La Indita 4/8/06 Grade = C

This might be a cool place to nosh and have a beer on the patio while roaming downtown but not a place I would recommend.

ambiance = 15. Overall good. The main restaurant is an old house. They have built a trellis sort of over the booths lining the 'living room' that gives a nice cozy feel. If it had not been such a nice night we would have been happy to eat there. The back patio is a little urban oasis. Murals on the walls (though they looked more Italian than Mexican but not quibbling), nice flowers, a small garden in the back and overall nice decor that fit.. Rope lights around the outdoor trellises made for a soft backdrop for very nice for a quiet dinner. Quiet dinner was not in the cards however. A mariachi group was on the patio that night and though the singer was 'ok', the rest of the band was awful. The group was comprised of 16-18 year olds and it was all broken glass in my ears. It also happened to be Downtown Saturday night and the Pub Crawl so we got ambient music from other nearby spots which would have been ok as it wasn't super loud and made an interesting mashup. The maricachis were unforgivable and the difference between an 18 and a 15 for me.

Service = 15 The hostess was indifferent when we walked in. Admittedly we were obviously the last party of the evening but she was nowhere near cute enough to be so blase about guests. Beyond that the service was fine through most of the meal. About what you would want/expect from a mid-range Mexican restaurant. We did have some trouble getting our box to go and bill near the end and I suspect that our waitress was much more interested in hanging out with the dishwasher or closing out her register or whatever waitresses do at night.

Food = 28 We both read the long story on the back about how this was a blend of Native American and Sonoran cuisine. Other than 1 specialty dish, I guess this meant that Native American = Sonoran cuisine. Tina got a combo with the chicken enchiladas w/ green sauce, tamale and rice + beans. The chicken enchiladas were supposed to be the house specialty but were no better or worse than you would get at 100 other places in Tucson. She really liked the Spanish rice which had plenty of veggis and was slightly crispy/crunchy. I was unimpressed by everything on her plate.

My combo involved a chile relleno, taco and tamale. All forgettable and the chile relleno especially though it too was hyped as a specialty. The breading wasn't light or fluffy but very corn-dog-y instead. I got a side Tarascan taco with carne asada which was like a meat empanada covered in red sauce. It was the only thing we both really enjoyed.

Beyond that one taco, it was exactly the same Sonoran stuff you can get anywhere in town. While I was overseas I would have gladly payed $100 for a plate of this, but with so much available I have to take points off for ubiquosity (probably not a word but you get the idea).

Other = 16 General coolness was medium-high, I like the downtown thing that I hope Tucson continues to pursue and eating outdoors on a nice night in Tucson is a top 3 reason to live here. Value was high, we did get a lot of food and 2-3 drinks for $35 including tip. Medium score on choices available. They did have the Tarascan taco but the rest of the menu was just a xerox of every other Sonoran place around.

Total = 74

April Schedule (updated 4/18)

Here is my plan for April. As always drop me a note if you are interested in joining us. For Poca Cosa in particular we will need lots of lead time for reservations.

4/8 - La Indita (link) Done
4/22 - La Candela (link)
4/29 - El Guero Canelo (link)
?? - Cafe Poca Cosa (link)
?? - La Guelaguetza (link)

Montana Avenue : A-

Review #1, lets see how this goes.

Ambience - 19 - Nearly full marks here for design. I like the open design generally and especially the glassed off kitchen area. We sat on the porch near the fireplace and despite fronting onto Grant road was very pleasant. I was tempted to mark it down a bit more based on the totally annoying table they sat us next to but in the end I know that can't be controlled for.

Service - 17 - Big bonus for having an online reservation system through opentable.com. Not only could I see what times were available, I could change my party size and time on the fly. The hostesses were polite, efficient and attractive (come on....it all counts). The bartender and waiter were both great but a little forced. I knock off a bit for a restaurant that takes friendly competent people and gives them 'lines' that make them sound kind of phony in pursuit of offering great service. The waiters serving the big annoying table were constantly muttering under their breath about how annoying they were being. I agreed with the sentiment but they really should be more discreet.

