Cantina Taqueria & Tequila
1838 7th Ave New York, NY 10026 (Harlem)
How does one celebrate running his first race of 2022? This guy gets tacos and margaritas.
Cantina is a local Mexican staple in Harlem (well maybe it's more Tex-Mex). For this outing, we decided to go to another Cantina location - one that is a 15-minute walk instead of an 8-minute walk from our place because the service at the closest Cantina is a bit of a struggle.
My tacos of choice were al pastor, chili-lime chicken, and Baja fish. We went a little crazy with "salsa" sampler and the tater tots con queso.
It's not a fun taco night without frozen margaritas. I probably was on margarita número tres or cuatro at this point . . . who cares if it was 28F outside?
Going forward, this will be my go-to Cantina because everything was on point - food, services, bebidas, a limited amount of ignorance. The loud music would be the only thing that I would change. Random question: Why do restaurants play their music so freaking loud (especially when the restaurant isn't even half full)? Is it to make folks drink more booze? Is it so folks will eat faster and leave so the restaurant can flip the table? I've noticed this trend in quite a few places in Harlem.
Side Story:
Funny story about the other Cantina (the one that is an 8-minute walk from our place). After moving to Harlem, Cantina was the first restaurant where we dined for late lunch. As most know, I'm pretty good with handling my adult beverages, but the margaritas from that day hit me like a bus. In my defense, I was a bit sleep-deprived because the movers arrived at my place around 8 am so I pulled an all-nighter packing. After lunch, we both went back to the apartment, and I slept for a good two hours. The plan was to go to Target right after lunch to get things for the apartment. During our Target visit (FOUR HOURS LATER), I think we were still feeling the effects of the margaritas because we ended up buying a whole bunch of crap that we DID NOT need, but none of the stuff that we actually needed like a freaking shower curtain or blinds for the bedroom.
My drunk a**, needed a redo to properly spell my name - it's spelled Kwame.
Speaking of crap we did not need for the apt, we did buy a wooden "K", "P", and "&".