Tomatillo: THE taco place (Dec. 12, 2009)

So recently there’s been all these rave reviews about above said restaurant so I thought I’d add my own two cents and let you know the real deal. To make it easier for all of us, I’ve coyly divided my review into four categories for location, price, ingredients/food and service. Let me know if you’ve found this helpful and whether your experience was better or worse.

The Location:Getting to Tomatillo’s is pretty simple. Go out of exit 6 from Jonggak Station and in less than 5 minutes of walking (about 30 meters) it’ll be on your left side. You can also go from Gwanghwamun Station exit 5. There are two other franchises near Samsung Station (exit 5 in connection with the Hyundai Department store, B1) and Yeoksam Station (inside Gangnam Finance Center building connected from B2 of exit 2). Looking at just the convenience of location, I would say that Tomatillo has done pretty well for themselves in the efforts of branching out not only in the southeastern region but in the north end as well. I would hope that in the future, they’ll consider opening another location near Hongik or Yonsei University as well as some other branches near Hyehwa, Sindorim and Apgujeong.

The Price:

Considering the wide demographics of customers (from college students to families) the prices are slightly above modest, at best. What absolutely shocked me (to my very core) was a 10% VAT tax. Honestly, this is not some high class restaurant. For example, if you factor in that on top of the price for a burrito (6,800won) it comes out to be a little less than 7,500won. Our set menu was 9,900won (w/ VAT) and included a side of chips, salsa and soft drink. Other choices from the main menu were tacos (4,180won), quesadillas (also about 7,500won), tostados (6,050won) and nachos (also 9,000 to 10,000won). One thing I will commend them for is prices on alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Strawberry, lime and peach margaritas are a meager 6,050won and tequila shots for 4,400won. The priciest drinks are their smoothies in pina colada, gold medalist and peach fuzzy flavors and Coronas for 6,600won.

Am I overreacting? Maybe a little but once again looking at the fare alone, this is an average of 1,000won more than other similar Tex Mex style restaurants that DON’T charge this nonsense tax. A quick note to tourists, you can file for a refund later so keep your receipts.

The Food:

They have plenty of delicious and fresh side orders to choose from, some more memorable than others…though they could do without the Mexican salad, tortilla soup, cinnamon choco chips and dessert cake. I felt like these were added just for the sake of ‘pleasing’ the Korean pallet. I mean cookies and cake at a Mexican restaurant? A little odd, if you know what I mean. I say they should stick with the basics and do their best to keep prices low on what really matters: the meats, cheese, salsas and made to order chips! In fact, I don’t even expect them to ever lower the price for guacamole and sour cream (having lived in Korea for more than 2 years, I’ve grown accustomed to excluding them altogether) however believe these too are a must in a legitimate Mexican menu.

Back to what’s important, my order. Going with a friend I decided to get the baja fish burrito and she, a chicken burrito set with chips and cola. The last time I had a fish burrito was at Taco Del Mar in Seattle, 2+ years ago and it was DE-LI-COUS. So of course, I had high expectations. They didn’t do a good job of layering the ingredients as the first few bites were tasteless and bland, also probably because the ‘insides’ didn’t take up much space on the tortilla. I even asked for more vegetables, except rather than bursting from the seams, my burrito was roughly 1/4^th smaller than what I was used to.

With that being said, on taste alone I gave high marks. The freshness of the lettuce blended well with the melted mild cheddar cheese, sour cream, fried fish and Spanish rice. I would even go as far as saying that the rice was THE best in Korea, long-grains, not sticky and with just the right amount of heat to keep your tongue tingly happy after each delightful bite. I did miss not having fresh tomatoes but as it was already falling apart midway, that might have been a good thing.

My friend’s chicken burrito was also a bitter-sweet experience. Everything was great expect the portion size, sauce drips making a mess all over her hands even with the aluminum wrapping (I mean where did they learn to fold, beginners origami school?!) and cold chicken. Last but not least, I was very saddened by the measly 8 pieces of chips that came with the set menu. On the other hand, the salsa made from yellow tomatoes was a perfect contrast to the main dish, not too watery or sweet. For more bang for your buck I suggest the combo plate (includes chips, salsa, rice, beans and soda for 5,500won) or just chips and salsa (for 3,850won) and opt for their free water with lemon.

The Service:

As a final point, I want to note the ever soo slooooww service. With only a handful of customers, I honestly have never experienced such sluggishness by a restaurant’s employees. As a quick solution, I suggest they import some hard working Mexican workers to replace the unenthusiastic, undeniably oblivious Korean’s behind the counter. The only time you know they’d get distracted would be looking at all the Korean girls wearing mini-skirts and heels in the dead of winter! All jokes aside, we waited 20 minutes for our food to come out and once it did, think of how disappointing it was: two average size burritos, one cold (mine was warm only because of the fried fish), a soft drink and some chips tossed in the basket for good measure.

So the ultimate question is would I ever go there again? Yes and no. If I’m in the area and craving some non-Korean food I’d probably stop by and hope that it won’t take another millennia. But being slightly out of my way and living (in the Itaewon area) next to Amigos and Chili Chili on the same block, I envision far and few visits to Tomatillo’s.

*Note: Except for the link to directions in English, the site has not been fully translated.