Food - 35 - I thought my mussels and chorizo appetizer was great and Tina enjoyed her baby green spinach salad. For my entree, I wasn't a big fan of the lamb shank and the potatoes were a bit dry but the pan sauce was excellent. Its hard to plate a lamb shank to make it attractive but the vegetable medley was done well. Tina had seared scallops with mandarin oranges and green beans which was really excellent. 2 of the 4 scallops were seared too long and ended up being slightly burnt. 10 seconds less on the pan and they would have been perfect like the other 2. Presentation was great. The dessert was a scoop of chocolate ice cream in the middle of a sort of creamy toasted peanut butter custard. It was like a big peanut butter cup and was outstanding. The quality of the food was really excellent but execution was off a bit.

Other - 19 - For the quality of the food and menu, I think the prices were slightly below what they should be in Tucson. We had 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, 1 dessert and a few drinks each and the bill was around $80 which I would call a very good value. There were plenty of choices available and I truly had a hard time choosing from several good items both for appetizers and entrees. The wine list wasn't a particular value but there were some good bottles available. Full marks for overall coolness, especially on the patio.

Total = 90

The List

The following is a list sent to me by a very nice woman at the Tucson Weekly. I basically asked her to reccomend a few classic Tucson places to visit on our Saturday adventures. I think I mentioned we were going with friends so she appears to have skewed things a bit toward locations that are group friendly. We'll work our way through some of the things on this list and then go looking for more.

• Montana Avenue & sit on the patio as it’s LOUD.
• Café Poca Cosa is a must even though the new location is very L.A. looking.
• El Charro (downtown)
• Taqueria Pico de Gallo (south 6^th Street & 36^th Street) – great fish tacos & fruit salad/I don’t think they sell beer
• El Guero Canelo (south Tucson – awesome Sonoran hot dogs) – not sure about alcohol
• Canela (Peruvian on Oracle) – I’m dying to try that Pisco Sour
• Shish Kebab House – not cheap but homey
• Zona 78 (owned by the 2 guys who own Hacienda del Sol)
• Feast
• Red Garter (great cheeseburgers; if you don’t like smoke/sit on the patio which faces the parking lot/exhaust-you can’t win)
• Rocco’s Pizza – wait until it warms up and sit on the postage stamp size patio
• La Indita – 4^th Avenue, a mix of Mexican + Native American
• Kon Tiki (go for drinks only)
• La Guelaguetza - Oaxacan
• Omar’s Highway Restaurant (truck stop),
• La Costa Brava Seafood (south Tucson) – has beer
• El Sur
• J-Bar
• Le Buzz Coffee House & Bistro – serves wine/beer, roasts their own coffee
• Monkey Box
• El Mazon de Cobre
• Zivaz – new Mexican fast casual with beer/margaritas and wine by the bottle/delightful flavors/Mexican eggplant dish that I order almost every time, pobano and pipian sauces for really good enchiladas/great service
• Bob Dobb’s – hamburgers & beer
• Lotus Garden has been around for 2 or 3 decades and is still family owned. They have stuff like beef in birds nest and lychee and plum wine ice cream (Cantonese/Szechuan). It’s my current favorite Chinese restaurant in Tucson.

The System

I don't have a formal scoring system from a reviewer but I made my own and it will go something like this. I want to give points (1-20, 20 being the best) in each category with double weight given to Food. This gives an overall total of 100 possible and will correspond to a convenient letter grade.

The key thing to remember about the scale is that the most high class place should be in direct competition with the most awesome taco stand.

• Ambience is pretty obvious but the main criteria is did they accomplish what they were going for?
  
  
• Service includes everything from reservations all the way through. This is tough to be objective about as I value a certain type of service (not the fawning type) but I'll try to be consistent throughout.
  
  
• Food is obviously the most important factor. I'll include presentation as a minor component but its mostly about taste.
  
  
• Other is a catchall to include value, choices available and general coolness.
  

Feel free to post comments and include your scores.

The Idea

I have fallen into a scheduling situation where my parents are going to be watching my 2 kids every Saturday night for the next several months, leaving my wife and I free to go out. As parents of 2 kids, this weekly availability for date night is an unexpected windfall. I want to make the most of it so I am putting together a list of uniquely Tucson restaurants and each week we will check one of them out.

I am going to use this site to chronicle the whole process.