The braised beef short ribs deliver an unexpectedly smooth and sultry undercurrent of vanilla. The pork is marinated with mango and aji amarillo chili paste. The chicken is cooked sous-vide style, slowly, slowly, slowly, until it becomes delicious, and as soft and tender as a newborn baby’s rosy little cheeks. The tortillas are handmade, to order.
These aren’t your typical tacos.
Before opening the closet-sized Pour Vida Latin Flavor on Anaheim’s Center Street Promenade, chef Jimmy Martinez cooked on a much larger scale at Boa and Mastro’s, two of L.A.’s big steak powerhouses, as well as 41 Ocean, a members-only social club in Santa Monica. He clearly knows his way around the kitchen and does not skimp on quality.
After sampling nearly every taco on the menu, I haven’t found one that I don’t like. The vanilla-scented short rib is probably my favorite. The lobster, mingled with fresh corn and served on a squid-ink tortilla, is probably better than any lobster roll I’ve tasted lately. And the tomatillo-jalapeño salsa hits all the right notes.
I suspect some diners will take offense at being asked to pay $6 to $12 for a single taco. Self-anointed taco “experts” get belligerent when a taco’s price goes above a buck fifty. These tacos are clearly not for them.
Nevertheless, whenever I’ve shown up in the middle of the afternoon, this place has been in the midst of a two-for-one happy hour. As a result, the tacos aren’t stuffed quite as fat as they would be in prime time, but they’re still extremely generous and satisfying.
And it’s not just the tacos that get the chef treatment. Beans are tossed with some sort of mildly spicy adobo. Chipotle adds a kick to Brussels sprouts. This is, in fact, a great place for vegetarians.
If you haven’t yet been — and most people I speak to say they haven’t — to Anaheim’s Center Street Promenade, I think you will find it absolutely charming.
