It’s so incredibly intellectually dishonest to compare lunch versus dinner that it seems like you must not expect a serious response. Their 4-course dinner is $140
Literally over 2x as much as Taco Maria.
Frankly I’m really cheap, I seek out the biggest bang for the buck without regard to time of the day - so long as the product is good. I can’t afford 3* dinners so my meals at this caliber tends to be relegated to lunches and I find them to be a pretty good deal.
I’m apologize if my initial response was intellectually dishonest. It was intended as a sincere response 
.
And it begs the fucking question in what it means to be intellectually dishonest ???
If your budget is significantly constrained, I am not sure that looking at 3 michelin star places at all is the right way to get the most bang for one’s buck. The lunch is not even technically cheaper at Le Bernadin, as it’s $16.33 per course, which means if you added a 4th course it would be $65.20, so it’s technically less of a bang for you buck than Taco Maria, even given the impossible comparison of lunch to dinner. If anything this proves that Taco Maria’s dinner is an absolutely insane value in fine dining.
There can certainly be as much beauty in a $3 Lupe’s #2 bean & cheese with red sauce as anything at Le Bernadin or Taco Maria though. Denigrating a place like Taco Maria because one doesn’t feel like shelling out that kind of money for that level of cooking strikes me as quite odd though.
I think my initial review hardly qualifies as denigrating, in fact I thought it was rather complementary perhaps even glowing. My comments were solely directed at the relative QPR @ $65 as being fair, not an insane value. You are certainly welcome to your opinions, I was merely sharing an alternate perspective as one with more limited financial means.
You’re right, given my provenance I should not try to seek bargains from the 3*s and can probably find better values elsewhere.h
Is there anywhere in Los Angeles where one can have dinner for significantly less than $65 that is far superior to Taco Maria for the same quality of food/cooking?
Quick, duck maybe he won’t see us. Fuck, too late.
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I’ve had lunch in the lounge at Le Bernardin. The room is lovely, the best service I have ever received (even in the lounge they have really professional waitstaff), a lovely and surprisingly reasonably priced wine list and proper stemware.
I find the Taco Maria room ugly and I was turned off by the tumblers for wine. Would have brought my own stemware if I had known. It’s a completely different experience from fine dining at Taco Maria. For those prices, I prefer a nicer atmosphere. It didn’t help that none of the party liked our food, but it was only weekend brunch, not the “real” stuff. However, spending close to $200 to eat in an ugly room in what I considered a dismal suburban shopping mall and to drink wine from a tumbler did not inspire any desire to return no matter how great Jonathan Gold says it is.
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I say enjoy it while it lasts. Chef Salgado has to be working on something bigger than this? With all the awards and accolades he must have investors lining up to open up a much bigger ,fancier, expensive restaurant somewhere in the OC.
In 2 years we’ll all wax nostalgic about those value based $65 prix fixe dinners and $15 tacos. That’s just my guess.
As for me I could care less about the room or stemware. If the food is great that is all that matters. You could practically spend $65 at Gjusta and eat it on an upside bucket. You won’t see me complaining.
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That’s a fair and reasoned response. I think we had the discussion about the brunch versus dinner on chowhound, so there’s no need to go into that. If you were ever inspired to go back there, I recommend sitting at the bar so you can interact with the chef, etc. and not worry about the service.
It’s all a matter of preference, I guess. I find it quite nice to be able to eat some of the best food in LA without having to bother wearing a shirt with a collar.
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You don’t have to wear a shirt with a collar in any restaurant in LA.
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I’m with you. Good food is good food. I don’t care if I’m in a shopping mall or on the street in Asia or at a three michelin spot in France.
Question. Do you think the OC or even LA could support a restaurant bigger and more expensive place than this? There is such a prejudice against high-end Mexican cooking. If he was cooking French or Japanese food this good, I think he could build a massive place. But so many people just scoff at modern Mexican and say “No thanks, I’ll just have my $1 street taco.”
I think it would be fascinating to see him open a bigger place. I can’t decide if he would succeed though.
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Yes you do.
I did not mean for my comment to be taken literally. But you can’t tell me you would show up to Providence in a tee shirt and flipflops?
But there’s really no formal restaurant in LA where men are required to wear jackets and potentially ties, besides say private members-only clubs or joints such as the magic castle which require formal attire and has a strict dress code for both men and women and that’s seriously no joke even if it is within the confines of LA.
Even if I do have a “slight modicum of taste”, it doesn’t mean that I’m forced to like Taco Maria based on that.
Just saying.
I liked his tacos and aquachiles during lunch service but the flavors just didn’t come together at dinner and it truly felt like the chef and cooks were trying way too hard.
but that’s just my two cents.
I stand corrected, probably why I’ve never been to Melisse.
I’ve dined @ Providence in jeans, tshirt and sneakers… granted it was during their Friday lunch special
And that is in my opinion one of the best aspects of LA dining. I was just championing the fact that TM is casual even among LA establishments.
I’ve had about 4-5 different versions of the aquachile over the past 1-2 years and found them all excellent. I like that he doesn’t dumb it down and that there is plenty of acid and nice streak of spice at the end. A bowl of santa barbara prawns, giant clam, abalone at that price? That’s easily $20-30 alone at any other mid to high end restaurant. Crab with rice and crispy chicken skin is the best porridge dish in town since the loss of the uni porridge at Red Medicine.
I guess we have completely different tastes. It interesting to note I found that lunch was not worth it since there are so many excellent mexican places in town doing tacos. Haute Mexican/Baja Cuisine for dinner is one of a kind in this town and beyond. I’m not aware of anything like this in NYC, Chicago, or SF. It’s leagues beyond what Bayless is doing. The pork posole with heirloom corn was as good if not better than any hole in the wall version. The mole is complex and flavorful.
It was a steal at $49. At $65 I would say it’s appropriately priced. Heck the uni pasta at Bestia is now $32 and no one complains about that.
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I’d love to see some of the high end action in Mexico City make its way to LA.
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Yeah, I may just be pretty fucking ignorant when it comes to haute Mexican, or is it nouveau Mexican.
I didn’t care for the porridge with the chicken chiccharones nor the fish with this weird herb that the name escapes me now, and the avocado soup was merely OK and quite bland. Once again, I’m presuming I’m in the minority on this joint.
But to me there’s more value in a $150 sushi meal than this $65 dinner. Granted if I had the $49 dinner back in the day I’d believe it to be much more reasonably priced, natch.
And the aguachile during dinner service just didn’t even touch the heights of lunch service. One reason and this reason might be beyond fucking strange: the main chef himself doesn’t cook during lunch service potentially ?? but does only during dinner and the lunch chefs might be better executers of his recipes than he his himself, which might just mean he’s a tremendous visionary and leader where the crew performs he even better without him even being there.
I’m open to potentially trying it again, but it sure seems like theres a lot of great food elswhere in OC and LA.
Just my worthless two and one-half cents. and that’s no fucking joke.