Azteca Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Taos

Remember Chi-Chi's? This place is a bad Chi-Chi's. Or another way of putting it is that if Azteca were to generously be considered average Mexican/Tex-Mex cuisine, then Chi-Chi's is the haute cuisine version of Mexican culinary traditions. Whoever the people are that contributed to giving this place a 4.8 rating, I'm left wondering whether 1) they've ventured beyond Taco Bell before, and 2) what sorts of experiences they've just generally had with eating food.

I love Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine. Prior to eating here I'd had four amazing burritos in two days from a variety of other, sometimes very modest, establishments that you'd never guess at first glance to not only be delicious but to be masters at their crafts. I sought to to soak up as much of New Mexico's version of the glorious burrito as I could in an effort to understand this variation.

We waited 45 MINUTES for nachos! NACHOS!!? An appetizer that is not only quick and easy to make (a base of chips with melted cheese that children perfect at an early age), but pretty difficult to screw up. But they succeeded. For one: they only use Monterey Jack cheese. Anyone that's spent more than five minutes melting cheese for anything knows that melted Monterey Jack by itself looks unappetizingly like gelatinous, melted plastic. But that's not even the worst of it. The base of nachos is the chip. But what happens when one doesn't get enough chips in their nachos? Your hesitation upon reading that is because NO ONE ever fails to give enough chips with nachos. Too many is the norm. And when you don't get enough chips and they're using only Monterey Jack...well, you're left with a heaping, insipid pile of plastic, lettuce, and tomatoes lying in the middle of the plate that you will not be able to bring yourself to finish.

There were other flaws - beer that only arrived in cans when an "on draught" was indicated (and a sorry selection at that), long intervals between attention from servers, lack of any individual plates provided upon which to eat the shared plate of nachos, etc.

Anyway, if you want great Mexican/Tex-Mex/New Mexican food, I recommend seeking out any one of the many other establishments in Taos, all of which will be faster, more flavorful, and more impressive to...

We came across this place driving through Taos. It’s tucked away on a corner behind the main city plaza.

The menu was pricey, but the inside decor did not say, “Fine Dining.” Inside there were common tables and chairs like you would see in any small cafe, and the table setting consisted of a knife and fork rolled up in a paper napkin. Not what I would expect from a restaurant with $80 bottles of wine on the menu. There was art on the walls, some of which were unusual and with an Aztec motif.

Also, regarding the menu, if you are vegetarian, the beans do not have lard in them, but the rice was cooked with chicken broth.

My husband had a large shrimp cocktail that had nine shrimp in a very large glass of sauce that was unusual and delicious. Instead of the usual cocktail sauce, it was more like a gazpacho with cucumbers, onions, avocados and tomatoes. There was a hint of horseradish, but not too hot. We were surprised and delighted with the depth of flavor in this dish.

I didn’t find anything that fit my usual vegan preference, so I had fried calamari. I used to love calamari but dread getting a rubbery, unchewable texture. This calamari was NOT rubbery at all. It was very well prepared and quite enjoyable.

The chips, salsa and guacamole served were fresh. Chips not too oily. The flavors were very mild, which may make some people happy. It was a little bland for me.

Overall, we enjoyed our variety of appetizers for dinner. Sorry, we didn’t order entrees or dessert. One thing that stood out, in addition to the special shrimp cocktail, was the generous portions of every dish. We found that three appetizers between us was very satisfying!

Funny story, I visited the ladies room, and on the door inside the stall a sign read, “please don’t flush toilet paper in the toilet.” What???!!! Exactly how does that work? Luckily there was another stall with...

Details: my romantic partner and I dined at this establishment on a Monday evening. We don't drink alcohol cause we're too good at it, and hence LOVE lime in our water. Lime. Since Taos is closed to the public on Monday, the place was packed. This may be a contributing factor to what followed.

After being seated by the cordial hostess and asked about our libation-ary demands, we were brought two waters and small bowl of lemons, not limes. No big deal, right? We drank the lemon water and asked for more, this time emphasizing limes. Again, lemons and water arrive... While sighing heavily we philosophically explored the sensory differences between limes and lemons.

Being good at life, my partner and I decided to order lemons next time and see if limes showed up. Great idea, we know. Well guess what. As we ordered "lemons" our server looked at us and the lemons already at the table, and said, "you mean limes?". "Yeah, the green lemons.", we replied.

Finally we had our limes and also many lemons so we decided to make the best of it and create a blind tasting experience between limes and lemons. You'll be happy to know that we can both identify lime water, OUR FAVORITE.

The food was made to exact order specification, and was pretty darn tasty. Like, it was really good. We'd eat, and...