ZuZu Handmade Mexican Food — Restaurant in Austin

I'm from south Texas, right on the border, so you can call me spoiled when it comes to Mexican food and Tex-Mex.

All of this is my personal opinion as someone who has had authentic mexican food:

I decided to try this place out because I live down the street and "Mexican food" in far west is basically non existent.

I ordered fajita tacos, fajita quesadilla and fajita nachos.

I started with the beef fajita taco, upon first bite it became clear what this was, unnecessarily seasoned beef. In my opinion, it tasted like the beef had taco meat seasoning like what you buy at the store for groundbeef tacos. I will say, the meat was tender. The flour tortilla was just a step above store bought flour tortillas. Wasn't bad but it definitely didn't taste authentic. So it wasn't completely horrible. Definitely not like any fajitas i've ever had, unfortunately I don't mean that in a good way.

Next I ate the quesadilla. This one was actually pretty decent. My only complaint was they didn't toast the outside. It was like they just put the cooked meat and cheese in the tortilla, fold it and leave it in an oven or hot lamp to melt. It would have made for a better experience.

Last thing I ate was the Fajita nachos (added peppers). This was probably the most disappointing part of my meal. Hardly had any fajita, no yellow cheese, just white, dry cheese. There were more peppers than fajitas. The chips were good tho. I didn't get to finish it because it was just so bland.

I give it 3 stars because it is edible and I am sure people who have never had south texas mexican/tex mex food will think it was great.

Staff was very friendly and the person running the kitchen seemed to be on top of things (it was possibly the owner), so I have to give credit on that, very rare to find these days. Some inaccuracies in my order but nothing major.

If I could give some advise to them, use only salt, pepper and garlic powder in your fajitas, marinade it in a lime pepper marinade.

Use that "processed" yellow cheese. May not be the healthiest but it really does give extra flavor to things.

Change your tortilla recipe to be more authentic home style flour.

Again, all of this is just my opinion. I will not be ordering from here again.

For those who are curious as to what I define as good fajitas and amazing flour tortillas, Lupe Tortilla here is Austin would fit that bill. "Camino Real" too for amazing...

Finally stopped by for lunch and am very glad I did. From the mixed reviews, I decided I wanted to try it myself and well - from the photos, the food looks delicious. I am always a fan of fresh salsa bars!

As I wanted to try a couple menu items, I decided to go a la carte - which I am also a big fan of.

Between myself and the hubby, we ordered:

Mahi-Mahi taco: these were filled with grilled mahi-mahi, lettuce, tomatoes, and sprinkled with cotija cheese. All the ingredients were fresh and the Mahi-Mahi was superb.

Shrimp taco: this was filled with grilled shrimp, fresh pico de gallo, sliced avocado, and sprinkled with cotija cheese. They do not skimp out on the shrimp which was fairly good sized - also, very fresh and well seasoned. One of the best Shrimp tacos I have had in Austin.

Picadillo Taco: filled with house made Picadillo taco meat. Topped with lettuce,tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese. I have never had Picadillo like this before. Usually the Picadillo I have tried in the past is made with ground beef and sometimes peas and potatoes in it. This Picadillo here was more like a stewed meat and WOW, so flavorful. Both my husband and I were taken back with how delicious this meat was. Definitely recommended!

Chips & Salsa: Yes, you need to purchase the chips to go with the Salsa bar. No, this is not your typical sit down type Mexican/Tex-Mex restaurant. It's more like fast food as you order at the counter so I did not mind the fact that the chips are not complimentary - except during Happy Hour. The chips were fresh and tasty.

The Salsa Bar - OMG, so good!! There are three different types of salsa. Visually, the Salsa bar was clean and inviting - as if to say, come try all of it. I particularly favored the Verde sauce. Another interesting addition is that they have a bottle of Crema and butter. I am not ashamed to admit, I like butter on my chips. So between the salsas, crema, and butter - I was in total absolute heaven.

I look forward to returning to try more menu items.

Tip: Saturdays is free queso and Happy Hour free chips to go with the amazing salsa.

Let me add - customer service was good, the place was clean and the food came out...

Restaurant is nice and clean. I wasn't greeted with a smile or hello. Realized myself I needed to order at the counter and seat myself. Got chicken fajita platter, drink with small queso. That was 18 bucks. Not bad. The queso was excellent and well priced. Chips were fresh and not to thick or thin. Got my fajitas and saw 80% was grilled veggies mostly purple onion (too much). Had to get up and get my own fork and spoon. Not a big deal but not the best feeling. Got 1 scoop of guacamole but went to spread it out and found huge piece of onion. Ok. Tried the rice and almost spit it out. The chicken was good but had a sweetness from the purple onion that wasn't needed nor desired. The tortilla was good and freshly warmed. The white cheese they gave me was great but not enough for even one taco. I noticed all the clientele was english speaking and none of the servers spoke english. That makes quality service hard. No wonder I had to get everything myself. Most of the food was precooked behind the order counter. I felt they just warmed up my chicken and veggies and served it. A few recipe tweaks and this place could be amazing but until then I'll at least order something completely different if I return. I was just...