San Antonio has as many great Mexican food restaurants as there are stars in the sky, but for whatever reason it can be challenging to find a good taco north of 1604. I have tried many places (I won’t mention them now, but will wait and review them to see if they’ve improved) that just can’t deliver. More often than not, they are bland, and for a lack of a better word, too gringo-ized. I decided to see if Leticia’s could change that.
Located on Stone Oak and Huebner (there is also a location on N Zazamora on the West Side), the customer is transported to a different place when he/she steps into the restaurant with a bright yellow interior and Mexican artwork. I stopped by for breakfast and decided to get two tacos – a machacado and barbacoa — with a cup of coffee.
Now in full disclosure, I have to say that Leticia’s does come to my place of employment and has tacos in the morning. They introduced me to machacado tacos; the tacos at work are pretty good, but you have to know taht they are not made to order and have premade tortillas and food in big serving dishes.
At the restaurant, I could tell that the tortillas came out fresh and I was thoroughly impressed. The machacado was amazing, not being near as greasy/watery as when I get them at work. I twas complimented nicely with the roasted salsa on the table. The barbacoa is only available on Saturday and Sunday and it is a treat. The meat is flavored nicely and had a good spice to it, so much so that I decided to neglect the salsa on that taco.
The service was excellent, and I didn’t have to worry about running low on my cup of Joe or cream to go with it. This is always a plus when you wake up a little sleepy.
The one drawback was the price… each taco ran me $2.49 (granted I got the two highest priced tacos on the menu, this is still a far cry from the $1.50 I pay at work (although barbacoa tacos are not served there)). I think that this price is expensive for breakfast tacos; then again you have to consider they are in the “posh” part of town where at night patrons guzzle $10 drinks at the lounges. Also, if you live in that area, you would probably have to drive a ways to get out of the northside to a good taco shack, so you have to think of the money you save on gas.
Value: 6.5/10 (at $2.49, pretty steep for breakfast tacos; although they are actually authentic tacos on the northside, so maybe this is a good value for good tacos up there…)
Atmosphere: 8.5/10 (I liked the inside atmosphere and pictures of the niños in traditional Mexican dress)
Service: 10/10 (Very friendly staff; you never have to worry about your coffee or creamer running out!)
Salsa: 9/10 (nice and smokey; went perfect with the machacado taco)
Taste: 9/10 (tortillas were great and the barbacoa was particularly good!)
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