Being a west sider (at least during business hours) I'm always looking for new places close to the office to find some tasty tacos. We've been fortunate the last couple of weeks to be able to hit a couple of newish spots that opened up on the west side - first, Pedro's Express, then Rancho Nuevo, now this week's stop: El Agave on north Maize Road. For you east siders, many of you are probably familiar with the El Agave on N Rock and K-96. After operating there successfully for the last several years, the owners decided to expand to the west side of town in a nice, new, shiny location near 35th St N and Maize. I had eaten at the east location before but I didn't remember anything particular about it. So I was able to enter the new spot with open expectations.
We were seated immediately, and I noticed that the place already had a decent sized crowd there. After looking over the menu, the first thing I noticed is that this place is NOT going to be high on the value rating. They did have a la carte tacos, but you're looking at over 3 bucks each. Our waitress wasn't much help (listening to her try to explain the fajita taco to Travis made me tune her out immediately), so I just decided to go with 4 tacos: fish, shrimp, steak, and al pastor. We got to munch on some chips and salsa which were pretty tasty. After a semi reasonable wait, our tacos arrived. Now... from a presentation standpoint, this didn't seem ideal - I was basically handed a plate with 4 aluminum foil wrapped lumps. But from a practicality standpoint, it was nice to eat fresh, hot tacos all the way to the end. I decided to start with the fish taco, which was grilled (not fried) with lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. I would give this taco a very average "Meh". The fish tasted pretty fishy, which is fine for some people. But to me it was a little too strong, like it was cheap fish and not a clean white fish flavor. Next up was the shrimp taco, which came with white cheese and some lettuce. They actually put a decent amount of shrimp in the taco compared to most other places. The shrimp was cooked well - nice and tender, not chewy or overcooked. It lacked a little seasoning, but I threw some lime and salsa on it and was satisfied. The asada steak was next - basically a huge wad of steak put in a tortilla. No cilantro or onion, so it was a pretty naked looking taco. It had a nice steak flavor to it, but I still felt like it needed something. Onion and cilantro I think would've helped, but it was an above average taco with a little salsa and lime on it. Last was the al pastor - this one saved the day! No doubt the best taco of the day, this one was stuffed with plenty of tasty filling (pork? beef? I don't think we ever decided and I didn't feel like asking the waitress). Some people might think it's a little greasy, but the flavors really popped. A really nice mix of spicy pepper and sweet pineapple mixed perfectly in the meat. A huge thumbs up for this one.
Overall, I'd say the al pastor will definitely have me coming back. Travis said the fajita taco was pretty good also, so I'll have to make sure to try that on the follow up trip. My overall rankings on the 5-Taco Scale are below.
Food Quality - 3.0 Tacos
Price - $-$$
Value - 2.5 Tacos
Cleanliness - 4.5 Tacos
Service - 2.5 Tacos
Overall Experience - 3.0 Tacos
Likelihood to Return - 3.5 Tacos
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