Rate-A-Restaurant, #114 in a series

Restaurant: Malo

Location: 4326 Sunset Blvd. (Silver Lake)

Type of restaurant: Mexican

We stipulated: Meeting someone for drinks, he suggested dessert as well. I suggested tacos and margaritas. I won.

They stipulated: No mix or match here. You order a three-taco platter, you get three tacos of the same kind. This ain't Baja Fresh.

What we ordered: "salsa and chips fried to order" with tomatillo & avocado salsa ($4); three soft-shell tacos, with carnitas ($6); two hard-shell tacos, with ground beef and pickle ($5); two hard-shell tacos, with eggplant and potato ($5). For drinks: the IMPALA SS (Siete Leguas Reposado Tequila, Sweet-n-Sour and Mason Prunier; $10) and the MA’FEO (Herradura Silver Tequila, Sweet-n-Sour and Triple Sec
with a Don Amado Anejo Mezcal Float; $11).

High point: The carnitas tacos were tasty, and the eggplant/potato curiosity well worth the price. Actually, the prices in general are decent for the food. They getcha with the drinks. I enjoyed my "Impala SS" -- the right amount of tequila to sweet. My dining companion loved his "Ma'Feo": I thought it was terrible.

Low point: Service was slow, and terrible at the start. (We had to flag down our waiter, who finally came by after taking the order of several tables that arrived after us.) Also, the "chips fried to order" are frequently chewy rather than crispy.

Overall impression: I'd heard good things about Malo, and it didn't disappoint. The food is tasty, the margaritas strong. Me likey.

Chance we will go back: Definitely -- and Malo even offers a kids menu, so perhaps we'll have to take Evan (but don't worry -- we'll go early, on a slow night).

(For a full roster of Franklin Avenue's restaurant reviews, check out our companion Rate-A-Restaurant site.)