I was out with my Dad and my daugh­ter today and needed to find lunch for three gen­er­a­tions of Judds in the Cuba St area. I thought we’d wander down the Left Bank to get some empanadas from Buenos Aires. Des­pite the win­dow say­ing that they are open 12–2 on Fri­days, Buenos Aires was decidedly shut. So we went next door to Viva Mex­ico instead.

It was a sur­prise when we walked in to see that the place was com­pletely redec­or­ated. It’s now a revolu­cion-themed taquer­ia. I talked to the new own­er and he’s a sol­id Zapatista – that stuff’s not just hip brand­ing.

We were quickly seated and giv­en menus. The choices are pretty basic: enchil­a­das, tacos, or eggs with a vari­ety of fillings and sauces. I watched oth­er tables’ food go out and it looked good. Like oth­er cuisines that prize homo­gen­ous tex­tures and com­plex mix­tures, Mex­ic­an food can be danger of look­ing like cafet­er­ia slop, so it was good to have nice plat­ing.

I had not even begun to won­der where our order was when the pro­pri­et­or apo­lo­gised for the wait and gave us a little dish of fried cheese-stuffed jalapeños to keep us going. They were good enough that I would have been happy to be kept wait­ing longer as long as the apo­logy food kept com­ing. Our orders came out shortly after­wards and they were damned tasty. Of note was my hue­vos machaca, eggs scrambled with shred­ded beef and a good dose of hot pep­pers.

The food, the polit­ics and the price are all more than good enough for a humble taquer­ia and we left well sat­is­fied. I know many people liked the old regime at Viva Mex­ico – I am happy to report that the new regime is more than up to the job ¡Viva Viva Mex­ico!

Fol­low-up ques­tion: where do read­ers rate for Mex­ic­an food in this town?