiting.. Still waiting. No water... So finally, thankfully we had cash and we were able to just drop cash on the table to cover the tacos and the tip. Unless they charge for spicy salsa (which nowhere I'm aware of does) we still left a pretty decent tip even though the service got pretty bad once we ordered our food.
I'd be more inclined to chock up the service to opening day if they were really busy, but they weren't. The food on the other hand should have been perfect.
Tips to the restaurateur:
1) Guests who want spicy salsa want it to dip their chips in, make sure they get enough of it to do that.
2) All tacos at a place that claims to have Mexican street tacos should come with limes.
3) Please make sure we are taken care of on the service end.
Final Thoughts:
I will give it three stars and definitely come back to give it another chance, maybe even two, because I love tacos so much. Vida has been my go-to, but they aren't true authentic Mexican. True Taco is too expensive if you get chips and a drink. The rest of what uptown has is American crap. This place's mission is exactly what I've been looking for, it just didn't live up to the billing. I have no problems paying regular non-taco-Tuesday prices for good authentic Mexican tacos, but this place just isn't there yet. Hope y'all get it worked out.
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