Random Thoughts

[Rothman]

Taco Bell is fine when there is no other option but it ain't real Mexican food.  Once you've had real Mexican food it is hard to go back to the Americanized versions of it. 

Taco Bell is fine... if you've never had real Mexican food AND you're drunk and/or stoned AND it's late at night and the only other thing that's open is a 7/11.

Las Vegas solved this problem with the 24-hour Roberto's Taco Shop chain, so if you're drunk and/or stoned and it's late at night, you still have an option for real Mexican food.

The only problem is that every Roberto's is independently owned (apparently Roberto had a lot of kids who all got a chunk of the stores when he died, and some of those kids have sold off some of the locations), so everyone living in Las Vegas has a mental tally of which locations are good and which suck; debating which is which, and which is the best location, is a frequent pastime amongst locals.

I'm fortunate that I'm midway between two locations, one of which is superb and the other is passable.

San Diego also has Roberto's, but I'm not sure whether the locations there are 24-hour or not.

Spill the beans: Where are the superb ones?

[Max Rockatansky]

I usually stop at Tacos El Pastor when I'm in Las Vegas.  It is on Las Vegas Boulevard just north of Desert Inn.  I've gotten some really spice stuff from them in the recent past.

[Scott5114]

Spill the beans: Where are the superb ones?

The best one I've had is at Cheyenne and Grand Canyon, which has been consistently good every time I've been in. I've heard that Rainbow and Vegas is also one of the best. I went in there once and it was just okay, but I was there at like 6am, so they may not have been at the top of their game.

Most of the others rumored to be good are far enough away from me that I haven't had the chance to try them.

Emiliano's at Cheyenne and Tenaya made me the best quesadilla I've ever had, but they're not 24-hour. Unfortunately, while going there while drunk and/or high during the daytime would be socially acceptable in Las Vegas, it doesn't fit well with my personal schedule.

I usually stop at Tacos El Pastor when I'm in Las Vegas.  It is on Las Vegas Boulevard just north of Desert Inn.  I've gotten some really spice stuff from them in the recent past.

Buying food on Las Vegas Boulevard? Fancy-pants Rich McGee over here . . .

[Max Rockatansky]

The recent price increases unfortunately haven't been lost on me.  Usually I'm too tired when I roll into town to be too choosy over price.

[Scott5114]

I've learned that if I'm going to buy anything between Sahara, Russell, Valley View, and Paradise I should expect to be gouged.

[kphoger]

Taco Bell is fine when there is no other option but it ain't real Mexican food.  Once you've had real Mexican food it is hard to go back to the Americanized versions of it. 

Sometimes I'm in the mood for Mexican food. Sometimes I'm in the mood for Taco Bell. I don't get them confused.

This.  They aren't the same thing, and each has its place.  I enjoy both.

Over the years, added all together, I've easily spent more than two months in Mexico, and the majority of my meals during that time were home cooking.  But sometimes I really want a Taco Bell 'Mexican Pizza' or some such.  I've had plenty of 'real Mexican food', but that in no way means I find it 'hard to go back to the Americanized versions'.

Similarly, our good friends who live in Mexico full-time as Christian missionaries also have a real fondness for American-style ground beef tacos—and they've even got some of their local friends down there loving the Americanized version too.  In my experience, Mexicans are actually interested to try the Americanized dishes, and they really do enjoy a few of them.

The Midwest has plenty of really bad Mexican food, too.

Mexico has some bad Mexican food too.  Just because something is authentic, that doesn't automatically mean it's good.

Likewise, just because something is not authentic, that doesn't automatically mean it's not good.

And proximity to the border also doesn't guarantee either 'authentic' or 'good'.  The nastiest, cheapest, least authentic Mexican food I've had in the last several years, in fact, was in Laredo.

Sure, I love authentic Mexican food.  But sometimes, a Doritos Loco Taco is wonderfully disgusting.

Sometimes a half-assed order of plain old greasy beef tacos from the Bell really hits the spot.  But, honestly, I don't think of their 'Mexican Pizza' as bad at all—not disgusting, that is, wonderfully or otherwise.  And I'd easily take a Taco Bell quesadilla over any quesadilla I've ever had in Mexico.

Don't get me wrong, I don't turn down Taco Bell.  I just would never pick it if a taco truck was in the proximity.

I would, if what I actually want to eat that day is Americanized Mexican food.  If I want a Crunchwrap Supreme, then why would I go to a food truck?  It won't have that item.

[JayhawkCO]

Image seems to have disappeared.

Which one of these is not like the other?

Also, Taco Bell isn't that cheap if you want to get full and eat anything other than bean burritos.

[Roadgeekteen]

Taco bell is garbage lol. It's good for it's price but I would never choose it over most other places.

[kphoger]

Taco Bell isn't that cheap if you want to get full and eat anything other than bean burritos.

