Food find: La Salsa

My apologies for no blogging yesterday, another big storm rolled through Tucson last night and took out my Internet. The wild west ...

Today I went over to La Salsa, a Mexican-style fast-food franchise chain with holdings mostly in Southern California. The cafe itself has outdoor seating and high, bar-style tables. The food is made fresh at a bar in full view. There is also a salsa bar with a variety of chip accompaniments from mild salsa to hot habanero sauce and an avocado dip.

What I ordered you see here, which is the steak taco plate. I got two tacos in corn tortillas topped with steak chunks, tomatoes, lettuce and cheese. I also added some mild salsa and sour cream later on. It came with black beans topped with what I think was Parmesan cheese and a side of rice. There were also chips, which are fried on site in plain view, to scoop up some salsa choices. I went with the avocado dip and fresh salsa.

The tacos were great. A little messy, but the steak was tasty and the toppings fresh. The beans were nothing special in terms of taste -- no smokiness or anything else in the beans. The rice was about the same. It almost tasted like instant rice that had been darkened, but nothing was wrong with it, just a little plain.

As for the salsa, I chose wrong. The fresh salsa was too bland. The avocado dip had a runny texture. If the little cups were bigger, I could have mixed some stuff together, but they were 1.5-ounce cups. Ick. I tried to salsa bueno, which was medium, and that was a little better. If I had more time, I'd try more stuff, but that didn't happen today.

I'd definitely come La Salsa to eat again, but I think next time I'll just order a single item, not a platter, because the side dishes weren't so great. It's worth trying, though, because everything is fresh-tasting a semi-healthful.