Travis - Taco Tour stop #26 - Lina's Mexican Restaurant - 4910 E Central

Trying to venture out a little farther this week, we decided that we needed to make our way to Lina's Mexican Restaurant. There are two in town, so we headed to the one on Central just east of Oliver.  It's a pretty small place with limited parking and seating - but there was room for us.  The front of the restaurant is glass so you have a "nice" view of Central. Which ironically on this day was pretty exciting...

Chris was waiting (he was early!) and Shon was late. I arrived on time and after a short wait, Chris and I decided not to wait on dork #2.  I heard Chris ordering his tacos and heard that all their traditional tacos have guacamole on them (and pico de gallo).  On this tour, I've tried to stick to eating tacos as they are served - but I had to make an exception in this case. Just NOT a fan of guac.  I can handle it sometimes and in small servings. Definitely not something I wanted on EVERY taco.  I just wasn't feeling this place - odd ingredients compared to what we've seen so far. I decided to only order 3 tacos and I subbed the guac out and added cilantro to try to get back to what I was used to seeing.  My selection was carnitas (soft), ground beef (hard shell), and chicken (hard shell).

Honestly when the tacos came out I wasn't terribly excited. Was it an off day or was my gut predicting a mediocre experience?

Carnitas was first - and as you know, the bar is crazy high... This fell WELL short. The meat was plentiful but dry. It lacked any bold flavor - or really much flavor at all. It was, at best, a mediocre taco.

The ground beef was next and there was a lot of meat - more than you usually get on a ground beef taco.  But it just lacked real flavor - there wasn't much seasoning in the meat.  I added some sauce and that helped, but it just wasn't anything notable. It wasn't bad, but that's the best I can do.

The chicken was last.  There was a LOT of meat - almost too much actually. An awkward amount if that's possible.  Again, not much flavor. I added some sauce and overall it definitely had a nice kick.  But that's it. Nothing special - just an ok taco.

I'm usually pretty wordy (probably too wordy) - but I just can't come up with much to describe these tacos because there's just not much to talk about.  The only thing exciting about this visit was the 20+ cop cars surrounding the neighboring area due to a couple of fugitives (one running from the scene).  So that's why the front glass of the restaurant was a plus - at least there was something to look at and talk about.

Overall, meh. I won't bother coming back. There are so many other better choices around town, there's just nothing worth coming here for.  My bill was only $7.45, but so what? You can do better for about the same somewhere else!

Out of 5 tacos, here's my ratings:

Food Taste:
Value:
Cleanliness:
Service:
Overall:
Likelihood to return: