By the way, Old West Durham stretches from Broad Street, across Ninth Street to Hillandale Road — and from the Durham Freeway, north to Englewood Avenue.

Here are some old pics of Ninth Street on the neighborhood website… http://www.owdna.org/History/history1a.htm

Tofu tacos are good, well seasoned and included brocolli. It’s nice when vegetarian means a dish has vegetables, not just beans, rice and cheese. Plus they’re cheap ($2). A veggie can walk out of there waddling for less than $10 for sure. Not as cheap as cosmic, but hey, I think there is room for two cheap latin bites in my diet.

The relleno taco is OK,, but really it’s just a relleno in a tortilla. Still, having dealt with making rellenos at home, I’ll gladly pay someone else $4 to make one for me with all the roasting, egg batter and frying. I’d go to Azteca if I wanted a good one, but I think the watchword here is convenience.

The salsas are smashing as well. Particularly liked the Chile de Arbol.

Did anybody else notice the “Chubby Lover” T-shirts? I think that’ll be funny until I see a legion of undergrads in them. Oh, well, I’ll enjoy the summer of it.

The grilled shrimp taco was delicious but it was TINY and $4. The ahi tuna taco was likewise tiny and $4, and was way overcooked.

The beans were very flavorful - probably the best I’ve had in recent memory. And all of the salsas that I tried were good to very good. I also had the exploding-salsa-bottle issue, which they’ve been trying to work on.

In any case, paying over $10 for not much food (although they were generous with the chips) was too overpriced for the quality. If they brought the prices down or increased the sizes, that might be better. I’d get 2 of the grilled shrimp tacos for $6.

The queso is, well, queso.

I agree with MP about the pasilla salsa. It’s very good, but having it in a squirt bottle and providing tiny little paper cups is really insufficient.

I’m also not a huge fan of the gimmicky potato cutlery. It’s a clear appeal to the 9th St “we’re saving the world by eating with recyclable cutlery” crowd. In fact, it’s just a cost-saving measure with little real environmental impact.

I’ll go to the taco trucks and/or real tacquerias most of the time, unless I just want a quick bite to eat when I’m hanging out on 9th. La Vaquita is my first choice these days.

Having said all that, I’ll try their breakfast when they start it.

1) the pasilla salsa is fantastic. they also pack it in tight enough so it squirts all over your shirt, which is entertaining.

2) the “big burrito” isn’t that big, sadly, but it’s good.

3) the queso dip is awesome

the upcoming breakfast menu seems very promising.

Thanks for your comments!

GNR