I dunno about these “metrics” – for eg every hole in the wall, excellent Mexican place I’ve been to in San Diego has combo plates. What else to do if you’re 1 person with a hankering for a tamal and an enchilada both? lol.
I didn’t see much of anything I didn’t know already.
That said, I’ve had mediocre Mexican food at places where none of these apply, either.
The article was written by a former beauty writer from London who apparently now lives in Dubai. The Takeout used to have good writers, but is entirely clickbait now.
Agreed.
You should be able to tell when you’re in a bad Mexican restaurant long before you see the yellow cheese or taste the weird guacamole.
If the menu is in Spanish, Univision is on the TV, and the clientele is primarily Mexican, it’s probably authentic. (Oh, and if the tacos use soft tortillas and come with radish slices and grilled spring onions, that’s another good sign.)
Curious why you posted it then?
The whole making the tortillas on premises thing is kind of ridiculous. It’s a lot of labor, especially for a small business. There are many local producers in areas with Mexican populations, and they make excellent tortillas.
A friend of mine owns two (really good IMO) taquerias in NYC, and he gets tortillas from a place like this. He gets them fresh daily, and they are better that what can be made in volume in the restaurant’s small kitchen.
Yes! Or playing cheesy Mexican music on the TV 
Because the subject is a good one, however silly this particular article is.
I appreciate that our collective knowledge will weigh in.
That’s why I rarely comment on the initial post so as not to influence the ensuing discussion.
The sort of backhanded measure: If lengua is among the meat choices, the restaurant can’t be bad. You’ll find something you like, even if you don’t order lengua.
I had never thought about it in those terms, but that’s probably a pretty reliable indicator!
For the giggles, right @bbqboy ?
I have had bad lengua, when the cooks are undertrained! There is a huge demand for Mexican Mexican food in Toronto, for a recent Mexican client base, and some of it is not too good, or well prepared, despite having the right stuff on the menu.
Some of the carnitas and tacos al pastor in Toronto are really tough. Or pastor featuring unripe pineapple. Beginner mistakes. I suspect we don’t have enough excellent cooks and chefs getting into the business at the affordable price point.
That’s on el jefe/la jefa. Boss thought to offer the delicacy, boss is accountable for staff performance – as in all businesses.
That might be the case but I think most of the bullet points are actually quite accurate, e.g. sour cream, yellow cheese, in-house made tortillas, combo plates
It might be more regional thing but it is perhaps one of the better indicators here in California. There are plenty of good commercially available tortillas but really good places always make their own tortillas as it is still a different level than what they can buy
Since you can get lengua here pretty much everywhere I would say tripa is more indicative (not so different from Chinese restaurants)
Yeah. When Gawker got sued out of existence thanks to a petty billionaire who didn’t like that people could write about him (Peter Thiel, who made his fortune w PayPal, along with that other paragon of humanity, Elon Musk), all their verticals went to shit after being bought out by a bunch of vulture capitalists that hollowed them out into clickbait farms that are now probably also pushing a bunch of AI slop.
Some of them have been bought by Paste media and are starting to become readable again: AVClub, Jezebel, and, I think, Splinter. Others have been sold off to various other “Who’s who of Who’s that?” Media companies, including The Takeout and Gizmodo.
Others have seen their staffs more or less up and leave en masse to form paywalled or semi-paywalled rivals: Deadspin staff went to form Defector, and the central Jalopnik staff are all now at The Autopian.
I wish there was another food/restaurant site for interested non-industry folks. Eater coverage for major cities is the best you’ll get these days, AFAIK.
If someone has other suggestions, I’d love to hear them.
With the recent layoffs at Vox, Eater has become more or less just regular posts about “lists” and restaurant PR. Best food coverage (but still not great even compared to 5 years ago) tend to be large local newspapers
This is how I feel about dumpling skins at Chinese restaurants.
If you’re not making your own, you’re not getting my patronage.
No exceptions.
