Iron Cactus – SoMa
683 4th St (betw Bluxome St & Townsend St)
San Francisco , CA 94107
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VdV Rating: 1.5
Food: Mexican
Ambiance: Casual
PRO: Nice space and rustic design
CON: Misses the mark on lots of stuff
Hola, muchachos! Qué Pasa mo-fos! We’re reporting live (OK, not live we were here a couple days ago and I’m just getting around to this. We’re busy, people!) from none other than the brand spankin’ new Iron Cactus Taqueria. They call it Iron Cactus. We call it Iron Cactus Taqueria so your expectations are set right.
Know why, cousin? ‘Cuz we didn’t know it was a taqueria, we thought it was a proper restaurant. Not that taquerias can’t be proper, it’s just that we thought it wasn’t a cafeteria style place, like Chavos down the road. We thought we’d get waited on. Hey don’t you dare call us snobs, you bastard! Lazy, but not snobs. It’s just if I’m in the mood to shuffle down a cafeteria line like I’m looking for hand outs, I’ll go to the soup kitchen. Just kiddin’.
So we mosied into Iron Cactus on Sunday, jazzed to see a new Mexican joint in our ‘hood. I mean, we were so happy when we heard Tres Agaves was opening, then so buzz-killed by our experiences there we’ve been waiting for someone to come around and kick their asses (update on Tres Agaves coming soon).
The space is warm and inviting, rustic, a little cavern-like but a really nice space. It’s actually an old dairy. Like that makes a difference to you. Anyhoo, big concrete walls, high ceilings and a large skylight give it a nice feel. We both felt the table layout could be adjusted to allow for additional seating, but oh well. They can fix that later. If it ever becomes a problemo.
OK, back to the ‘Taqueria’, and why we have a stick up our butts about this distinction. So to us Taqueria means: Get in line, move down the line, bark out your order, get a lot of questions back, answer the best you know how, get more questions and stuff about ‘extra this and costs more that’, finalize said order, get to the counter, order your drink, pay and go find a table. Dunno, I like getting waited on. But it is what it is.
So that said, we have a few issues: 1) If you’re gonna do that type of set up for ordering, place some menus up front so as people are waiting in line (or before they get in line) they can pretty much figure out what you serve and what they want, helps to keep the harmony going b) the blackboard they have is basically ‘the menu’ and is confusing. Why? The specials are written in super-small handwriting and it should have provided a nice simple 1-2-3 type of message on what ya are expected when you get in line 3) if, and it’s a big ‘if’, ‘cuz every time a low-end sushi place puts those weird samples of what your dish will actually look like it grosses me out, but if you are going to place ‘representative’ samples of the dishes you serve, for the love of Cristo tell us WTF the dishes are!
We actually saw the manager walking around talking to guests here and there, (well, we think he was the manager ‘cuz he was wearing a tie and the only whitey working there), and hoped to get his attention and give him a little constructive criticism. Just tryin’ to help ya thrive, Cactus! But alas, he pretty much ignored us.
But the hell with all that mindless drivel! If the food is solid I’ll slog through a field of burro crap for it. We of course, ordered tacos and chips and salsa. And a couple beers ‘cuz they don’t have a big-boy liquor license. I hope they’re working on it. So, the tacos. We ordered one tinga-style chicken and one steak. Wait! First the chips and salsa.
The Chips & Salsa ($3). Well, the chips are light and fresh. Not saying ‘instantly baked on the premises by Grandma Espinoza fresh’ but crisp and decent. But the salsa. Actually Pico de Gallo. Hey we love tomatoes, onion, cilantro and peppers so PdG is a fave of ours. Read: It’s hard to F this stuff up. And Iron Cactus didn’t, it just could have used a little more heat, and a better tomato to onion ratio. Meaning a little more tomato. And it came in a little to go container. It’s like, people: ya have ‘to go’ people and ‘eat in’ people. Treat them as such, not the same. If I’m eating in, I don’t want a to go container of PdG. Feel me?!
Next, tacos. We ordered the Soft Tacos ($4), one
tinga-style chicken and one carne asada. They should rename them ’Sopping Wet Tacos’. Or ‘Sweaty Tacos’. Yummy! And they weren’t wet with salsa or meat juice, or from the taste of it the black beans.
Unless when they scooped the beans in they gave us a ladle-full of bean juice. Hmm, maybe that was it. But no, the beans were on the side. Let’s just call it a mystery. I mean, look at the photo. ‘Glistening Tacos’ they could also be called. Just ‘wet’. Kinda weird. They’re served on corn tortillas. Make that sopping wet corn tortillas and neither had much flavor to them. The meat seemed pretty bland, the spices were not very spicy and that sopping wetness made them a little hard to eat and definitely did not add to the texture or flavor. Next time, we’ll try the crispy tacos.
Bottom line, this place has some kinks to work out, as most new places do. They should do well from the Caltrain traffic and have a good to-go biz, but remains to be seen if they can make some refinements and attract the locals to come back more than once. That said, we’ll give ‘em a few weeks and give it another go, amigos!
VdV Rating: 1.5
Hours:
Mon-Sat 11a-9p
Iron Cactus
683 4th St (betw Bluxome St & Townsend St)
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 777-1004
