Remember the Alamo...?

Remember the Alamo....





Old Town has changed. After losing the lease on much of the traditional Old Town restaurants and shops, Bazaar del Mundo was forced to move on. So many changes made in a relatively
short period of time. That's why it was nice to walk down the
main drag and see The Alamo. Brightly lit and festive looking,
The Alamo is a fun place for a casual meal.

The seating here is all outdoors, so if you're going to be going in
the fall or winter seasons, be sure to bring a sweater! If you're lucky, you can snag one of the two tables that have their own little
firepits in the center! On our last visit, we were lucky enough to
snag one of these for ourselves.

There was a chill in the air, a Chargers game on the t.v., and lots of people relaxing with a margarita and some salsa. We added some guacamole, and had ourselves a little party! :) The margaritas are tasty and come in a variety of flavors...but we enjoyed the traditional lime. The guac is fresh and tasty, and the salsa, though
a little spicy for my sensitive taste buds, was bursting with tomato
flavor.

For an entree, I chose the carne asada burrito, by which I judge many Mexican restaurants here in San Diego. As you can see, this one is huge! Stuffed full of tender, flavorful beef, pico de gallo and more of that delicious guacamole, this burrito delivers!

My husband chose a quesadilla and an enchilada, something which he judges places by himself! The enchilada, though tasty, was on the small side. Not the best enchilada, but certainly not bad!

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, quesadilla? How hard is it to make a cheese filled tortilla? You'd be surprised how
bad they can be! Greasy messy yucky stuff. This one, however, was none of those things. Light, crisp edged tortilla, with nicely melted cheese in the center. A little of that guac and it's golden.

The next time you find yourself wandering around, wondering what to have for dinner, head over to Old Town. Yes, a lot of things are gone. Yes, there've been a lot of changes. But there are still good finds to be had, and more importantly, there are still good times to be had too!

The Fiesta that's wasn't.

So, we were in the mood for some Mexican food. Where shall we go, says I? How about Ponce's? says he. Ponce's is located on Adam's Avenue, just across from and slightly west of the Library, and across the street from the Ken theater, about a block from the Kensington sign.

It was a hot and humid day, and the night cooled little and did nothing for the humidity, and much to my dismay, there was no A/C happening inside Ponce's cantina...so we decided to sit outside. There was a wait, so we sat on the metal stools out front. Several tables had finished their food, but they were lingering, so we had a chance to chat about McCain's choice for VP, the scandalous behaviors around the conventions, etc while waiting. Suddenly a young woman begins cussing loudly as she discusses with her tablemates *her* view on Obama. Wow. She didn't look like a sailor...but she would put one to shame with her mouth!

In any case, we were finally seated, the hostess providing menus, and salsa and chips already on the table. So far, So good, right? Welllll....let me continue :) The salsa is *hot*. By hot, I mean, melt enamel off your teeth hot! lol The chips we ok, except they weren't warm as they should have been

Then came the House Margarita. If you put turpentine in a glass, spruced it up with some salt and lime, you'd end up with a pretty close approximation of what this tasted like. I took the picture, took a sip, and sent it back! Of course, by the time I got the chance to tell our server that (she had an odd fascination with a table behind us, and spent almost our entire dinner chatting with them), our meal was half over!

We started the food portion of the meal with nachos. These are what my daughter makes, essentially...simple. Chips with cheese melted over them, topped with guacamole and sour cream. Not bad, but nothing special. They were generous, but by the time our server managed to get them to our table, they'd clearly been sitting a while because the cheese had time to begin seperating, causing the bottom chips to get greasy.

Ok, onto the real food. We ordered a combo plate that had an enchilada, a taco, and a tamale, as well as an additional taco because you can only get the combo with ground beef and my husband wanted shredded beef. Good news first: The tamale itself was tasty. The meat was tender, and the masa was moist, at least where the sauce was touching it. It was what I liked best of the whole meal. The enchilada was dry, and bland, sadly. The ground beef taco was not too bad, way too spicy for my tastes, but the shredded beef taco was good...moist and flavorful without being too hard on the tastebuds.

The best part was when the server came with our check, stood near the table looking at us until I looked up at her, then stepped back over to the table behind us and spent another 10 minutes chatting with the occupants! Mind you, this was the second time we'd seen her since our drinks arrived. Needless to say, she did not get a generous tip! Instead we had a word with the manager about the service....or lack thereof.

So, I cannot in good conscience recommend Ponce's as a place to go at this time. I will try it again in the future, and maybe with a different server and some control in the kitchen with the heat factor, things will improve.