T N T Mexican Restaurant

Yummmm...yes, this place is pretty divey with the plastic-coated table clothes and sparse decor. But the food is delicious and inexpensive. The chorizo on the taco was perfect, not too salty but full of flavor. Get the horchata  - it's fantastic. My only complaint are the chips and salsa - the chips were stale and the salsa was too spicy for enjoyment (and I like spicy food). I'll be back :)

I was actually told not to come here.  My friend  told me the food was awful.  And why did I come anyway?  Because she recommended another place which ended up sucking, so I just assumed she had bad taste.

And she probably does.  But now I know that if *she* dislikes something, it must be really bad.

When I walked in around noon on a chilly Tuesday, the first thing I thought was "Where am I?" Because it was dark.  I waited a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the lighting, and was able to make out a few things.  A couple morosely staring down at their tablecloths, looking as if they were breaking up.  Two middle aged men in wife beaters, with numerous tattoos all over their arms; they looked at me as if I were interrupting something important.  Broken Christmas lights strung around the entire room.  Iron bars over the tiny windows, which barely let in any light.  And a suprisingly perky waitress who smiled at me and immediately put me at ease.  She's the reason TNT gets two stars instead of one.

So how does naive little AK interpret this scene, you ask?  How rustic and adorable.  Clearly people aren't here for the ambiance.  They must be here for the food.  It's probably authentic and amazing!

After being asked if I was from the health department and assuring them I wasn't, I was seated next to the a window, right next to the hot neon sign that announced "open" to those on the sidewalk.  Twenty minutes later, the waitress remembered me and came to ask me if I wanted a drink.  Twenty minutes after that, she got my meal order. Thirty minutes after that, she brought me my tacos.  And when I bit into my chorizo taco, the first thing I thought was that this DIDN'T taste like bad Mexican food; it tasted like bad Indian food.  The "steamed" tortilla was dry, crispy, and had visible burn marks.  It tasted like a day old burnt chapati.  The chorizo was mixed in some chunky sauce that tasted a lot like the brown mystery cream of the sort of generic "chicken curry" you find at an all-you-can-eat Indian buffet.  

I had asked for green sauce.  When she brought me red sauce, I tried to explain myself more clearly, but she assured me that the sauce she brought me was correct. "That's green."  I must be colorblind.    Maybe it's the lighting.  But wait, there is something green in here.  Something slimy.  Something that won't be speared by my fork.  Wait, is it?  It is.  It's an OKRA.  wtf?

I left my tacos with an ample pity tip and left.