UNA MAS! Mexican Grill

First off, this is not a review of a real taco shop, as UNA MAS is NOT a real taco shop per the standards of the Taco Shop Review (see the intro post). Every once in a while, I'm forced to eat at a place other than a real taco shop. That being said, I always report my experience regardless.




Direct link to still images:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mike.builtforsurf/UNAMASMexicanGrill#slideshow

I was near San Jose airport in California, with about 1 hour before my flight. I was hungry. There's not much in the area besides tech companies and chain fast food. Anyway, due to time, I went ahead and tried a placed called UNA MAS! Mexican Grill. Yeah, this is a franchise, and I could tell by the stupid name. But, this option *appeared* to suck the least of all my food options.

The place has a salsa bar. It also had the typical chain feel to it. Lots of lame pre-printed UNAMAS marketing media hanging on the walls and on the tables. Lots of mass-produced art that's supposed to make you feel like you're in Mexico (which it fails to do). Too much decor for a real taco shop. They also leverage the cliche, overused "TexMex" theme throughout. Nothing Mexican about this place.

I ordered 2 tacos (what they call "taqueria taco"), rice, and beans. At face value, the price wasn't too bad at $5.39. Each taco was comrpised of 2 corn tortillas with carne-asada style meat. There wasn't a bunch of crap on the tacos, which is a good thing.

I added their hottest salsa, which was not bad, but, as expected, not hot. Sadly, the rice was cold. The beans were boiled pinto beans (not refried), warm, and actually pretty good. The major let down was the meat. It must have been cooked about 6 hours earlier, or the day before. Envision beef jerkey with no flavor. Or, maybe think of it as cardboard. Yeah, that's more like it. This pseudo meat product is expected of a chain store, which likely tries to squeeze out every penny of profit by following "scientifically determined" processes established by the franchisor or corporate headquarter. Well, cooking meat 6 hours in advance in bulk may save them money, but it also helps them lose customers. Like me. I'm certain I'll have NO MAS! of UNA MAS!

I don't know why you'd want to visit their web site, but here it is:
www.unamas.com