Restaurant Review- Armadillo Grill, Raleigh

Warning: major pissed off rant. Touting Texas in Raleigh- a recipe for taquerilla success? That depends on how you define "Mexican" food. If its Tex-mex, OK.

Rant begins: Why in hell would a joint serving juicy, messy tacos dripping with salsa use those damn toilet paper sheets that pass for napkins at street fairs?!  Are the owners idiots? Or just don't pay attention?  I can think of few ways to piss off customers. End of rant.  Thank you.  


We were happy to see a tortilla machina working at the entry.  In a former association I worked where we used hundreds of these, so the production machinery does nothing for me, but the assurance of fresh tortillas can be THE ingredient that elevates a taqueria.


The ordering process is, well, byzantine comes to mind. Especially since the area takes some thinking to figure out. Once you do, it made perfect sense to me, a person to whom service improves as human contact is minimized. The fact that the menu and theorder pads are different layouts slowed us down, but we figured it out under the scrutiny of the semi Goth cashier. Wierd staffing choice. We made our chioces, filled out our form. Went to the counter, paid and started findind stuff we would need in the two rooms of the restaurant. Like a scavenger hunt. It only took us about 3 trips to gather the acursed napkins, utensils and pico and salsa. Name was blared out and I ran to collect my order. 


So now the good part.  The tacos were very well stuffed with copious amounts of very nicely seasoned chicken, and thanks to the byzantine ordering process, we had just the toppings we wanted on them. But cleverly, we paid for each and every one.  Anyway, they were good!

I am not obsessive about waste, I think there is some in every endeavor, and in foodservice health rules mandate a lot of it.   But Armadillo Grill made me want to run out and hug a tree.  The pile of trash on our tray after an eat-in order was sickening.  I will leave you with the image I had, the image that would make me stay away from Armadillo Grill.