Today we're taking a bit of an upscale detour in our tour of Twin Cities tacos to a smaller neighborhood restaurant called La Fresca in the more wealthy Tangletown neighborhood of Minneapolis. This is a departure from the other taquerias I'll go to, it's a sit-down place with attentive servers, nice decor, and lots of delicious menu items. They serve tacos as an appetizer, but there's something unique about them.
The Place
La Fresca describes itself as offering a Nouveau Mexican cuisine. The restaurant caters to somewhat deeper pocketbooks than the fast-casual taquerias about town. Appetizers are $9-13, salads and soups are $10, and entrees are $18-25. The restaurant is nicely decorated on the inside, with a blend of bright and colorful Mayan images painted on the wall to Día de Muertos skulls and dolls in various places.
I needed to take a picture of the bathroom because of how nice it is. It's very clean, maintained, and very well lit, with mirrors increasing the lighting on three out of four walls. It has a nice sink with good smelling handsoap and moisturizer. Plus a urinal (not pictured), if you're into that sort of thing.
The restaurant is air conditioned inside but I chose to sit outside in their patio seating area. The patio area can seat about 25 people and is a pleasant place to eat, there's not much traffic going by and it's a nice neighborhood to relax in. A guy named Jaime (prounounced the Spanish way, hai-ee-may) was my waiter and I ordered a sangria so I could blame all image quality issues on alcohol.
Jaime. I'm blaming focus problems on the booze, $6 well spent.
I also ordered the three taco appetizer. They offer al pastor, cochinita pibil, and pollo asado (grilled chicken) tacos. Chicken is boring, so I asked for two al pastor and one cochinita pibil. The sangria was decent, red wine with ice and bits of nicely sliced green apple and orange, plus a lemon wedge on the rim.
The Tacos
Wait, what's the silverware for?
Without much wait my tacos arrived. They are smaller tacos with less than the typical amount of meat you'd get on a taco from a taqueria. But here's the reason why I think this place is worth visiting for the tacos once in a while: they make their own tortillas! Those are fresh, crispy and soft, slightly greasy house-made tortillas. Yumm. The tacos are served with cilantro and red onion, a nice change of pace from the standard white onion, on top. They arrived with a cup of deliciously tangy tomatillo-avacado salsa verde and a wedge of lime.
Ok, past awkwardly taking 15 photos of my food while it gets cold, let's dig in!
Cochinita pibil
By special request from @jesta! I guess cochinita is a suckling pig, basically pork veal minus the inhumane cages? I didn't know this until reading the Wikipedia article. Anyway, I don't know if they used a little piglet and if they did, I don't see why it would be necessary. The meat seemed well roasted and flavored, but was a fair bit dry. The flavor was robust, with the chili flavors coming out the strongest. If they used a fattier pig meat and didn't let the moisture evaporate, I'd like it a lot more. This is the only place I've had cochinita pibil so maybe that's blasphemy, to whoever cares.
Al pastor
My taco bread and butter. They had that nice golden orange color, but weren't at all crispy on the outside. If they spent any time on a grill it could not have been much. The bites of meat were dry in the middle like the cochinita. The flavor was good but wasn't strong enough, like it didn't marinate long enough or maybe with not enough concentration of ingredients. The red onion was an interesting difference versus your standard Mexican tacos with white onion. The first one I tried with nothing added. The second I tried with the tomatillo-avacado salsa. Despite it having a delicious flavor, the tang of the salsa overpowered the taco and imbalanced the tastes. Next time I come here just for tacos I'll use it sparingly, or save it for chips.
Tortillas
Now to the real reason I would ever recommend people get tacos here: the tortillas! They are house-made, fresh, and freshly fried in a generous amount of oil. They are a bit greasy but not too much. You can see by the above picture how they come out with just a bit of golden brown on them. That little bit of crisp Maillard reaction flavor makes all the difference.
Conclusion
You'll know by now I have mixed feelings about these tacos. The meats are average, but the tortillas way above. They are only appetizer menu items, but I think they could be just as good if not better than taqueria tacos with a tweak here and there. As far as value goes, three tacos are $9 plus tax, and they are small. Happy hour from 4-5:30 PM Sunday through Thursday presents a slightly better value, with two tacos being $5 along with other delicious appetizers. But in the context of La Fresca being a more upscale neighborhood restaurant, and these just being appetizer items, it's not outrageous. Give the tacos a try here, but perhaps only as a happy hour snack or shared appetizer before a main course.
For the review of the tacos only, I give them:
3 ½ Pineapple Piggies out of 5
But to give this place a fair shake I'll be revisiting them and having a full meal there. Follow me and hopefully by then you'll see the post on your custom feed :)
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