This is a real quick note, probably more or less an update to the original review I gave to the Golden Flower Vietnamese restaurant at West St. and 5th downtown.   (For review, click here)

The nice part is, good food is available much later in the evening, to the tune of 3:00AM.  Thank goodness there’s an alternative to the ethereal China Diner (of which I’m not a huge fan) and the Gold & Silver Inn (which I AM  a huge fan).  Whatever your preference, choices used to be a staple here in Reno, and time frames should not be something that hinders a late night urge to eat in downtown Reno.

They are featuring a “loose menu,” (the kind of menu that’s more of an addendum or insert to the original) with some Chinese-style fare as well, and this is in addition to the regular menu.  Good, give China Diner a run for its money!

This was just a friendly update from your favorite Daddy Rodeo.

Lick your plates clean, kids.

GR

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Celebrate Empire Improv’s ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW. Empire’s Hostel Greetings will share the stage with special guests Doug Long, Joanna S. Dunlop and Shawna Hafen.

That’s right, Empire Improv has been around for even longer than we here at GHR have.  We hope they stick around for years to come.

January 23rd, 2008, 7:00PM, five bucks.   Studio on 4th at Valley and 4th Streets, across from the St. Vincent’s thrift store.

- GR

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Peacenik punk rockers “Surrender,” will be waving the white flag along with “Da Capo,” at the Eyeball (Ryland one block west of Holcomb).  Leave your guns and nuclear weapons at home, but just this once.  September 19th, 8pm, donations accepted.  I heard Wasteland Witch may be there, but since it ain’t on the flyer, don’t quote me on that.

- Gay Rodeo

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After a great show of comedy by Empire Improv, I was hungry. Naturally, I thought about going to a taco wagon and Tacos El Norte was my first thought. But, I had noticed another taco wagon on Wrondel for the last couple weeks on the other side of the building from El Shaddai called Yesenia. I drove from 4th Street over to Wrondel and carefully parked on Linden Street and walked down the street to Yesenia. Yesenia, by the way is the name of a tree found in South America and it was also used as a name in a telenovela called Yesenia and that seems to be the root of its popularity.

I got to Yesenia around 10:00 on a Saturday night, which is prime time for taco wagons. Also, the service over at the church next door had ended and I noticed that El Shaddai, while open, was not busy at all, but Yesenia was. The food offered at Yesenia is rather surprising for a taco wagon and they have all the normal meats including chicken. Their drink selection is excellent and they even have Mexican candies like Marzipan (I can’t say no to the stuff), Duvalín, I think Carlos V chocolate (I wonder what Emperor Charles V of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire would think about having a chocolate named for him?) and other things. I ordered four tacos, two chicken and two chorizo with everything and asked for them to go (para llegar en español). Yesenia really doesn’t have anywhere to eat and as it was crowded there I decided to take my tacos home. After paying $6 for four tacos, I was given an order number, something I’ve never yet seen at a taco wagon and began my wait. My advice as you wait- watch where you walk since the sidewalk where Yesenia parks is broken and at least a little treacherous. All the people hanging around there seemed nice enough and friendly.

I waited about ten minutes and then “Numero zero siete” was called out. I said “Zero siete.” and gave them my ticket and the guys in the truck said, “Oh yeah, seven.” Only one lady didn’t seem to speak English, while all the guys at Yesenia did, which is a good thing for many people. I was handed a brown-bag which apparently had all my tacos and everything in it. I didn’t see any way to take some salsa with you to go, so I asked about the salsa to go and was told they’d given me cups of both red and green sauce. I thanked them, walked back to my car and drove to Stewart House.

I went to my kitchen, got a plate and opened up the brown-bag. In the bag, there was an aluminum package with all the tacos, the two cups of green and red salsa; a bag full of Mexican condiments like limes, radishes and jalapeños and three napkins. I opened the aluminum package and took a good look at the tacos. It all smelled great and I then put the red salsa on the first chicken taco. I picked it up and tried it- the chicken was wonderfully cooked and had a great, smoky flavor and the red salsa was spicy but not too hot, maybe about a 7 out of 10 on the heat scale. The next taco was just as good with the green salsa, which was a nice, mellow medium sauce and was a great complement to the chicken and to the chorizo too, which was nicely made. The tacos were great and I’m sure that everything else there is just as good- I’ll have to keep Yesenia on my list for dinner.

Now I have two favorite taco wagons- Tacos El Norte and Yesenia, which are both good. Yesenia’s food choices are almost as varied as a taqueria or restaurant and the food is just as good. Check it out some night and enjoy it, but watch the sidewalk!

- Tim Hazard

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As I said before, “Every buffet in Reno has something that sets it apart from the rest and something that makes it not nearly so great as it could be.”

I believe that.  That’s why I wrote it.  Duh!

So, we are left with the need to review a buffet.  I read in the gazette-journal that Eldorado had recently completely redone their buffet.  If you’ve spent a number of years experiencing Reno you’ll know how so very many of us feel about Tivoli Gardens, which was a restaurant-showpiece-extraordinaire and we all lost something the day that the animatronic wall gargoyles stopped working due to water and mold destroying their foam-fabric construction.  Still, we miss how their eyes glowed red.  Tivoli was awesome.  Won’t someone make a new one?  Please? (Yes, I know it’s still technically open. But come on…)

Anyway, on to the buffet.  This buffet is new and is run or apparently had its menu designed by the guy who runs LuLou’s restaurant in Reno’s, um, happening, SoDo district.  That means Virginia south of California and north of Plumb and there’s actually some decent food over there.

