So I hadn’t eaten all day and I needed the power of Mexican food to lead a rehearsal of the understudies all by myself. I spotted Carlos Goldstein’s and instantly thought of Shalom Beijing in Boston. Could this be Glatt Kosher Mexican food?

Carlos Goldstein’s

1150 Murphy Ave, Suite D
San Jose, CA 95131
408 437-1986
(map)

Actually, no. It’s not Kosher Mexican food. It’s just regular Mexican food with some of the worst service I’ve ever experienced.

Mr. Goldstein put his Mexican restaurant in a very industrial part of San Jose back in 1977. I’m sure the area was probably very different back then, but he manages to trudge on. My guess is that this is due to the fact that there is almost nowhere else to eat anywhere near this part of San Jose, with the exception of something eaten at a drive through.

Despite the rather dull surroundings, Carlos Goldstein’s has a very enticing entryway with a quaint little patio outside. Very clever, Mr. Goldstein. Very clever.

Once you get inside you realize it’s a dump. Decor is falling off the walls, the tables don’t stand up straight, it does sport a very lengthy bar- but I wasn’t there to party. I was there to eat.

I ordered a Chile Colorado. Those of you who go out for Mexican food with me know that I frequently order Chile Colorado at sit down places. What I don’t ever order is Chile Verde. However, that did not stop the waitress from bringing me Chile Verde. It also took her forever to remember what beer I ordered long enough to retreive the correct one and bring it out.

It’s called Dos Equis Lager, in the green bottle. Beer = Green, Chile = Red. I’ve never worked in a Mexican Restaurant, but I’ve lived in California for 25 years. I feel like it doesn’t take much to get the essentials right.

Now look at the picture above closely. What’s missing?

If you guessed Tapatio, you win the grand prize. You can now officially open a real taqueria. Not only is there no salsa picante on the tables, it took me 12 minutes to get the attention of the waitress after my meal was served so that I could ask for some. Now that I write about this, I really need to stop giving pity tips.

Let me reiterate: Tapatio is the sin qua non of Mexican food. No salsa, no comer.

The Chile Verde itself wasn’t half bad. The sauce was extremely thick and gooey which is nice. The beans and rice were pretty low quality though, one could proably push the beans through a sieve they were so liquidy. As a rule, the sauce should not be thicker than the side dish.

I really wasn’t impressed with the quality of the meat nor the general level of flavor in the food. Old Carlos could stand to turn it up a notch, as they say.

This place doesn’t deserve to have been in business this long- especially in California where it’s not that hard to get damn good Mexican food. For those of you looking for a tasty Mexican treat in this part of San Jose, I say keep looking.

Shalom.

• Festivus Gastronomicus Rating: Not-so-badicus

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 24th, 2006 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Reviews, $$. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.