I don't write a lot of restaurant reviews here on this blog so you know that if I take the time to veer off course from my usual babbling it must be something worthy of such an honor. Indeed Pedro's Tacos & Tequila here in Alexandria is such a place.
Now I always want to mention the fact that I am true red blooded Mexican Food snob. It takes a truly great plate of south of the border grub to make me want to stamp my official label of worthiness upon it. Now the food at Pedro's isn't the best Mexican Food that I have ever had, but that isn't meant to be an insult. I grew up dining on some of the best Mexican Food restaurants in the western states of New Mexico, Colorado and California. To compare anything here in the South to any of that wouldn't be fair honestly. Now that being said, the couple of meals that I have enjoyed at Pedro's have been the best in this part of the country by far.
The first time I had the Puffed Tacos and today I went with a simple combination plate of an enchilada, tamale, taco and refried beans. Both meals were simply delicious and I highly recommend them. The one thing that both my wife and I really love is their salsa. Any Mexican Food lover will tell you that a good cup salsa with chips can make or break any dinning experience. You may think of it as a free appetizer, but it sets up the pallet for the main meal to come. A bland unflavorful salsa sets a bad tone for your eating experience. If the salsa is really blah, it's a good bet the rest of the food will be as well.
In other words if the salsa sucks tuck your tail and run.
I know that I'm focusing way too much on salsa and not on the quality of the meal itself. I will break it down like this: the taco - nearly perfect, the enchilada - darn good, the tamale - darn good also, and the beans - absolutely perfect. Like the salsa, the beans on the side can also make or break any combination plate.
The only thing that I could begin to gripe about was the fact that the plate didn't come with rice, which is just something petty. To be honest there was more than enough food without it.
Oh, and before I forget I have to give kudos to the kitchen staff. Our waitress seemed to be able to read our minds and brought us things like more napkins and a refill on tea and water before we could even ask for them. Also, and I'm not exaggerating this, we ordered our meal and then I got up to take a picture of the really cool mural on the wall and when I returned our meals had already arrived. Honestly I must have been away from the table for a couple of minutes. It was the fastest service that I have ever seen.
I'm starting to believe the whole place runs on telepathy.
I also want to mention that the ambiance is unique, fun and rather cool frankly. It really made me rather homesick for the Southwest.
If you are ever looking for a great Mexican Food meal here in Alexandria you simply have to try Pedro's.
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Here are a couple of photos that I took with my phone:
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