Zagat's Top 20 Mexican - SD makes the list- (Los Angeles, San Diego: 2014, to buy)

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Edit: Sorry meant 20

Low brow wins in San Diego. Las Cuatro Milpas hits it.


TOP MEXICAN RESTAURANTS
The top restaurants for Mexican food in or near 20 U.S. cities, according to restaurant guidebook and online publisher Zagat. The cost is the average price of a meal for one person with a drink and a tip.
City Restaurant . . . Cost
Atlanta Nuevo Laredo Cantina . . . $21
Austin Tacodeli . . . $11
Baltimore R & R Taqueria . . . $10
Boston El Sarape . . . $28
Chicago Topolobampo . . . $70
Dallas-Fort Worth Esperanza's Mexican Bakery & Cafe $16
Fort Lauderdale Eduardo de San Angel . . . $59
Honolulu Maui Tacos . . . $14
Houston Irma's Southwest Grill . . . $23
Las Vegas Cafe Rio Mexican Grill . . . $13
Los Angeles Babita Mexicuisine . . . $44
Miami Chéen Huaye . . . $29
New Orleans Felipe's Taqueria . . . $14
New York Mercadito-Mercadito Grove . . . $33
Orlando Agave Azul . . . $22
Philadelphia Paloma Mexican Haute Cuisine . . . $54
Portland, Ore. Autentica . . . $27
San Diego Las Cuatro Milpas . . . $9
San Francisco El Castillito . . . $9
Washington Oyamel . . . $42


Zagat picks the best Mexican restaurants in 20 cities

[echo42]

Oh man, Las Quatro Milpas is the bomb. I usually go for breakfast on Saturday morning. A bowl of menudo, a taco,some frijoles con chorizo with a tortilla and a coke. That is it. That is San Diego, dudes in brown flip flops and girls with tank tops and summer dresses. Low brow, laid back, unpretentious, and good.

[earlyretirement]

Thanks Shmoov. That's one of the things that is so great about the restaurant scene here in San Diego is so many great Mexican places. I love love love Mexican food and there is no shortage of great places in San Diego and the vicinity for great Mexican.

I've been to several of these restaurants listed on this list above. Some of them I agree with and some of them I find myself scratching my head. (Like Maui Tacos in Honolulu).

Man, I'll never get tired of checking out new Mexican places in San Diego. Thankfully I could probably hit a new Mexican joint every week and I probably won't hit all of them in my lifetime.

[Marinadistrict]

Oyamel is fine for DC, which is a notorious wasteland of Mexican food (most of it is Salvadoreans trying to make Mexican food to satisfy the gringo demand). Jose Andres is a great chef, but go try the tacos there. They are good but nothing special. Certainly not top 20 in the U.S. caliber. If Zagat didn't have to try and pick only one from each major city, I think San Diego and LA would be dominating this list.

Cafe Rio in Las Vegas is a nationwide chain, no different from Baja Fresh. Zagat in general is a waste of time.

[oddstray]

Originally Posted by Marinadistrict

... Zagat in general is a waste of time.

^^^This.

We gave up on Zagat when it raved about an Indian restaurant over in Sorrento Valley as though it was India's gift to San Diego. It turned out to be a chain take-out place that didn't even have very good food. We have pretty good luck using Yelp, and we sometimes take a chance on a middle-rated place and find that we like it much more than the rating would suggest.

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by Marinadistrict

Oyamel is fine for DC, which is a notorious wasteland of Mexican food (most of it is Salvadoreans trying to make Mexican food to satisfy the gringo demand). Jose Andres is a great chef, but go try the tacos there. They are good but nothing special. Certainly not top 20 in the U.S. caliber. If Zagat didn't have to try and pick only one from each major city, I think San Diego and LA would be dominating this list.

Cafe Rio in Las Vegas is a nationwide chain, no different from Baja Fresh. Zagat in general is a waste of time.

Oh no. This is NOT a "Top 20 in the USA" type of list. They just took 20 random cities and the author made a list what he thought was the best places in 20 random cities. But this certainly is NOT a Top 20 in the USA list.

