Bodega Taco Bar: No Flavor Of Mexico

Another of those Mexicanish places that throws American-style barbecue, Korean food-truck fusion, and just plain gringo misapprehension of Mexican flavors into the mix. The "Baja taco" comes heaped with pico de gallo, with no shredded cabbage or liquified sour cream (which help define the real thing) in sight. A special one day described as "enchiladas al pastor" was made with grilled chicken and non-enchilada'd flour tortillas ("al pastor," or shepherd-style refers to meat — originally lamb, now usually pork — cooked on a vertical spit, and served with chopped pineapple). The beef in the burnt brisket taco was delicious and tasted as if it had come straight from a smokehouse (though there isn't one apparent here); the ground beef in the crisp-shelled "Americano" taco was pretty flavorful, too, but was anointed with a smear of Russian dressing, of all things. Really nothing here tasted very Mexican; purely in terms of what some folks like to call "flavor profile," Taco Bell comes closer.