Jingthing Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 (edited) A few days ago I noticed a new restaurant in the making TACO VALLEY on Pattaya Klang between 2nd and Beach. Now I was riding by on a baht bus as I am wont to do; however, it all looked very under construction and quite a ways from being operational. It did look to be possibly a serious effort. The sign was large and modern (expensive looking) so one can presume a good sized investment is being made in the place. Of course the proof is in the pudim, but one can always hope? Also, typically taco joints are taquerias, which mean they will also be serving BURRITOS? Again, one can hope? Perhaps a member here is involved with this new venture. If so, please spill the pinto beans! We are hungry here for real Mexican food ... Edited October 7, 2009 by Jingthing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
britmaveric Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Tequila Reef should sort you out!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 Tequila Reef should sort you out!! No, they won't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulysses G. Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Tequila Reef sucks (for Mexican food)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 Tequila Reef sucks (for Mexican food)! Yes, they do. When Thai people tell me they don't like Mexican food, this first thing I ask is, so you tried Tequila Reef? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
britmaveric Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Taquitos\Quesadillas are not bad. Margs are excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 As I implied in the OP, we are STILL waiting for good Mexican food in Pattaya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
britmaveric Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Need to go to Yank Southwest, afraid prob never see the best mexican in thailand. Dunno Ms. Brit liked Tequilla Reef, but prefers thai food if she had a choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 (edited) Need to go to Yank Southwest, afraid prob never see the best mexican in thailand.Dunno Ms. Brit liked Tequilla Reef, but prefers thai food if she had a choice. Not looking for the best. Looking for decent which is possible in Thailand (check other cities). Anyone who knows Mexican food by definition can't like TR, sorry. TR's food is like the kind of "Mexican" food you would have found in the American midwest 30 years ago before there were any Mexicans there, in other words, stuff a real Mexican wouldn't eat unless starving. Yes, their margaritas are good, but I am talking about restaurants, not bars. Edited October 7, 2009 by Jingthing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
britmaveric Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 ^unfortunately you are sadly wrong. Is Tequila Reef excellent - no, but its acceptable considering where you are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 (edited) ^unfortunately you are sadly wrong. Is Tequila Reef excellent - no, but its acceptable considering where you are. Agree to disagree. Next ... To me their stuff isn't worth eating, period. Edited October 7, 2009 by Jingthing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
britmaveric Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 ^you tried the quesadilla or taquitos? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 (edited) ^you tried the quesadilla or taquitos? I had a burrito plate there. The meat was atrocious. The beans were atrocious. The tortilla chips were atrocious. The salsa was atrocious. If you can't offer good salsa, you aren't a Mexican restaurant. I would need salsa for those things and they don't have it, so no, and I never will. A total tourist trap. Enjoy it, there are plenty who do. However, no serious lover of Mexican food does, and you will have to accept that reality. This new place, it would take a lot of effort to be worse than TR! Edited October 7, 2009 by Jingthing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
britmaveric Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 However, no serious lover of Mexican food does, and you will have to accept that reality. So now you are telling us because you do not like Tequila Reef then everyone else who does likes real mexican food should not too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiang mai Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 I agree that the Mexican food in TR is hugely disappointing to anyone who has previously eaten even mediocre Mexican food before. Even basic Mexican food in San Diego, Tiujuana and further South in the 1970's was vastly superior to the food produced at TR. The odd thing is that reasonable quality Mexican food is not difficult to produce, Mrs CM is a whiz in that area, thankfully, because there are so few good alternatives around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 (edited) However, no serious lover of Mexican food does, and you will have to accept that reality. So now you are telling us because you do not like Tequila Reef then everyone else who does likes real mexican food should not too? I said enjoy it. Its no skin off my arse. But again you will have to accept if you do like that stuff, you don't really like Mexican food, because that isn't Mexican food. I don't claim to know everything, for example I can't credibly judge an Uzbeki restaurant, but I know what they serve at TR is extremely NOT the s__t. Edited October 7, 2009 by Jingthing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulysses G. Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 I have nothing but respect for britmaveric, but anyone who has never had a superburrito on Mission Street in San Francisco, is not qualified to judge good Mexican food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
britmaveric Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 ^I have had the best Mexican - well its Yank Mexican. (mexicans do not eat the yank produced cuisine) If I had my preference sure I would take that over TR, but the options are limited in Thailand. No I will not accept your fallacy - this is only your opinion which only has value to yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 (edited) ^I have had the best Mexican - well its Yank Mexican. (mexicans do not eat the yank produced cuisine) If I had my preference sure I would take that over TR, but the options are limited in Thailand. No I will not accept your fallacy - this is only your opinion which only has value to yourself. Actually you are wrong. Mexicans do eat Yank Mexican. Go to the better San Francisco Mission district burrito joints and most of the customers are Mexicans. Those kind of burritos are not available in Mexico. Similarly in New Mexico, they have their own style of Mexican food not available in Mexico. Mexicans love it! On the other hand if you tried to get money from real Mexicans for the dreck they serve at TR, Juanita bar the door! Yes the options are limited in PATTAYA. That's why I posted about this new place. Hoping for better as Bangkok and CM does have already. Edited October 7, 2009 by Jingthing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patsfangr Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 My preferred Mex place in Pattaya is 'Mike's', just off of Theppraya Road, south of the hill. It doesn't equal the Mex deli's in So Cal, where I lived for the last 30 years before coming here. But it's a place that's good enough to be called Mexican food, IMO. What's lacking is the salsa that JT mentioned. It's definitely not up to standard. But he uses decent meat; and his sauce is pretty good. And for those who, like me, love a Marg with Mex food, they are outstanding at Mike's. My favorite items there are the Quesadilla Supreme, and the California Burrito. Both taste great, and definitely fill your belly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluto_manibo Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 (edited) I had a Quesadilla with beef in <snip>, it cost me 12,000 baht medical fees, 3 days sick and one night in hospital with iv/tests. Edited October 7, 2009 by soundman Removed defamatory content from reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
