Mi Abuela’s, 2313 N.W. Military Drive

Here’s a Mexican restaurant in Mi Abuela’s near Castle Hills where the corn tortillas are actually better than the flour. I didn’t think that was possible in San Antonio. I walked in and I was immediately struck by its tidiness — a big contrast from the places I usually gravitate toward.

My waitress pushed the more meaty tacos, because I arrived there late, late morning. She also asked me if I knew how to fix the TV, which had gone blizzard. I didn’t, and then I ordered (mostly) breakfast tacos.

The discovery here, again, was the corn tortilla that I had with bean and cheese. There is no way to tell if the actual abuela slash cook is making these tortillas or whether they’re made at a tortilleria and then brought here. And even if they’re made in-house, are they created from store-bought Maseca or from scratch? No matter, these tortillas were excellent. They were perfectly round and soft with a medium thickness. And they were flexible and light.

I’ve been asking myself lately why I don’t order more tacos on corn. The reason is that flour tortillas are more of a staple in San Antonio, and therefore the quality is consistently high. Corn can be hit and miss and we usually only eat them with barbacoa. Or, at least that’s what we did along the 36th/Esmeralda/Hillcrest corridor.

Back to Castle Hills. On this corn, the beans were on the watery side and needed more seasoning, but respectable, otherwise. But again, the corn tortilla carried this taco.

I broke from my exploration of the breakfast taco and ordered the carne asada con frijoles. (The waitress sold me and it was pretty much lunchtime.) The meat was well-seasoned and not too chewy and mixed well with the grilled onion and bell pepper.

The flour tortilla was the problem — they seemed old and some slightly overdone. This is not good for any taco as the tortilla is literally the foundation.

And so the papa chorizo was OK with high quality chorizo that was not too greasy. And the potatoes were well done. But that tortilla.

The chicharron and egg was actually very good, about as good as chicharron in scrambled eggs can get — the crispy and soft textures married. But that tortilla.

At Mi Abuela’s the restaurant (not my actual grandmother) go with corn.