Tijuana Authority? Tasty Apps? Taco Ass (the worst of all afflictions)? Actually, I think it’s some fancy-schmancy, shortened form of “taqueria,” which is, apparently, a joint that serves tacos. Oh crap–it’s tacocina! The word is right there in plain sight. This kind of overthinking is exactly why I do poorly on standardized testing. Tacos, you say? What a unique thing for a Mexican restaurant to serve. I was expecting, perhaps, a nice knish or maybe a nibble of a hot pastrami on Jewish rye. Yeah, I knew I was in for Mexican the entire time, but it’s fun to fuck around, isn¬t it? So, what I did encounter is in stark contrast to TA Cocina’s express space, which is kind of a dump-ish to go joint. This, their main restaurant, is actually not terrible, and has some funkiness to it that is, honestly, somewhat surprising. What was not surprising, however, was the complete lack of care by our waitress. It still amazes me that in a city like New York–certainly a service oriented city–that the service just sucks so badly in so many places. The neato tables with the beans and stuff under Plexiglas can’t fool me into having a good time as I wait a half-hour at lunch for my taco plate while my soda goes flat and the chip basket is filled with nothing but crumbs and bits of salt. The food–when it finally arrived–was certainly edible, but nothing earth-shattering. And, of course, a vegan lunchmate’s plate came with cheese on it, despite him begging and pleading when ordering that they don’t put anything made from dairy or animal parts in his boring-ass veggie taco thing. Maybe we just hit this place on a bad day. Maybe they’re usually responsive and attentive. We doubt it, but I’ll give Mexican a second try, just because it’s Mexican. [MF]
714 9th Ave.
212/586-0821