Restaurant: La Super Rica
Location: 622 N Milpas St. (Santa Barbara)
Type of restaurant: Taqueria
They stipulated: The line gets lengthy during the way -- so you may have to wait to order. Once you get to the front of the line, order by number, and fast. Also, don't be afraid to order a lot: The tacos are street food-sized.
We stipulated: On our drive up north, we wanted to make sure we hit a couple of simple, great spots. La Super Rica -- well known as Julia Child's favorite Mexican spot -- fit the bill. It was easy to find, and we happened to be in Santa Barbara for lunch, so score.
What we ordered: Tacos de Adobado (strips of marinated pork steak served on two homemade tortillas, $2.50); Tacos de Chorizo (chunks of grilled chorizo served on two homemade tortillas, $2.50); Auesadilla (grilled cheese between two homemade tortillas, $1.55); Lomito Suizo (grilled marinated pork with melted cheese between two corn tortillas, $3.50); Gordita de Frijol (handmade thick corn tortilla filled with spicy ground beans, $2.75); Guacamole (served with two homemade tortillas, $3.25); horchata ($1.60); cafe de olla (coffee flavored with cinnamon and piloncillo, $1.40).
High point: Ahh, those homemade tortillas, filled with meat and topped off with homemade salsa. I especially loved the gordita -- they don't lie, it's spicy. And the guacamole is excellent -- we weren't originally going to order it, but so many people were walking away from the counter with it, we couldn't resist.
Low point: The wait was a little too long, particularly since we had to get back on the road. But still worth it.
Overall impression: La Super Rica is an instutition, and while I still think our own Yuca's beats them on taste, it's definitely as good a reason to visit Santa Barbara as anything else. La Super Rica is about to be featured on the Food Network, and I also hear rumors that the owners are planning on opening branches of the taqueria overseas. Not a bad export -- perhaps the U.S. ought to consider making "taco diplomacy" a benchmark of its international strategy.
Chance we'll go back: Next time we're in Santa Barbara, we're hitting La Super Rica first.
For a complete list of our more than 175 restaurant reviews, check out our companion Rate-A-Restaurant site.
No comments:
Post a Comment