So the question is, is the new tenant at this location worth the stop? Well without giving you any obvious spoilers, Shon and I (Travis) have been there twice in 2 weeks and we talked Chris into going without us too.
Not much seems to have changed on the interior - although only having been in Pedro's once, I don't remember all details. The layout does seem to be identical - it is a sit-down style restaurant where the waitress brings you menus, takes your drink and food orders, and brings everything to your table. A bit of a concern is that on our first visit, there was only one other table of patrons there. (Our second visit was more encouraging with quite a few more diners).
The chips and salsa were pretty tasty here and complimentary (my favorite kind!). The chips were light and crunchy and the salsa has a very slight kick with a hint of sweetness. It's good enough that we welcomed multiple refills on both visits.
If you ask for tacos a la carte, you'll be told they are $2.99 each. If you're like me, you cringed slightly at that because it might sound slightly expensive when you like to order 4 or 5 (or 8) street tacos at a time. But they also have a taquiza plate on the appetizer menu that gives you one of each of their 4 street tacos for $9.99: shrimp, chicken, steak, and carnitas. For our first visit, Shon and I both went this route and I subbed an extra carnitas instead of the shrimp.
By the way, service here is very polite and prompt. Our waitress was very attentive to us and took the time to explain details of their entrees, offer suggestions, and answer our questions. Our food came out quickly as well as some extra limes that we requested and some hotter salsa for our tacos.
Let me say right here that the amount of meat on the street tacos is impressive. Normally when we think of street tacos, we think of pretty small tortillas and a little meat - and usually need to eat about 6 (or more) to feel satisfied. That is not the case here - there is too much meat for the tortillas and that's a great thing.
First taco was the chicken - it has a nice red tint to it like you'd see in an al pastor. This taco was VERY tasty - it reminds me of a similar taco at Taco Fajita (which is very good too). It was tender and juicy - which we can't often say about chicken tacos. It obviously had been marinated for some time because the flavor was throughout the meat. Once I added a little bit of the hotter salsa and brought up the heat - this taco quickly became a favorite.
Next up was the steak taco - and it was also tender and had a decent flavor. It wasn't as flavorful as the chicken, however. It was fine but not as good as other carne asada tacos we've had at other restaurants. Definitely not saying this is a bad taco. Adding some of their salsa definitely helped and added some heat - but again, you'll find better steak out there.
As for my two carnitas tacos, both were tender and juicy and had a really nice flavor. The quality of the cut of meat was good as I encountered no fatty spots or chewiness - which can sometimes happen with carnitas elsewhere. Once again adding the hotter salsa brought along some good flavor and nice heat. I was happy I had two of these to enjoy.
Shon's take on the shrimp taco was also very positive. Besides plenty of tiny shrimp, it had lettuce, a slice of avocado, cheese, some kind of pickled cabbage and a tasty crema sauce. It was well cooked and not chewy. Overall, a tasty taco. Shon said he definitely enjoyed the different flavors of the toppings, sauce, and shrimp. He would definitely recommend this one.
I think it's worth noting that on both visits, Shon and I both left full. The only thing I changed on the second visit was two chicken instead of two carnitas - and I'm very happy with that decision. Shon went for the bigger taco entree which has regular sized tacos instead of street tacos. He said they were very tasty yet again. After talking with Chris about his solo visit, he concurs that it's a tasty round of tacos. We were all in agreement that the chicken here is delicious, the steak is the weakest, the carnitas was excellent flavor and quality, and both of them really enjoyed the flavor of the shrimp taco.
I don't do this often, but I'm going to ask all of our readers to please stop by. We don't have a ton of quality taco spots on the west side. There are a few but we need more of them and from a purely selfish standpoint, I'd really like for PV to stay in business. They are conveniently located and the chicken taco is one of my newest favorites in town. I think they could use some traffic and some additional word-of-mouth recommendations. The staff is super friendly and I'd love to see them have some success. So give it a shot and stop by - the three of us are in agreement that you won't be disappointed!
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