This was a tough review because it's not quite a solid 4 forks but a bit above a 3.5 - it's one of those 3.75 reviews but since I did away with the quarter fork ratings, I'm just going to round up here to be nice. Mission Catina is the Mexican love child of Danny Bowien - owner of the wildly popular Mission Chinese. I was thinking my experience would be similar to my experience at Mission Chinese in that I would have to wait for 2+ hours, so I was mentally prepared and had a small snack before heading over at 7:30pm on a Saturday night. Surprisingly the wait was only 1 an hour and with so many bars in the LES area, it's absolutely no problem to kill time at any of the neighboring watering holes. As luck would have it, just as Lav and I were getting our 1st batch of drinks they called us saying that there was two seats at the "bar" if we wanted it. I had seen the space when I gave my name and the bar is not a real bar, it's literally 2 seats jammed into this small section by the kitchen. We took a pass and said we would wait for table while we sipped on our drinks.
In an exactly an hour, they called and we headed over only to find that the table wasn't ready but that the group had been given the bill and our hostess was trying to give them the stink eye to leave. The place is fairly small with less than 20 seats total so I was kind of annoyed that the table didn't recognize all the people waiting for a table. By the time we sat down, Lav and I were starving and slight tipsy, so we were ready to order. I should note that they don't have liquor license so they just have beer and soju. I opted for the Como la flor cocktail which was soju with grapefruit and lambrusco - two of my favorite things - but honestly this drink was not that great. I didn't even finish it. For starters, we shared the creamed masa, fresh queso oaxaca, and the cebolitas preparades. Then we each ordered two kinds of tacos: Lav got the pumpkin and the winter squash tacos and I got the pork cheeks and fish tacos. The creamed masa was delicious and served with beer braised collard greens which were a great addition to the bowl. It was sprinkled with queso cheese on top and it was a nice warm bowl of goodness on a cold crappy day. Lav wasn't a huge fan of the fresh oaxaca queso dish while I was a bit indifferent to it. It wasn't awful but wasn't their strongest dish. It was kind of like fresh string cheese with olive oil it. It could have used a touch of salt to it. As for the cebolitas, I wasn't sure what to expect but it was great. It's basically char-grilled spring onions with butter and citron. It tasted like it came fresh off the grill and it really enjoyed the smokey grilled flavor to it. I didn't think I would like spring onions cooked like this but I guess throw anything on the grill with butter and what's not to like? On to the tacos - fair warning, they are small and you only get two of them. But I was pretty full at this point, that I was having a hard time finishing the ones that I got. I'll start with with fish tacos - they were fantastic. Not quite the same level of the ones I am obsessed with at ABC Cocina but they are pretty damn good. They are made with skate wing tempura (perfectly battered) and then covered with avocado, crema and a hot sauce they really hits you in the back of your throat. I appreciated that they used two homemade corn tortillas to really hold the whole thing together. It was really a great 5-6 bites. I was also a fan of the pork cheeks tacos as well. The cheek was incredibly tender and pretty much fell apart at first touch. It was served with peppers and cabbage on top of it. My main problem with this dish was that they only put 1 layer of tortilla and the wetness of the meat juices seeped through the 1 layer and pretty made it impossible to pick it up or hold the thing together. It turned out to be fine because I skipped the tortilla and went Atkins style and just ate the pork. I only had a small bite of the squash taco and I thought it could have used a bit more heat or seasoning - it was lacking just a bit in flavor. Even though I was pretty full and warm from my drinks, I was prepared to go for dessert but sadly they don't offer any.
All in all, I was totally glad I tried it despite my usual disdain for super hyped up places. It's smack in the middle of the LES and the perfect slightly nicer drunk food than a slice of pizza if you happen to be searching for some post-drinking food. It's a a fun place to check out and might even be more fun with a larger party so that you can try all the different kinds of tacos (I would have liked to have tried the cumin lamb, carnitas, octopus, and mushroom) or get the whole rotisserie chicken to split. They just really need to get a damn liquor license! Total bill with drinks: $43/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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