Calacas Mexican Cuisine — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

The food is here is exceptional, most Mexican food restaurants pile refried beans on the plate and blanket with jack cheese. This is cuisine, made by chefs that care about their art. I ordered a chele relleno. The sauce was sophisticated, and light, and had many levels of flavor. The cheese is Cotija cheese, not the usual stringy jack cheese. You can order it with meat as well. It was the best chile relleno I think I have ever had to be honest. I grew up in Texas, and live in Southern California where Mexican food is literally on every corner. The bartender made scratch Margaritas, which were a little small for the price, and he suggested a great Spanish wine. I gave four stars to service because I was a female dining alone at the bar, traveling for work, when I struck up a conversation with a fellow traveler. I am a highly sociable person, and genuinely love meeting new people, and hearing their stories. The man bought me a glass of wine, and while pouring it, the bartender made a remark that seemed to suggest I was on the make to get this person to buy me a glass of wine. It was sexist and rude. So, if anyone is reading this from the restaurant , welcome to 2024, staff should treat women with some respect, and don't make assumptions there is something unseemly going on if they are solo. Have to say though, food is...

The food was better than expected. I had the cauliflower tacos.

The amount of food I received was small and quite disappointing for $17. Also odd that the shrimp tacos my friend had were also $17. The cost of a few pieces of cauliflower certainly costs a lot less than shrimp.

The salsa trio was $10. No free chips and salsa like in normal Mexican restaurants. The flavor of the salsas was pretty good.

I had the spicy Margarita ($15) which tasted pretty good, but it had significantly less tequila than the Calacas Margaritas that my friend had.

Also, while I wasn't looking, the waiter walked by and snatched my margarita when I still had 1/4 of it left to drink. That pissed me off.

The service was friendly and attentive. Both of us mentioned later that we felt like he was rushing us to leave, which is odd because there were no customers waiting, and there were empty tables in the restaurant.

I understand this is more of a high-end vibe type of restaurant and not just a "slop it on the plate" type of place, like many Mexican restaurants are. That is all well and good. However, I still think the portions should be bigger for the amount they charge, and also the waiter shouldn't be snatching your drink without asking, before you've...

Being from Texas where Tex-Mex & authentic Mexican food is plentiful, I generally don't order Mexican food when I travel because I'm usually disappointed. Today was different.

I'm staying at the Marriott property where Calacas is at & saw an ad in the elevator for the pork belly tacos. After salivating over it on multiple rides, a fellow traveler on the elevator mentioned they had these and they were really good. Being it was getting late & I was tired from an all day conference, I went against my norm & decided to give it a try.

Guac was good, extra black pepper than what I'm used to, but I liked it. The rice & black beans were above average, then there's the pork belly tacos.

Wow, what a delightful diversion from the typical Mexican fare. They are street taco size & I fell in love with the first bite. So tender & flavorful, not spicy at all, & I like heat with my food. Had a light sauce with a slightly sweet hint, pickled onions, & a panko-like topping.

As I moved on to the 2nd taco I was a bit surprised. This one had the crispy crunch of a burnt-end pork belly or brisket. Definitely a different texture, but I much prefer the tender first one & it's the sole reason for 4 stars vs 5 had they both...