REVIEW: Piedras Negras de Noche

It was a Saturday morning when we visited Piedras Negras de Noche and we can confidently state that it is highly unlikely we are the first to make that joke.  It occupies a refurbished Pizza Hut on the Westside of San Antonio (on the edge between Downtown and the Westside).  This was the last of the four Westside Taco places from the original list that we visited, but we were rewarded for our timing.  

Ambiance - When the first thing you see walking into the restaurant is an Elvis impersonator in full costume, tying a motorized bicycle to a post at the entrance, you're off on the right foot.  The Spurs etchings/paintings on the windows and the Fiesta decorations inside tell you immediately that you are with good people.  Bonus points for rehabbing of an old Pizza Hut  So far, so good.  "Taco-madre" 5 Tortillas.

Service - We may be a little biased because one of the waitresses who served Teno coffee was stunningly cute (she looked like a cross between Paulina Rubio and Minka Kelly), but we feel the service was excellent.  Our coffee and water was refilled on a regular basis.  The food came out hot, fresh, and fast.  And our waitress was spot on with her recommendation to avoid the morcilla (we ignored her recommendation, but she was honest and proved right in the end). "Taco-madre" 5 Tortillas

Menu Options - We were both very impressed with the menu options offered at Piedras Negras.  All the classics were represented, along with some delicious options you don't see everywhere like cabrito and mollejas.  We were immediately intrigued by the morcilla, which is Mexican Blood Sausage.  We deliberated for a bit on whether we'd order that, but eventually decided part of our journey is to be adventurous and needed to try some tacos outside of our comfort zone. "Taco-nazo" 4 Tortillas

Morcilla

Food - The food itself is flavorful. Teno enjoyed his bean and egg (the eggs and beans were not properly mixed) and a machacado con huevo.  Pretty standard fare.  Nothing to get too excited about, but nothing to be upset about either.  Good, solid down the middle dishes.  Teno was slightly disappointed in the quality of the flour tortilla, which broke apart half-way through the taco.  Eddie ordered a Chorizo and Bean taco and a Chicharron con Huevo.  He was pleased with his options, though a tortilla broke apart for him as well.  It was "not quite mom's" (nothing is), but had that great combination of crunchy and soft elements. The Morcilla was interesting.  It's an acquired taste that Teno has not acquired yet.  Teno took just a few bites and stopped.  Eddie ate his half of the Morcilla taco and while it initially went down smooth, his stomach had other ideas upon further consideration.  We won't penalize the food score because of the Moricilla since it was something we both wanted to try.  There was only one (green, watery) salsa. Based on our other tacos, we feel the food was "Taco-nazo"  4 Tortillas

Overall Taconacity - We gave it pretty high scores across the board, so the Taconacity has to be quite high.  Everything from the ambiance to the service to the food told us this is a place we'd go back to and it's a place we'd proudly take our family to whenever they visit.  Of the four places we've visited off our original challenge list, this is one of our favorites.  We hope to go back sometime and take a picture with Elvis.  If it's good enough for the King, it's good enough for us.

Piedras Negras De Noche
1322 S. Laredo St.
San Antonio, TX 78204
WE TACO BOUT IT SCORE: 4 Tortillas

Teno's Tidbits - It was not lost on us that as we were enjoying this tasty, but greasy and fattening breakfast, our friend and brother Cisco Iguaran was competing in his first Iron Man competition.  We shed a little bit of tortilla in his honor and I promised to run/walk one mile for each taco I eat in the future in an effort to balance healthy activity with our unhealthy choices.

Eddie's Extras - Morcilla. I'd heard the word before, but couldn't at the moment remember what it was. So we "phoned a friend," so to speak, and looked it up. Immediately I saw "blood sausage" and a bunch of recipes involving rice and corn. I remembered having something similar in Ireland, so after much deliberating, we decided to try. It arrived with the consistency of ultra-minced barbacoa.  Pico de gallo ingredients were mixed in - no rice, no corn.  I figured that the ones I saw online were Spanish versions and this was a Mexican take on the dish.  Teno's first bite was all he needed, but I needed further convincing. I wanted to like it, and I did for about three minutes, then my stomach asked, "what the heck is wrong with you?  Haven't we been through enough?"

I'm glad we tried it, but it's not likely to enter into our taco repertoire.