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Malo, a Vegetarian’s Place for a Taco Fix - Happy Hour
By: Wendy Castellanos-Wolf
January 20th, 2012
Dear Love,
San Diego invented the California Burrito. If you are not privy to this colloquial dish passing itself off as Mexican cuisine, allow me to explain. It is a large flour tortilla filled with steak and French fries. My friends from San Diego, despite the California Burrito, claim to have more authentic Mexican food than we do in Los Angeles, so when my FSM (food soul mate) came up for a visit last week I was a bit apprehensive about taking him over to one of my favorite spots for tacos.
Malo Cantina Suavecita on Sunset Blvd. does not claim to have authentic Mexican cuisine. Rather it is a fusion of typically Mexican ingredients presented in the style of Mexican food. It is delicious bar food with a twist. Its inventiveness rivals the boring steak and potatoes wrapped in a tortilla that San Diego is so proud of. My purpose for taking my FSM to Malo was to prove that while LA might not have the most authentic Mexican food, it has the most interesting.
We went to Malo for Happy Hour, which takes place Monday through Friday between 3 and 7pm. We entered the dark bar crowded with Silverlake hipsters and sat in the back where we were immediately greeted with three glasses of cucumber-flavored water. We ordered a round of house Margaritas on the rocks with salt because they were on Happy Hour for $5, and proceeded to check out the menu. The Happy Hour menu is quite small now.
A couple of years ago when I was a Thursday night regular, Happy Hour included most of the dinner menu and specialty Margaritas at half price. Sadly the only vegetarian item left on the most recent version of the Happy Hour menu is the bean and cheese slider. But one does not go to Malo for bean and cheese sliders, one goes to Malo for the tacos, which can be ordered a la carte or as part of an entrée platter served with the traditional rice and bean sides at any time.
Since my FSM had to no clue what to order, I took the liberty of ordering for us and got two mock ground beef and pickle tacos, two squash blossom soft tacos and a large guacamole for the table. They also have a potato and cheese taquito that I really enjoy, but I refrained from ordering us that third item because though the tacos look small, they are extremely filling.
Mock ground beef and pickle is a hard shell taco sprinkled with cheese. It also has its meaty counterpart for those who are beef inclined. It is crunchy, savory goodness that seems like a strange combination of ingredients, but ends up tasting familiar. It is almost reminiscent of a burger, (as is the California burrito I was told), but in a Taco shell instead of a bun. The squash blossom taco is the vegetarian version of a shredded chicken taco. It is shredded zucchini and squash blossoms topped with cheese, onions and cilantro to give it that bright citrus like flavor all on small corn tortillas.
My FSM was blown away by Malo and had to concede that LA has the most interesting Mexican food when compared to his San Diego hometown. When the bill came at the end of the night, he was also blown away by L.A. Happy Hour prices. Overall Malo’s food is delicious, it has strong and refreshing Margaritas and can boast a lively ambiente, what with the young artsy types and the loud indie rock blaring through the speakers, but it is not the most affordable Happy Hour in L.A. It is though one of the only places where a vegetarian food lover like me can get her taco fix.
Xo Xo,
Wendy
P.S. This is our second review of Malo. To read about our first happy hour experience there, read review #1.
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