From OC Metro, January 2005
New Irvine restaurant belongs on your list of favorites
By Patrick Mott
There’s a certain (erroneous, as it turns out) school of thought that says you can’t really do anything new or different with a Mexican restaurant in Southern California. Hey, don’t tell us about Mexican food, some will say. We’ve been snarfing this stuff since we first found out that salsa was better than ketchup. You can’t surprise us.
Besides, some will say, we’ve already got our favorites, mostly the little mom-n’-pops that serve the best (fill in exquisite dish here) this side of Guadalajara.
May I suggest an addition to the favorites list? It’s only been there for about six months, so if you go now you can tell your friends that you sniffed this gem out when it was brand new.
It’s the Taleo Mexican Grill, in the Park Place shopping center at Jamboree Road and Michelson Drive in Irvine, and it’s a hybrid in the most agreeable sense. Founder and president Nic Villarreal says the restaurant’s menu is specific to no particular region of Mexico, but relies more on principles of home cooking elevated by professional techniques and oversight, and the unsparing use of fresh ingredients. One part mom-n’-pop, one part professional polish, one part make-it-from-scratch.
The restaurant was almost entirely remodeled (it was formerly another Mexican eatery, Left At Albuquerque), and today it’s comfortable in its simplicity: a high ceiling with curved wood beams, muted colors, generously stuffed booths, even seating at couches on the patio. The bar and lounge areas are open and bright, and the staff, though mostly young, have been trained very well indeed. They know the menu top to bottom.
It’s a menu that bespeaks both tradition and imagination, and the execution by Chef José Acevedo and his crew is difficult to fault.
You’ll know the sort of thing you’re in for the minute your margarita arrives (and let’s not quibble; unless you’re a teetotaler, you have to order one of these). This is a no-nonsense drink, made with (get this) house-made sweet-and-sour from fresh citrus and just about any kind of tequila you want (they’ve probably got it). It’s a beauty, one of the best around. And the chips and salsa? Made from scratch, and the chips arrive not warm, but hot.
There’s a nice lineup of daily soup selections, with the tortilla soup available every day. This is a good thing because this is soup with real flair. It’s a tomato-chicken broth with an interesting and pleasant mild after-burn. It’s filled with chopped avocado and queso fresco, and the shredded chicken and shoestring-like tortillas are piled attractively in the middle. It’s hearty, but surprisingly light.
I had heard about Chef José’s carnitas before arriving, and the suspense was killing me. Much is made about them, and with good reason. This simple pork dish is light years beyond the fairly bland or wildly over-spiced pile o’ pork shreds one too often sees at lesser restaurants. In the Taleo incarnation, you get a generous cut of quite lean pork that is fork-tender and succulent on the inside and beautifully crisp, brown and (get this, too) sweet on the outside. Caramelized carnitas. It’s one of Chef José’s family recipes and it’s merely magnificent.
Another dish often shrugged off as common gets more than its share of attention in Taleo’s kitchen: the beef enchiladas. Disarmingly simple but unusually satisfying, the beef is slow-roasted and hand-pulled rib meat - unusually rich and lean - encased in a corn tortilla that’s more pliable and substantial than most. It’s topped with a mild guajillo sauce that lends a light and very pleasing piquancy. Like the carnitas, the enchiladas are served with sides of cilantro lime rice and frijoles charros. The rice in particular puts most “Spanish rice” sides far in the shade: moist, tart and delicate.
Taleo is proof that there are no ordinary dishes that can’t shine when given the care they deserve. •OCM