It's been a while since I've been to a molcasalsa (I don't generally go to restaurants any longer…read moreat all, unless it's to write a review here or, slightly more frequently, to get some food for a video, but for a time, I was at one of these joints at least once a week, if not more often, and sifted through nearly all of them of which I was aware in the valley. I vaguely remember a Rancherito's, long gone now, closer to me, that had a massive carnitas chimichanga on the menu, which looked really good and I always wanted to one day get for myself (I could not find it on the menu at this location, alas) and figured that might still be the case. But...I suppose I'm a tester at heart, so instead, I went with my standard order for a first time visit, which was the carne asada plate.
Gone are the styrofoam clams, in favor of a metal pie tin with a plastic lid. Not sure how much we're trading up there, tbh. They only partially messed up the order, which I appreciated. The carne asada portion was three slabs of honestly kind of pasty looking skirt steak, not the usual cut up and charred on the flat top most places do. I definitely prefer the other way, due largely to a deep and abiding affection for the Maillard effect. The flavor on the steaks was fine, but this is nowhere near the best carne asada I've had and if I were to rank this entire restaurant with that as the baseline, it would be near the bottom. I figured these were a chain, but it was quite a sea change between this and the other location. Beans were fine, more or less the usual, albeit very skimpy on the cheese, while the rice had a faint sort of chemicaly taste, as if someone left it a bit too close to a bottle of spray cleaner.
This is probably going to sound trite, but if I know one thing in this life, it's that the devil is in the details and as long as they keep slinging me out some massive tortillas warmed on a flat top, I will continue to think that whatever I paid (I think $13 for this) was worth it. Yes, the prices have gone up, but I still can't finish one of these plates without pushing myself. The efficient part of me also notes that I can simply halve the portion and have another carne asada burrito later, maybe the next day, if I'm smart about it, and so, that's what I usually do and did here. I usually head to Real Tacos when I'm in this area, as this parking lot is fucking nuts and I hate it, but while I was underwhelmed, I'd maybe consider giving this place another shot, though that one, if it were to happen, would be a make or break.
