Lágrima Salcedo — Restaurant in Makati

This opened a few months ago near the office and eventually had lunch with some colleagues. As you can see from the other reviews, this branch relocated from another location. This has the advantage of being a "tried and tested" establishment in terms of the food.

We ordered the following: Super Nachos (Carnitas) P450.00 This was a good, large serving with plenty of meat on top and lower down the plate. Lots of cheese sauce which you can add to with the standard yogurt, chili, and guac-based sauces.

I don't often order nachos when dining out so I don't have a recent point of comparison. My colleagues enjoyed this.

Burrito Classic (Carne Asada, Rice) P540 Quite a large serving and I would be quite full if this was my only order. If two people were dining, I would say the burrito and another dish would be big enough to share between them.

There were lots of tender meat in the burrito. I did find that the rice was a bit dry and the beans were not so prominent. Overall, this was quite good and I would order this again when I come back. There is also an option with no rice. The server said that this would have more vegetables (cabbage and onions) and beans in place of the rice.

Knights of the Round (Sample Platter of Tacos) P1,120.00 This was a sample platter of various one face tacos. I was only able to try one but everything looked so food. Each taco is quite large and had lots of toppings. There was something unusual in that there's a piece of cheese at the bottom that seems to have been torched before the toppings were added. I liked this twist quite a bit.

Cheese Quesadilla (Kimchi) P440.00 The quesadilla isn't serve on a platter as normal but on a rectangular serving tray with the four (4) slices on top of each other. The slices are large enough that you can expect some spillage to occur when you're getting some from your plate. Again, lots of filling here and the kimchi was moderately spicy and had a few large chunks per slice. This was a bit of novel/fusion dish so it provided a nice contrast to the other dishes we ordered. I would say that, while there was quite some cheese, I felt that the taste itself of the cheese was a little overpowered by the kimchi.

Horchata (Classic) P160.00 I've never tried horchata so I don't have a point of comparison. It's a nice enough drink but I'm not especially crazy about the flavors to order this again (I typically just drink water when I dine out). There is a strawberry variant though.

We went to the restaurant at around 11:30 on a weekday and were the only guests there. The seats will gradually be filled when 12:00 rolls along and by the time we left right before 13:00 all seats were occupied.

I found the service quite attentive though the horchata was served late. The kitchen got it out pretty quickly when I followed-up the order. The food also came out warm pretty quickly after we ordered and everything was on the table even before we were finished with the nachos.

A note about the price: prices are about average for the food quality and serving size. I understand that there are certainly cheaper alternatives like Army Navy but I did notice the improvement in quality in this restaurant. Prices are exclusive of 12%...

Lagrima had been recommended to me by friends as I'm constantly whinging about the lack of good Mexican food in Manila. I recently ate here with friends. We tried a variety of tacos and a quesadilla. I wouldn't call this place a Mexican taqueria. It's more like a restaurant based on Mexican food concepts since none of the things we tried had any Mexican flavors that we were hoping for. On top of that, it was a bit expensive for what we got.

In a typical taqueria, the tacos are made with corn tortillas that are heated on la plancha (flat iron griddle), plain and without oil. The tortillas here are flour and are heated in oil (a lot of oil) but not to the point of being crispy. Maybe there just aren't any corn tortillas to be found in the Philippines. :-(

The carne asada was bland and without flavor - I couldn't taste that it was marinated in garlic, cumin, salt, pepper, and vinegar. And the portion of meat was minuscule. A proper Mexican soft taco should be two corn tortillas, one on top of the other, completely covered with a layer of carne asada, topped with diced onion and cilantro (aka wansoy). If you want extra flavor, spoon on a little tomatillo salsa.

The carnitas did not have the crispy bits characteristic of the traditional cooking style that originated in Michoacán. Also, it had been sweetened. Good grief! Soft tacos are not supposed to be sweet. So maybe this is just Mexican-style food adapted to Filipino tastes.

What I did like was the pollo asado. They do chicken right, here. The chicken soft taco had good flavor so we ordered the chicken super quesadilla. But then the tortilla was grilled to the point of being crispy and over-cooked.

The food isn't bad. It's just pricey. But if it was authentic, then for me then it would be worth the price. And the beer is good and cold too. So that's why two stars...

Still giving a lot of patience and consideration since it's their soft opening. But here's a bit of honest feedback:

Food = awesome. delicious starter platter with the soft tacos (pork, chicken, beef, the chicken was my favorite), 3 sauces in squeeze bottles that balanced the flavors, and their quesadilla isn't just cheese in between two tortillas (there's a lot going on, rather spicy and messy but great). The star of our lunch there was the agua fresca made with fresh strawberries 💯💯💯 so refreshing and just what you need on a hot day.

Service (Note: Soft Opening) = every staff member was kind and accommodating, but maybe a way to keep track of which tables or areas each waitstaff is in charge of can be good (there was a lot of staff movement in the dining area that contributed to an overall chaotic atmosphere)? The order took a bit long to arrive, and people who sat down later than us were able to eat faster...

Place = great decor, theme, & lighting.. a bit noisy though which made it a bit difficult to settle in and be comfy while eating. it was a very quick stay after that.

You'll love this if: you're a big fan of spice, herby flavors, cilantro, texmex.

You might need to know that: it's soft opening, peak hours are packed, and people are still figuring things out in a new place.

Will come back again! Maybe after everything's sorted, but the food is more than enough to keep...