Omnivore - Tex-Mex nightmare in town

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• Robert Berry

You may remember Robert Berry as a reporter at the AJC. He posted the following review of his holiday meal at a so-called Mexican restaurant on Facebook. While it would be appropriate to point out that he visited a Tex-Mex restaurant, not a Mexican one, the review will resonate with anyone who has wandered into such a place, although few of us would hold the server so accountable. (I have eliminated his hints at the actual identity of the restaurant to protect Bob from poisoning and the server from termination.)

The loveliest lunches — especially around the holidays — often happen in a completely ad hoc, uncontained, unplanned way. I had lunch the other day with my lifelong buddy, at what has become a holiday-week tradition (of 2 years standing) — at a Mexican restaurant in town.

Now, our expectations are about as high as a 3M stickie — it’s not a big hurdle for us to jump over. It’s mostly about us doing our usual shtick, the standard chiding, the ironic, iconic laughs over really cheap Mexican food. It is the way.

Now, with our expectations lowered appropriately, we drove down to the place. My friend and I ordered pork carnitas and some sort of beefsteak, in that order. Of course, the thing is, all Mexican restaurants have 100 things on the menu, but all it really is, once you think about, each are just a reorganization of standard items — you have your lettuces, your beans, your rice, your meat item. That’s about it.