It was dark out and the sign was lit. Chilebrown, Ms. Goofy, Mama and myself headed out to Rodeo to the new Mazatlan taqueria to celebrate our Dueling Briskets contest the previous weekend. It’s been a month or less since it opened and being 1 of 2 Mexican restaurants in town, we just had to go see. Hopefully it doesn’t suck as much as the other one.

Heh, I apologize for the lack of depth of field in these shots. Between a few beers and the unfamiliarity with this lens, a 50mm f1.4 rig, things weren’t in-check as they should have been.
In any case, it’s a bright little place with plenty of windows. The staff are busy and attentive to our need for chips and cold beer. Place your order and sit down, that’s how it goes here and in many such places. One basket of chips were stale, the other fine. I couldn’t tell whether they made their own chips or not, a good sign. Another good sign was the El Yucateco Habanero hot sauce on each table. I wasn’t sure what the ketchup was for, but Mama and Ms. Goofy mentioned it could be for the breakfasts? Eggs?
The menu contains the standard Mexican faire along with some seafood, what with being called Mazatlan and all. We placed our order and ate chips for a while, hung out and talked about meat. Ah, good times.

Here we find Mama’s fish taco dinner with refried beans. She said the fish was good, tender and nicely done. However, it was missing the marinade that she remembers when she was visited Mazatlan oh so many years ago. Missing a spicy bite, not a lot though. And some jumpy flavors that just weren’t there. She mentioned the refried beans were flat, as though no lard. Salt helped a bit but couldn’t pull it together.

Both Ms. Goofy and I scored on the Chile Verde Dinner plate. The green chili was extraordinary and I can’t remember getting stuff this good for about 7 years. The flavors of the chilies came up and shook hands, the tomatillos were sparky and the pork was simmer tender. When I say tender, I don’t mean mushy. They retained some tooth and were fun to eat wrapped up in a warm corn tortilla. Refried beans were also flat, even though they had melty cheese on top. The rice was a total hit, had been fried in something first. Didn’t taste like real lard, but it was close enough for me. I was kinda disapointed to see sour cream instead of crema, oh well. The things we have to learn to live with.

I may have ruined the shot with the lack of focus, but at least the colors are pretty, eh?
Here is Chilebrown’s Steak Ranchero, it looked good. But ol’ CB wasn’t likin’ it. Let’s not go any further with that one, mmmmkay?
To sum it all up, Mazatlan has recently opened up and doing reasonably well for the area. Rodeo is a small town and truly doesn’t have many choices to eat out at night, Mexican or no. So, I invite all of you to stop by and try it. I’ll be checking in from time to time to see how things are going, 3 & 6 months down the road.
Mazatlan Taqueria & Grill
844 Willow Avenue #A-11
510-799-3391
Open till at least 8:30 and 9 on Friday & Saturday
ps – Guess who won the Clean Plate Ranger Award for the night?

ME !!!
Xo Xo