The Taste of Midland — Restaurant in Midland

I struggled over this review because I rarely write reviews, primarily do so to support a business, and if I'm displeased, I don't write a review, I just don't return.

If you can't be arsed to read the whole thing, the summary would be this:

The prices are egregiously out of line with the subpar quality of products being served. I broke my review down into three categories: Atmosphere, Quality, and Value - but some point I breached a character limit, so I have to delete most of the book I wrote and give cliff notes.

I wanted to love this place because it's extremely close to my house - so this would be an easy default spot for dinner.

Atmosphere: It looks like it was a bar, converted to be a hole in the wall diner; a seat yourself affair with rickety furniture. Beware sitting at a booth with someone on the other side.

Food Quality: The menu itself is mystifying. The items all have unique, non-standard names like "Jewlyon's Burrito Supreme" and "Jessyca's Taco." None of these items have descriptions, and the restaurant is packed enough to make one feel awkward asking for clarification on menu items. I don't know what Jessyca's Taco is, or why it is a $10 taco - I may never know.

I inquired about a margarita - was informed that the "Margarita Flight" is all the rage, so I ordered a flight of margaritas. Strawberry, Mango, Lime and Jalapeno for $20. I received four tumblers, drank them, and elected to order an additional $8 margarita in the hopes of a little buzz with dinner to commemorate my first experience there. One of the other google reviews mentions watery margaritas - I don't know about that, but five margaritas wasn't enough to establish a trace of intoxication. The flavors were odd - with the "lime" margarita being the closest resemblance to a standard margarita, but whatever mix they use (spruced with lemons instead of limes?) was extremely odd. Margaritas taste pretty much the same everywhere you go - some slight differences at various chains, but similar enough to know that you're drinking one. These ...are not that. Very odd.

I ordered some cheese dip ($7), and was bemusedly looking at the $2 chip refill note on the menu, and was interested and excited to find that the cheese dip had peppers in it; most queso blanco is melted mozzarella cheese spiced with Jalapeno juice, but to find sliced jalapenos was a bit jazzy. The tub of cheese presented to me is not meant for a single person to consume. It's a meal in itself, and as someone who enjoys chips and cheese while I wait for an entree, it would be nice to see a small and a large offering.

The chips appear to be pre-packaged; they're neither warm nor salted - but some sort of thick tortilla chip; not greasy or cold ... but room temperature, pre-made, absolutely not fresh in any capacity and uninteresting, save as a delivery vessel for either salsa or cheese.

With no idea of what any of the mystifyingly named menu items were, I asked my waitress what people were talking about as the rage, and ordered that. I think she said "the cheesy burrito" so I ordered that - on reflection, I don't see "Cheesy burrito" on the menu, so I'm not sure what I ordered.

A ground beef burrito showed up, covered in cheese, paired with refried beans and rice. I'm not sure what suppliers they use, but my guess is that the rice comes out of a can and is heated for preparation ... and the refried beans are more of a bean salad. The burrito - I wish the lettuce sprinkled on one end was both a little more liberal, less brown, and accompanied by some sour cream.

Value: A flight of margaritas (tumblers), one regular sized margarita, chips and cheese, and a burrito: $50 + tip ($60). $8 margaritas, $7 chips, $10 tacos - those are the kind of prices associated with an upscale tex-mex establishment in suburbia, not a hole in the wall with relatively alcohol-free margaritas and pre-cooked food heated up to be served in a converted bar.

Pass...

Margaritas are all rimmed with weird salt. The "regular" lime margarita is rimmed with this awful sour lime flavored salt that makes the margarita taste not like a margarita. Be warned - if you come here looking for a margarita, ask for regular salt or be prepared for a shocking flavor.

Taste of Midland doesn't have a Chip warmer, or a chip basket, so the chips that come with salsa or cheese are not warm. They're also not seasoned. I think they were refrigerated because our chips were colder than the room.

Also, the chip cooking is disorderly. My chip basket had a bunch of what you see below - which is the result of dumping too many chips into the fryer at once, inadequately stirring them, and pulling them out before they're cooked. The dark chips will be crunchy - the light chips are greasy and undercooked, and none of them are fresh.

Drink prices are almost double what you find anywhere else, and impotent. That might be why they use flavored salts, so that you can't taste the margarita itself - wiping the weird lime salt off my glass so I could taste the margarita made me feel like I was drinking margarita mix - and that's an $8 margarita that is $5-$6 elsewhere, and $4 during happy hour elsewhere.

A "Seat yourself" policy in a new restaurant is a horrible idea because no one knows what is going on, and after being seated, a waitress stopped by twice to tell us she would be with us soon, and we watched bemused as she then took orders from other tables that came in after us. It's chaos.

Waitress was a good sport - my significant other was on the phone with her mother, and I tipped the waitress 40% to shout at the phone that she was drinking margaritas over lunch. There was much laughter. We paid for the table next to us for giggles.

Cheese dip is great - if Taste of Midland can unscrew their chip situation, get a chip warmer, make a decent margarita, and either come down on prices, or increase quality to match price point, this would be a decent hole in the wall, but since they copy their parent restaurant, I doubt...

Came here Tuesday around 4pm. Our friends got here a little earlier and got a table thankfully because it was getting quite busy.

We ordered drinks (no alcohol) and it took some time for the drinks to arrive. I'm not sure if they were under staffed or what but it did seem there were plenty of staff around the bar🤔.

Friends had gotten a basket of chips so we requested another basket. The waitress informed us that if we ordered more than 3 baskets there would be a $4 charge! I'm glad she informed us but really, a Mexican restaurant charging for chips!? I could have used some salt because it didn't seem the chips had any. Not sure if they were made here but they were ok and the salsa could have been from a jar.

An order of jalapeno poppers was ordered. They were ok and not too spicy.

Our table ordered:

Beef nachos (lunch portion) - both parties liked them and ate them all.

Chicken fajitas - friend liked them but I saw that the chicken was in pretty big chunks. Didn't seem very easy to fill a tortilla with.

Hubby and I shared a chicken chimichanga - just seasoned shredded chicken inside with cheese sauce on top. A small portion of lettuce and a couple pieces of diced tomato. It came with a side of refried beans and rice which was a small portion but I personally appreciated that. Hubby said he could have eaten the whole thing himself but it would have been too big a dinner for just myself. Hubby liked that there was nothing inside the chimichanga other than the chicken, but there's plenty of chicken. It was quite delicious!

Adequate parking and reasonably priced. The menu is basic but with no descriptions or pictures to give you an idea of what they offer. Atmosphere is simply an open area with tables, definitely nothing fancy! The music is good but a little loud for comfortable conversation.

Again the service was pretty slow but I'd be willing to give them another try (I'd like to try the margarita flight!). Watching other tables and seeing what they were getting encouraged me to give them...