As an Angeleno, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Vida holds its own against some of the better taco places in LA. Sure, it's not Grand Central Market where there's sawdust on the floor and a guy in a stand serves you one pound cabeza tacos on a double layer of freshly made corn tortillas, but this is the Epicenter of Uptown Charlotte, NC. I wasn't expecting much. In fact, from the outside, I thought I was going to get stuck with overpriced, Americanized Mexican food. I was mistaken.
My colleagues and I ended up splitting an order of the guacamole. $8.99 seemed mighty pricey at first, but they give you a veritable fuck ton of it in a mortar-style bowl and it was friggin delicious. Granted, it wasn't made fresh at the table (oh how I wish it was), but it was very nice. Lots of avocado, both on the front of the palate from the first bite and also in the large chunks that were mixed in.
I ordered a lunch special of the house salad plus a carnitas taco. The salad was above average, with a healthy mix of greens, a slice of avocado and some corn. The black beans + rice was surprisingly tasty, maybe even ranking near the top of what I've had. Black beans especially were sinfully fatty.
The taco was excelente. Carnitas were tender and full of juicy flavor, showing that they had indeed been marinated and then cooked over several hours. The tortilla was warm and melted in my mouth. If it wasn't made fresh that day, it sure tasted like it.
Overall, the lunch was fairly light: one medium-sized taco, a small mix of rice and beans and a small house salad. Were it not for the guacamole, I would have walked away feeling pretty good about my portions.
Will I race back here? Probably not. But it's a solid place to have lunch or dinner... and I'm dying to try out their tequila selection.