Los Baez, version 2.0

Here at PBM, we don’t consider ourselves to be legitimate restaurant reviewers. If we were, we’d visit a place a number of times over a period of months to get a real sense of a restaurant. Every place is entitled to an off dish or even an off night. We get that. But we have a pretty simple methodology here. We base our opinions the way most people do about restaurants. We go, we eat, we opine. Why would we go back to some place if we didn’t like it?

But, after a recent impassioned (and lengthy) comment regarding our Los Baez write-up, we felt obligated to return to the restaurant to give them another shot. Good thing we did, too. We left feeling pretty satisfied, but mostly with our methodology.

Noneifbysea started off with a house margarita and by the taste of it, their juicer is definitely in fine working order. After a few puckering sips, we were asked if it was too bitter, and yes, NIBS replied, it was. It was pretty clear they’ve been having trouble pushing their version of a margarita onto the Anglo public, which is understandable. A real margarita can be a little challenging if you’re used to a mix. But the fine people at D.F. know this and give you fair warning when you order your drink. But this wasn’t challenging, it was wrong and pretty unpalatable. A quick stir in of some sugar and NIBS was happy to drink his drink.

Food-wise, we fared a bit better on this trip. My fork kept drifting over to Noneifbysea’s beef burrito and he was only glad to relieve me of some of my generous portion of pollo asado. The beef was savory and well seasoned, folded into a freshly-made flour tortilla with probably too much cheese to be considered authentic, but still made for some damn tasty bites. I didn’t like my chicken as much as NIBS did. It was just simple grilled chicken with a little too much cracked pepper and a squeeze of orange. But yes, once stuffed in a tortilla with rice, beans, guac, and lettuce it was fine. Fine like “taco night at home” fine.

Also, we had the same problem with the salsa we did on the first trip. No flavor. Just heat. It felt very, very far from fresh. The chips were mercifully less salty this round.

So yes, the food was better this time around. And though food is very, very important, it’s also the culture of a place that keeps us going back (or not going back) for more.

It was a pretty quiet night, and it’s clear the staff was looking to keep busy. We had at least five different people visit our table to ask us how we were doing, if we needed anything, to pour more water, get us fresh tortillas. There’s a fine line between attentive and intrusive, and as the meal went on, the needle seemed to be angling a bit more towards the latter.

Also, during the course of the meal, I was offered tequila shots at least twice in a 30 minute span. I have no problem with people who are into shots. Really, I don’t. It’s just not my thing. Also not my thing? Places that are really into offering “the ladies” shots of tequila. It’s exactly why I chose a college devoid of fraternities or sororities. It’s not the shots themselves, but the culture that it suggests. It’s not a stretch to imagine it will be a mad house on any given ‘big game’ day, or to see the windows graced with neon signs promoting domestic beer, or that they might have a special song or ritual humiliation on your birthday. Again, I’m not saying these things happen at Los Baez, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw them there. Again, to us, it’s just smacks of college football, baseball caps and people who are, you know, really into Dane Cook.

The food’s fine. We might even come back for take-out (turns out, you can take away their freshly-made tortillas for just 35 cents apiece). But sorry, Los Baez, we probably won’t be back to party with you anytime soon.