50-50 - Tortilla Sam's

Tortilla Sam's has been around since I was in college, so at least 10 years. It was never as good as it was in it's original location, next to Mahoney's pub on Park Ave. They had a green chili that would take your eyebrows off, it was so hot. And delicious. Then, for some reason, they decided to dumb down the heat for the masses, and now the only way you can get a really hot meal there is if you douse it in napalm hot sauce. That's not really the way to do it. You really need to choose the right hot sauce for the meal and add it while cooking. But whatever. That's not the point of this post.

I ordered one of my all-time-favorites and was extremely disappointed. The spinach and chicken burrito is usually a nice tortilla filled with an equal blend of chicken and rice, with spinach chopped up really small and mixed in with the whole mix. There was some sort of mexican spice, I don't know what kind, but it was fragrant and added a really nice finish to the filing. This time, the filling was mostly rice, a small amount of tiny chunks of chicken, not really much seasoning, and the worst part, about 4 wilted spinach leaves. Whole leaves, with some of the stem too. Impossible to take a bite all the way through, because the spinach is such a stringy food. It mainly made me gag. I ended up eating all the spinach in about 3 bites, because instead of taking small bites of the spinach, I just pulled it all the way out. (burrito: $2.99)

The other item I ordered was actually really satisfying. The crispy potato wedges hit the spot. Basically, peeled, sliced potato wedges, deep fried and sprinkled with spices like paprika and salt. They were piping hot, crispy on the outside, and perfectly cooked on the inside. For $$2.99, you get about 2 potatoes worth of wedges. I ate about a third and saved the rest. They're going to be breakfast home fries - what a treat!

It's going to be a while before I venture back to Tortilla Sam's, unless I hear something good about the burritos.