First Adventure: Senor Taco!

So Joby and I went to explore Star Vista Mall today at Buona Vista. It's the new shopping complex that opened recently (Sept 17 I think?) right next to BV MRT. I won't go into detail about the mall itself but there's quite a lot of good food places at that place and the layout concept is quite cool too.

But onto the food, so after a long while of exploring and searching for food places, we decided to go for some Mexican since neither of us have had it before. This Mexican joint we visited was called Senor Taco (Senor with the squiggly sign above the n but i have no idea how to type it on my computer).

Located on Level 2, it's situated on the end of a lofty spur that overlooks the main plaza and the entrance steps which makes for a great view, especially at night. It feels great cause it's open-concept and has that unfettered freedom, but on warm days (like today) we were baking. Fortunately, there was quite a fair bit of wind owing to its location and cause there was no shortage of fans.

We went at 1pm and surprisingly there was no one patronising the establishment. I guess it was due to the heat and cost (possibly?). It was confusing because no one showed us to our seats or attended to us. In fact, there was no "counter" per se like you would expect in a restaurant. I figure this was because it was like a walk-in bar and that was part of its operations model.

From the above you can get a rough picture of the ambience, it really is quite a good place to chill out. It has a bar counter, there's music playing in the background and the service crew was friendly. One gripe though, the music was a little too loud and frankly not to Joby's taste, so it conflicted with the chill-out image a little. Other than that though, it's quite a good place to eat with friends at night.

But on to the main stuff, the food. So we first ordered the Taco Al Pastor. It was soft shell tacos that came with an accompanying condiments of onions, parsley, lime and huuuuuge jalapeno. We were given an option of either Pork or Chicken, but we chose pork since pork seemed to dominate the majority of the menu choices, making it the meat of choice in mexican cuisine (or so I assume). The wait for the food was  faster than expected, probably 5-10 minutes. The waitress cum cashier introduced us to their house sauces to use with our dishes. They had 3 sauces in green, brown and red. She elaborated that the spicyness went from Mild to Medium to "Very extra spicy". It's more than a colour difference, the sauces are 3 different sauces on its own. I never got around to finding out what they were, but the medium one became my go-to sauce for the food that followed. It was smoky and peppery. On the otherhand, the blockbuster sauce was without a doubt the very extra spicy one. You might have to prepare water beforehand cause the aftertaste will KNOCK YOU OUT. It was painfully good to eat. The mild one was lackluster though, we didn't touch it much there was a strong parsley taste it in that I didn't really like.

The meat was juicy and tender, much more so than what I'd expect from flame grilled meat. There was substantial bite and texture to it that just made eating the soft shell tacos enjoyable. To add to the smoky barbequed taste of the meat, when combined with the condiments and SPICEH sauces it made for good eating. The taco "shell" itself was a bit of a letdown though. I had expected it to be hard shell tacos from the description in the menu until we saw it for ourselves. But more than that, the oil from the meat had dripped onto the soft shell that made it slightly damp and soggy. Maybe it's just cause it's my first time with soft shell tacos but that did not sit well with me at all. That aside however, it was still good.

On top of the tacos, we had a glass of Agua Fresca which was essentially lime juice. Pure and fresh, it does not have that sticky, tacky feel from sugared lime juice or concentrate. It was refreshing and helped to cool off the heat from the spicy sauces.

Following which, I being a man of large tummy, felt hungry so i decided to have one of their recommendations which was the Carnitas Michoacan. It was essentially kebabed pork like the kind you see in pasar malams but much MUCH better prepared. It was cooked till tender though it was a little dry and admittedly quite plain. The main star of this dish was its sauce as you can see below, which was sweet and tangy that helped lift the entire dish. Not much to say about this other than "That's a lot of meat." It comes served with a stack of tortilla wraps which were arguably imported. We could smell the corn in the wrap which was a nice touch.

After this, we were well and truly full, so me and Joby decided to skip plans of dessert and foot the bill.

All in all, Senor Taco is a good place to hang out, to chill with a large group of friends and have a few shots of tequila. However, fair warning should be given that a large amount of cash is required for the meal so I caution anyone thinking about dining here to be prepared to splurge. I do still recommend giving this place a shot for some hearty Mexican meals.

Overall Score (arbitrary cause I can):
Ambience: 8.5/10
Service: 7/10
Food: 9/10
Affordability: 6.5/10
Overall: 8/10

*Update*
Senor Taco at Star Vista has since been closed. Senor Taco has other locations as well; Clarke Quay and CHIJMES.