Overall I had a good first experience at Bel Air. I popped in for lunch during the week between their soft open and grand opening. On Tuesdays and Thursdays they have a great deal where select tacos and tamales are a mere $2, and if you order three or more you get rice and beans for free. Six bucks for a full meal sounded like a good enough deal for me!
I opted for the spicy pollo taco, the soy chorizo taco, and the black bean & corn tamale. My favorite of the three was the spicy pollo taco. It had a nice kick in the back of the throat without burning your tongue, which was nice and unexpected. The soy chorizo taco was okay, but I prefer a jolt of flavor. I love the soyrizo from Trader Joe's and I was a little bummed the Bel Air take had no spice to it. The tamale was a disappointment; it was almost completely masa and the filling was mostly long, limp leaves of spinach or kale or other green. There was no mention stewed greens in the description so I'm not sure, but I didn't care for it. Also, two tablespoons of filling wasn't nearly enough for the amount of crust.
I really liked the rice and black beans that came with the meal, and the chips and salsa trio that came before the meal was a great snack to enjoy while waiting for our plates. The horchata wasn't too sweet and could use a little more cinnamon for my personal preferences, but at $2.50 was a good deal.
Service was beyond what I'd expect for being open only a week; the server was very knowledgable about the menu and was able to describe several dishes without just parroting back what was written in the descriptions. Recommendations weren't upsells and it was evident she truly enjoyed the food as opposed to just pushing product. The only hiccup was that the check was dropped off without a pen and no one ever came back to the table. I eventually flagged down another server to borrow one and in the grand scheme of things it wasn't a huge deal because I wasn't in a rush to leave.
Since I hit them early into their operation I didn't have to wait for a table; I'm curious what wait times are like now that word's gotten out. I'll have to go back for lunch again to check!