2300 E. “Ceasar Chavez” (i.e. East 1st St.)
472-3872
30.35523° N, 97.71916° W
Pepper grinder rating: 0.
Men’s room rating: 1.5. (Guys, Lilliputian confines, a permanent wet floor sign, a missing top for your toilet tank, and a sink that’s outside both bathrooms do not endear you to me. Take a week’s vacation and get some contractors in to expand the thing. -Lawrence)
Dwight’s comments:
I have heard good things about Juan in a Million for breakfast, and I would be willing to give them another try for that. However, dinner seems like an afterthought, right down to the menus, which are actually the breakfast and lunch menus: there’s no actual dinner menu. Which is okay, because dinner ends up being priced like lunch. But it kind of isn’t okay, because you’re basically getting a lunch portion for dinner.
The other problem was that I didn’t think lunch/dinner (lupper?) was all that great: the chicken fajita plate wasn’t terribly spicy, or much of anything else. Enchiladas Y Mas does a similar plate, but better executed, I think.I did like that the owner came around to check on us: he seems like a pretty friendly guy. If he could just perk up the dinner menu some…
Lawrence’s comments:
I’ve liked the breakfast tacos I’ve had at Juan in a Million, so I was happy to see they were finally open for dinner. I also like the fact that they charge the same for dinner as for lunch. As for the food, well…
First of all, they got our nacho order wrong, and if there was any meat on the plate, it was so small compared to the beans it was mixed in with (i.e, the same beans I told them to leave off), it was all but undetectable. I’ve had worse nachos, but not this century, and I expect a hell of a lot better for $7.
Aside from that, however, everything else was pretty decent. There was less meat on my beef fajita plate than I like, but it was a decent quantity for a pretty low price, and they brought me extra onions and cut peppers (fresh jalapenos) on the side like I asked. And the extra egg and chorizo breakfast taco I had was good.
Service was generally acceptable, a little slow early on but better as the meal progressed. I did like the fact the owner came out to check on every table, a feature you usually see in Italian restaurants more than TexMex places.
Juan in a Million strikes me a only a sliver above the Austin TexMex average, but with the potential to be better. It’s still a much better place for breakfast tacos than dinner, but as long as you avoid the nachos you should be fine.