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139 Steuartcross street: Mission
ph. 415/808-1048
Map Visits: 1
Mexico DF is the second uptack Mexican restaurant in the South of Market area to provide a taqueria menu for area workers on weekdays (Maya is the other), although depending on how involved your order is, prices can resemble those of the parent restaurant beyond the front foyer. Given the potential for a $9 burrito, you wouldn’t think the taqueria counter would only accept cash payment, but that’s how the Mexico DF wheels of commerce roll. Take-out only, unless you snag one of the few seats in the front lounge. Taqueria menu available 11:30 – 2:00 weekdays. Valet parking also available, because after all, this is a very sophisticated town, people.
Shrug: beans (7); ingredient mix (7); rice (6); vegetables (6); sauciness (6)
Clang: no elements clanged
Intangibility bonus: 1 (of 2)
It took us 575 on-record burritos (and who knows how many off-record ones), but we finally had us a lamb slab. Well, alright. There were many elements worth trumpeting here, so it was a pity about the few that dragged this really long, really slender burrito just below the eight-mustache waterline. First, the great: wallop-packing salsa roja, stooge-proof construction, hot bites, and best of all, a furiously grilled tortilla. On to the good: enough gooey cheese (oaxaca? jack? anyone? Bueller?), tasty and thick guacamole, long slices of jalapeño (a buck extra), and the featured lamb meat that wasn’t so much a centerpiece - or even an oddity - as just a fine and tender, if slightly dry change of pace for our weathered judges panel. Now the shrugs and laggards: over here, tasty but overly pasty black refried beans, as well as no other vegetable content aside from the two we mentioned almost 60 words ago; over there, fully blah rice grains that assumed the hue and taste of whatever they came into contact with (usually the salsa or beans). The ingredient mix had moments both pathetic and excellent, so we averaged out its many moods and came up with seven mustaches. Intangibility? Another token shrug.