britmaveric Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 ^Sorry to hear you had a bad tummy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longball53098 Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 ^unfortunately you are sadly wrong. Is Tequila Reef excellent - no, but its acceptable considering where you are. No its not acceptable unless you drink several of the big margaritas first I voted with my feet at TR and don't go there anymore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PattayaParent Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 (edited) I've been to Mike's since he moved to his new location and the place is really nice, much better setting and atmosphere than the old place and the same standard of excellent food. Word must have gotten around as the place was full too. If Taco Valley is anything like Taco Bell then I'm sure I'll enjoy it. Edited October 8, 2009 by PattayaParent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellymeister Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 I've been to Mike's since he moved to his new location and the place is really nice, much better setting and atmosphere than the old place and the same standard of excellent food.Word must have gotten around as the place was full too. If Taco Valley is anything like Taco Bell then I'm sure I'll enjoy it. Taco Bell???? Isn’t that officially classified as yankified Mexican junk food? I think the discussion here is about higher end stuff. Re other comments, it is hard to say a restaurant is a good Mexican restaurant because it has a few frozen margarita machines about….not exactly rocket science to make a decent margarita…. TR slid down hill after the original expat chef, split years ago. Would be nice if a "tex-mex" style resto would open though as it is better than strictly Mexican joints in my opinion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted October 8, 2009 Author Share Posted October 8, 2009 (edited) Taco Bell is a different category entirely. That is massive chain American style food fast concept, like McDonald's applied to Mexican "style" ingredients. There is a big market for it in the US but again it is not real Mexican food. There is a category of quality American style Mexican food that isn't bad but also is so Americanized that Mexicans don't like in. I don't like it either but if they opened one in Pattaya, I would eat there as its better than nothing where in my view TR isn't better than nothing. To be fair to Britmav, maybe that is the style he was talking about referring to Yank Mexican food (of course we don't actually call it that) and in that sense he is right, Mexicans don't like it. An example is the food at Chevys restaurant chain. http://www.chevys.com/ About this new place. It appears to NOT be a chain. It appears to most likely be a taqueria style place which is a real Mexican style thing. As they are located a very SHORT WALK to TR, one can imagine they don't see TR as much of a threat. As I said before, it would take a major effort to offer worse "Mexican" food than TR. Edited October 8, 2009 by Jingthing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patsfangr Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 JT, which style of Mexican food are you most familiar with, and fond of? As I noted earlier, I lived in So Cal for over 30 years. I also lived in El Paso for a year. Finally, while I lived in Chicago, I worked with a guy from Guadalajara. I can tell you that So Cal Mex, Tex-Mex, and the great seafood of the Guadalajara region, are all quite different. All good, IMO. But very different. The food at Mike's is So Cal Mex; and, as I noted earlier, it's a very good version of it, except for the ultra mild salsa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted October 8, 2009 Author Share Posted October 8, 2009 (edited) I like everything that is good. I do demand decent salsa for taqueria style items. My favorites are San Francisco Mission district style burritos and more regional dishes in Mexico itself. I am familiar with most of the Mexican styles as I have traveled in the Southwest US and many regions of Mexico. Of course Mexican food involves vastly more than taqueria style items and is one of the top cooking cultures in the world, but outside Mexico that is mostly what people eat. Here in Pattaya I would be happy with a good taqueria style menu that actually delivers on the promise of the menu, not expecting a Oaxaca style restaurant here. It would be a very poor investment indeed. Edited October 8, 2009 by Jingthing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckd Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 I was raised in West Texas so I have had a few Tex-Mex meals. Many in small out of the way restaurants run by locals on the wrong side of the railroad tracks in small West Texas towns. I am not knowledgable enough to claim expertise in Cal-Mex, however. I have dined at many of the Mexican food places in LOS. Coyote's on Thanon Convent in Bangkok is probably the best at the moment. TR is far removed from any of those restaurants in quality. Food poisoning is only one reason I will not return. Now that the thread has discussed our various tastes, can somebody answer the OP's question about the new restaurant??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted October 8, 2009 Author Share Posted October 8, 2009 (edited) Now that the thread has discussed our various tastes, can somebody answer the OP's question about the new restaurant??? Thanks for that. I doubt anyone can! That is because it is still under construction. I was kind of hoping the owner would hear about this and let us know what the plans are. Funny you say TexMex. My first exposure to quality Mexican food growing up was at a surprising excellent TexMex restaurant near Washington DC of all places. Maybe they opened it to cater to LBJ. Not much exposure to TexMex after that, as you can imagine TexMex is not popular in California. Edited October 8, 2009 by Jingthing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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