Fortunately for me, that is what I want to eat. 

[ZLoth]

There are plenty of Mexican and Tex-Mex places wherever I go in Texas. Of course, I prefer the sit-down over the fast food.

Of course, this whole Taco Hell / McDonalds / Applebees / Five Guys / Dennys / KFC / etc is why I prefer to dine at a local (or local chain) restaurant verses a national / regional chain restaurant. As stated multiple times previously, when I travel, I make it a point to avoid restaurants chains which have locations in the DFW area in favor of local favorites.

[kphoger]

Golden Corral may have made the top "cheap/bad" spot, but renting the party room at Golden Corral for our wedding rehearsal dinner was one of the best decisions we made for the occasion.  Everyone loved it.

[Rothman]

Golden Corral may have made the top "cheap/bad" spot, but renting the party room at Golden Corral for our wedding rehearsal dinner was one of the best decisions we made for the occasion.  Everyone loved it.

To each their own, but...yikes.

[elsmere241]

Golden Corral may have made the top "cheap/bad" spot, but renting the party room at Golden Corral for our wedding rehearsal dinner was one of the best decisions we made for the occasion.  Everyone loved it.

My aunt is still sore that her first husband's family picked an all-you-can-eat buffet (don't know what it was) for their rehearsal dinner.  It's been 40 years.

[kphoger]

It was Plan B.  The original plan was for my dad to cook the rehearsal dinner, but then my maternal grandmother died the week before our wedding.  So we had to do some bouncing back and forth between Branson and Kansas City, which meant he didn't have the time to do it.  Afterward, considering how well the party room worked out, and considering how a lot of the people specifically mentioned how great of an idea the Golden Corral party room idea was, we realized we should have just planned that from the beginning.

I swear, some people on here are just food snobs.  We all know who Rothman those people are, of course.

[Max Rockatansky]

We had a taco truck at our wedding. $1,400 to serve two plates to 120 people by my math was far cheaper than most traditional catering services.

[JayhawkCO]

We got catered by the local grocery store. I want to say it was $1,000 for 200 people?

[kphoger]

We had a taco truck at our wedding. $1,400 to serve two plates to 120 people by my math was far cheaper than most traditional catering services.

Yes, I remember you saying.  That's the best idea I've ever heard.

[ZLoth]

We had a taco truck at our wedding. $1,400 to serve two plates to 120 people by my math was far cheaper than most traditional catering services.

Interesting, but a wedding memory that people will taco about for years.

Meanwhile...

[1995hoo]

Heh. Last season the Capitals had a giveaway of the item in the bottom left of that image, along with the device to view them. It was pretty funny that even the parents of the little kids seemed a bit confounded by it.

[kphoger]

For what it's worth, I was born right around the GenX/Millennial line, and I've never actually seen an 8-track in person, nor have I ever been to a drive-in movie.

I have, on the other hand, used a payphone to make a collect call on multiple occasions.  How many people under the age of 40 would even know how to do that super-simple task?

[JayhawkCO]

For what it's worth, I was born right around the GenX/Millennial line, and I've never actually seen an 8-track in person, nor have I ever been to a drive-in movie.

I have, on the other hand, used a payphone to make a collect call on multiple occasions.  How many people under the age of 40 would even know how to do that super-simple task?

Never seen an 8-track either. But have been to drive ins, including one recently and have done collect calls for sure.

[kphoger]

... have done collect calls for sure.

Of course, you're an old fart over 40.

[Max Rockatansky]

For what it's worth, I was born right around the GenX/Millennial line, and I've never actually seen an 8-track in person, nor have I ever been to a drive-in movie.

I have, on the other hand, used a payphone to make a collect call on multiple occasions.  How many people under the age of 40 would even know how to do that super-simple task?

Never seen an 8-track either. But have been to drive ins, including one recently and have done collect calls for sure.

I had an 8-track player in my possession until I threw it away in 2013.  There was a decent size drive in at Commerce Township, Michigan that my dad took me and my siblings to in the 1980s.  He was kind of a movie buff and liked things that reminded him of the 1950s.

[Max Rockatansky]

... have done collect calls for sure.

Of course, you're an old fart over 40.

My wife just got one from her uncle last night.  Trouble was he was in jail (missed a court appearance) and didn't really have an option to call outbound.

[kphoger]

An interesting question would be, when was the last time you used a payphone?

Mine would have been in 2006, during our honeymoon in Mexico, when I helped my wife use a calling card to call her mom from an outdoor payphone.  Oh, hey, look:  even though the nearby resort was already closed at the time of the 2015 GSV shot, it hadn't been demolished yet, and you can still see the payphone:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/uktq3ewnk93kx9tU8

As for a domestic call, the last time would have been in approximately 2001–2002, when I used an outdoor payphone near my apartment in Carol Stream, IL.