Tortilla Flats in Mission Viejo California

Mission Viejo is Capsaicin Head's old stomping grounds before I married her and moved her a bit north. She still has a love for the area and one Mexican restaurant in particular, Tortilla Flats. Noticing they had a Taco Tuesday, we decided to put that on our list of places to go. In fact, Tortilla Flats claims to have STARTED the Taco Tuesday revolution. Who knows how true that statement is, but if if IS true, their Taco Tuesday should kick some serious butt!

The Establishment
It's a bit of a drive for us but thankfully we can go somewhat early in the day to beat the traffic. Tortilla Flats is located on the Western shore of Lake Mission Viejo, and sitting on their patio gives you an amazing view of it. You have to sit in the bar area to take advantage of the Taco Tuesday pricing and, thankfully, this patio is considered part of the bar! It was a little warm out that day so we decided to sit in the bar. There was (apparently) one person working the bar, but only about 5 people eating. This would prove to be an issue...

Chips, Salsa and the Coveted Guacamole
We took a seat and ordered up our chips, salsa and guacamole. After a short wait (uh, is 15 minutes considered short?), we recieved our drinks, chips and dips. My first bite into the chips was a bit shocking; I swear I was gnawing on a chuck of cinderblock. The chips were amazingly hard and I was fearful of breaking my teeth. Really. This is not an exaggeration. We asked for more chips and got another batch of cinderblock chips (after another 10 minute wait), so we just decided to use these to try out the salsa and guacamole. The guac was silky smooth with very little chunks; yummy but tasted like they just smooshed up some avocado and called it a day. Even the salsa was a little disappointing. It had decent flavor but a bit watery. Not much going on in either of those two dipping treats.

The Main Course - TACOS!
After FINALLY having the waitress head over and take our taco order (I actually had to call her over), I ordered up a beef and chicken taco. Twenty minutes later (yes, that's a 2-0 minutes), our 3 tacos showed up. I was expecting 'amazing' after the long wait, but was truly disappointed (again) by what was put in front of me. Two small tacos, both looking the same covered in light lettuce and cheese and served on a styrofoam plate. Really? The 'inventor' of Taco Tuesday and THIS is what you serve? I downed them both and they were ok (the beef was the tastier of the two), but with no pico or any other kind of salsa to spice them up, they were just, well, tacos. They weren't bad but, compared to what we've eaten up to this point, they're probably ranked the lowest so far.

Final Thoughts
Tortilla Flats has a lot going for it as far as location, a nice big bar area (that I'm sure is party central on the weekends) and a good looking menu, but their Taco Tuesday's not all that. I almost feel like they get you in there for that but serve you the cheapest tacos they can and get you on the drinks. If I were you, I would save my $2.00 (and the gas) and check out some other local places first. It's getting a 2-Taco rating but only because of the scenary both inside and out. Unfortunately, we won't be going back to any time soon.