Picante brief report

[Robert Lauriston]

Went for lunch as it was convenient and time was short.

guacamole: excellent flavor but small portion, and what's up with serving it on shredded lettuce? tasty warm corn chips (strips, not triangles) but a lot of pieces were too narrow to dip

green (tomatillo-cilantro) salsa: much improved, really delicious, spicier than it used to be

red salsa: vinegary, vaguely a mild Tabasco, not very good

habanero salsa: sweet, weird

fish tacos: downhill, the nice red cabbage salad has been replace by sweet mango salsa, making the tacos way too sweet, would not order again

tamales norteños (pork): new dish? very dry masa, dried-out chewy pork, no sign of the promised "rich, dark anchos chile sauce," would not order again

refried beans: much improved, really delicious

rice: very good, better than I remembered

http://picantecocina.citysearch.com/p...

[lintygmom]

None of the food is as it was two to three years ago. Definitely downhill. I find the food from Las Palmas on College or Montero's, for example, much better now. Very disappointing. We used to go to Picante a lot.

[Chuckles the Clone]

Eating here a lot lately. I'm settling on the Sopa Azteca as my favorite. The
burrito's ok but coming in at about seven bucks, it's a bit nuts. I completely agree
with the salsa assessment: the habanero is not what it used to be (in a bad way)
and neither is the green (but in a good way).

[A Amore]

One of my favorate things at Picante is the refried beans - I assume there must be a good helping of lard. Very few other dishes consistently impress - sometimes the Manchamanteles, sometimes the carnitas. I feel bad saying it, but they seem to be drifting toward chain mexican quality. Would be very sad for Berkeley.

[Robert Lauriston]

No lard, they're vegetarian. In the past I always found them boring.

The menu's always been hit and miss.

[MollyGee]

Nope. There's lard in the refrieds.

[Robert Lauriston]

The menu says they're vegetarian.

[MollyGee]

They're not, though. Only the black and pinto beans are. The rice, however, is vegetarian (they're, typically, made w/ chicken broth).

[Robert Lauriston]

How do you know the menu's wrong?

Given how great the refried beans taste, I could easily believe they're using lard, but it seems implausible that such a Berklified place would mislead vegetarian customers.

[Morton the Mousse]

Picante has a vegetarian menu that is seperate from the normal menu. On the vegetarian menu, only pinto beans and black beans are listed.

[Robert Lauriston]

When I looked the other day, refried beans were listed among the dishes that are vegan if you order them without cheese or crema.

Maybe they have both tasty and vegetarian versions?

[ML8000]

Agreed, the fish tacos have gone downhill and it comes with a weird creamy guac/avocado "salsa"/sauce now. What is that? S

[sarvey]

The shredded lettuce under guacamole is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Supposedly it makes it look like a bigger portion; though it obviously didn't fool you, did it?

[Robert Lauriston]

Given the quality I didn't think $4.25 was a ripoff, but I'd tell them to hold the lettuce next time.