I've been to over half of these places on this list and I don't think any of them would make the top 20 Mexican restaurants in the USA type of thing. As well, I doubt the writer even tried most of the restaurants in each of these towns. I mean, to give you an example, Maui Tacos is a chain so I was surprised to see them on the list. Just like Cafe Rio in Las Vegas as Marinadistrict correctly mentioned.

It sounds like he is hitting touristy type places in many of these cities. I've found Zagats TOTALLY hit or miss. I've found they have gone way down hill over the years. Especially after Google acquired them a few years ago. They used to be much more selective in what they wrote, IMHO.

I'd probably go backwards and see if any of these places is spending significant amounts of advertising with Google Adwords. If so, that probably tells you how they ended up on this "Zagat's List".

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Zagats used to be the only game in town pre-internet....but this is 2013.

Anyone that uses Zagat's exclusively as a go to might be missing out on additional information via peer reviews.
They are still useful, but somewhat antiquated in this day and age with the Yelps (as oddstray mentioned) urban spoon and even Google Reviews on the web.
I would like to think Chowhound has certainly become more of the Zagat 2.0.

Now we have many places to get information rather than just one, nothing wrong with Zagats though as they are a long standing brand for this kind of info and getting names and or reviews into the consciousness.

Now about Las Cuatro Milpas. Definitely tops in SD! Not so much because they are great now (flavor of the month), but because they are a long standing institution for this kind cuisine and at great prices year after year. The lines out that place are impressive, day after day.

Now, if they put something El Indio there instead of Milpas, I think that would definitely set off red flags regarding some of the theories regarding Zagat's methodology

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by shmoov_groovzsd

Zagats used to be the only game in town pre-internet....but this is 2013.

Anyone that uses Zagat's exclusively as a go to might be missing out on additional information via peer reviews.
They are still useful, but somewhat antiquated in this day and age with the Yelps (as oddstray mentioned) urban spoon and even Google Reviews on the web.
I would like to think Chowhound has certainly become more of the Zagat 2.0.

Now we have many places to get information rather than just one, nothing wrong with Zagats though as they are a long standing brand for this kind of info and getting names and or reviews into the consciousness.

Now about Las Cuatro Milpas. Definitely tops in SD! Not so much because they are great now (flavor of the month), but because they are a long standing institution for this kind cuisine and at great prices year after year. The lines out that place are impressive, day after day.

Now, if they put something El Indio there instead of Milpas, I think that would definitely set off red flags regarding some of the theories regarding Zagat's methodology

So so true Shmoov! Now with the power of the Internet so many new players. The Internet changed the way people travel and dine out.

My family and I are always on the road traveling and I remember the olden days of having to buy travel guides. LOL. Now those books get outdated quickly and the best information is utilizing online websites like TripAdvisor and the many others out there.

[bloom]

Originally Posted by shmoov_groovzsd

Zagats used to be the only game in town pre-internet....but this is 2013.

Anyone that uses Zagat's exclusively as a go to might be missing out on additional information via peer reviews.
They are still useful, but somewhat antiquated in this day and age with the Yelps (as oddstray mentioned) urban spoon and even Google Reviews on the web.
I would like to think Chowhound has certainly become more of the Zagat 2.0.

Now we have many places to get information rather than just one, nothing wrong with Zagats though as they are a long standing brand for this kind of info and getting names and or reviews into the consciousness.

Now about Las Cuatro Milpas. Definitely tops in SD! Not so much because they are great now (flavor of the month), but because they are a long standing institution for this kind cuisine and at great prices year after year. The lines out that place are impressive, day after day.

Now, if they put something El Indio there instead of Milpas, I think that would definitely set off red flags regarding some of the theories regarding Zagat's methodology

That's the El Indio litmus test

[sdurbanite]

It's crazy to see people are paying more than $25 per person for Mexican food! For ethnic food, I prefer the hole in the walls over anything upscale.