The buffet is an interesting thing:  there’s a line at the door, it’s definitely sought after, but the staff and management, while competent, are not exactly going the extra mile.  For example, my party wanted a booth and I asked twice if there was a booth we could sit in, and they denied us at the end even though there were booths nearby.  Now in many areas of life, I go ahead and go for it, and fight for that thing I want but in this case the booth wasn’t really that important, but the seating girl’s somewhat petulant attitude did not do much to get the dinner off to a good start.

The buffet is pretty cool.  As has been noted a million other places, there are not sterno pans here, but rather ceramic plates under heat lamps.  This did look way better than a lot of other buffet presentations.  Sadly, for some things, having them and having them there, means they should be good, and that’s not the case for every item.  If I could advise a buffet operator:  If it doesn’t taste good, ditch it.

Such was the case with some seafood at this buffet.  I tried mahi-mahi and I tried mussels, and they both fell flat.  The mahi was chewy and hard to get apart and fishy tasting and the mussels were dry and fishy tasting.  Part of understanding a set of dishes and their presentation is understanding how they will stand up to the test of time, especially for a buffet chef, and I believe they could really improve this area.

One thing all reviews had led me to was the brisket, something I will visit an establishment just to try.  The brisket is one area where this buffet shines.  I’ve had the brisket sandwich from BBQ House on Wells, which although a nice experience and not a half bad sandwich, can’t compare with this brisket.  This brisket has been cooking so long and was so well rubbed that it tastes exquisite and is not allowed to sit there long.

This buffet gets right a lot of things but on the Sunday I was there, it got wrong a lot of things.  The Caesar salad bar was not working in near the right volume or really even order (the salad wasn’t terrible, but I kind of had to steel myself for it).  There was some shrimpy soup that looked just like Hot and Sour, which I don’t feel comfortable judging, since I’m not Asian and you never know, that could have been good to someone.

Mashed potatoes and gravy were working flawlessly and so were various vegetables, also the desserts were fantastic.

I had some pear flavored ice cream (not gelato, but ice cream) and a little chocolate lovely thingie that had an oreo cookie as part of it that was tiny and chewy, it was pretty freakin good.  Mom had bread pudding which she remembered as damn fine from before, and turns out, it is still damn fine.

The service aside from the seating girl was buffet good, and I apologize to the nice drink waiter who kept my ice tea full even though we only had like $2.25 to leave behind.  THAT and the buffet was on discount, so we got in for 14 bucks each.  That’s how it went.

Brisket, Prime Rib;  Check.  Other stuff?  Hit and miss.  (Mom had a few decent dishes that I can’t remember)  Dessert?  Of course, it’s awesome.  So the Eldo buffet, is worth it at 14 bucks and quite possibly not worth it at what I understand is full price, 20 bucks.  But with a little work, it could be an eater’s paradise.

Now, about my earlier Tivoli Gardens comments…

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Taco wagons are here today and gone tomorrow, literally. Most of them are open only during the weekends and even then if you come back to the same spot the next week, that wagon might never come back. Several wagons on Wells Avenue have come and gone like this and before I could try their stuff. Restaurants are risky business propositions at best and their success depends on a bit of luck. I’m sure that taco wagons are even more unstable, seeing as they don’t even have a foundation.

How does this relate to La Fortuna? Fortuna was the Roman goddess of luck and she is a fickle and infamous lady as I’m sure you all know. There’s even a song or two about her and there’s a taco wagon named for her, at least for the moment. The main business of Reno and Las Vegas is totally dependent on Luck (although the house almost never loses if you look at the odds), so a taco wagon called La Fortuna is rather appropriate.

So- after a a few hours of bargain hunting at the El Rancho Swap Meet (another article entirely) and you don’t feel like eating inside the Meet, La Fortuna Tacos is parked across the street. I was driving down 9th Street and saw the wagon and had to stop. Since I’ve been writing this series whenever I see a taco wagon, I stop and try them if it’s time for lunch and it was when I stopped by La Fortuna.

La Fortuna has the standard things you’ll find at a taqueria or taco wagon: tacos, burritos, tortas and tostadas. They have the normal meats you’ll find too- asada, carnitas, cabeza, al pastor, tripas, lengua, buche, chorizo and chicken. La Fortuna is the second third taco wagon I’ve noticed that had chicken and that’s not bad at all. Their drink selection is about average, although I noticed they had some Hansen’s Natural Sodas along with Pepsi, Monster energy drink and bottled water, though there weren’t so many left when I got there.

I got my usual order of chicken and carnitas tacos and was asked if I wanted it for there or to go. I had it there and waited and noticed the salsas were almost out. It was about two in the afternoon so I probably had hit La Fortuna near the end of its day. After only a few minutes, the tacos came out and I ate them. The sauces were pretty good- the red sauce was spicy and tangy, the green had good flavor and. The tacos themselves were fine- the tortillas were a little dry but the chicken was nicely cooked and spiced and the carnitas were pretty good.

I ate up and then paid the gentleman who took my order. I asked him if he was normally across the street from the Swap Meet and noticed a For Sale sign in the side window of the wagon. The man, an older gentleman, shrugged and said “Usually…”. I pointed at the For Sale sign and the man nodded with another shrug. I thanked the man and walked off to take a couple of pictures. Maybe La Fortuna Tacos isn’t having so much luck?

Well, La Fortuna Tacos is still across the street from the El Rancho Swap meet at least for this weekend and probably next weekend, but who knows for how long? But that’s how taco wagons are and that’s how Lady Luck is too- fickle. Try out La Fortuna, it’s a good stop if you’re around there.

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