Not really sure exactly what we felt like on a cold winters night in North Melbourne, my friend GL and I decided to check out Hello Jose. HJ is a hole in the wall style taqueria that serves traditional soft tacos, salads, an extensive range of tequila and not much else.
We both decided to go for a tequila and two soft tacos, with both of us choosing one crispy pork belly (the house speciality) and a chipotle beef. All of HJs tacos come on a fresh, soft, corn flour, pillow of awesome, with a delicious red cabbage salad for colour, crunch and astringent complimentary flavour. That part at least was amazing.
The toppings were more hit and miss. I really loved the beef - slow cooked in a great spice mix with chipotle mayo and jalapeños as a garnish - spicy and very moreish. The crispy pork belly with apple slaw I could take or leave. It tasted a bit like bad crackling - that is crunchy, but gamy and pork greasy to the max - and the apple slaw did nothing for it. It markedly improved when I dumped a lot of their house made salsa onto it, but still wasn't great.
Interestingly, GL, who spends a lot of time in California for work said the tacos really took him back to some his more adventurous eating in the food trucks and markets of LA and The Bay Area. When we were asked by the Aztec poncho wearing hostess if we enjoyed our food, he told her they were the best tacos outside of California, much to her obvious, mexicocentric, chagrin.
We also sampled a variety of interesting tequilas - including an interesting anejo (aged) tequila with a smokiness that reminded me very distinctly of a nice glass of Laphroiagh.
All in all, I'd be back - however I'd stay away from the pork.
-M
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