text: Aye Caramba. \n\nMy mom knows my love of Mexican food-and especially good Mexican food. Sadly, I am the only one in my immediate Phoenix family that is a fan. Growing up, the Grandparent's would begrudgingly go to one place called La Pinata (see my review from 2011) because that was close to both our synagogue (yes, this was back in the day) and my Great Aunt and Uncle's house. They would only have cheese crisps (only those from AZ, my Toni (through my Dad) and Ivy understand and share the love of a good one) or a chimichanga. My mom likes chips and refried beans and cheese crisps. She also likes guacamole but for some reason, can't pronounce it right. \n\nAnyway, during my recent week in Phoenix, it was not a vacation or resting type of trip. It was a little visiting and a lot of business type trip. Mom and I ended up here for dinner because she said that people she knows really like this place, so we went as it was close to an errand we were running. \n\nThis is an order at the counter, they call your number type of place. There is a bar to one side the ordering area and the pick up area. They have Pepsi products, a salsa bar but you have to pay for chips. Mom wanted a cheese crisp and I ordered my standard new place order 2 crispy tacos one chicken, one shredded beef with refried beans and rice. I also ordered a small container of correctly pronounced guacamole. The cashier was friendly though not particularly warm.  \n\nWe found a table, and our number was called shortly thereafter.  The tacos were in home made formed and fried corn tortilla shells. I loved this. Sadly, that was about all I loved. The chicken taco was pretty dried out and they had large shredded Americanized tasting cheddar over the tacos. The beef taco was better, but the spicy carrots helped and the guacamole was nothing to write home about. What really got me though was the weird tinny flavor from the refried beans (pretty inedible) and as one Bay Area friend of mine would say-the rice was all wrong. Not only did it have peas AND carrots, it had some small corn kernels. Mom ate about half her cheese crisp and the fact that I didn't even try it speaks volumes. She apologized as we were leaving saying she thought it would be better, and she apologized even more adamantly when she told me she had been up a lot during the night because of the cheese crisp. Yep-I knew something wasn't right with the cheese.\n\nNot a place I would recommend or ever come back to especially after an old friend from high school introduced me to Carolina's.