Memelas: Tacos+ Thai + Rock

Hot off the press!

If you're ever down in the Bonita area, take the 805 South to the Bonita Road exit. 

Don't be afraid to drive down south.  Immediately, you will see this tiny strip mall (which used to house Pier 1 ages ago). Now look closely. Is that a horned rock 'n' roll salute you see? Holding a taco?

OMFG, we are SO THERE!  After months of passing by this place, it was finally time to stop by...


Interesting concept as you can see by the words on the menu cover.

Menu:



The drinks - Bert's Franzishaner (a wheat beer) and TC's horchata, which she found way too sweet. I just had water.

I loved loved loved the decor!  Half a dozen small plasma screens, all playing music videos (classic rock, and various bands from the 80's through the present day). There were rows of framed album covers lining the walls as well. I spy Bon Jovi's "Slippery When Wet", the Eagles' "Hotel California", the Beatles' "Revolver" and "Rubber Soul", and Depeche Mode's "Exciter" LP's. There were also some Rock en Espanol bands in there such as Soda Stereo, Fobia, and Los Fabulosos Cadillacs (I only know of these groups because of my friends, TORC and La Ley).

The view from our window. That's the corner of Bonita Road and Plaza Bonita Road.

The video on the TV was all the more poignant due to Robin Gibb's recent death. The song that was playing was "Too Much Heaven" by the Bee Gees, of course. Can you spot the albums? Rod Stewart's "Footloose and Fancy Free",and The Beach Boys' classic "Pet Sounds"!  They even had Gogol Bordello, a really freaky gypsy punk band!

More albums from another wall! These folks really like the Bee Gees because there was at least one Bee Gees album per collection. I spy The Beatles' "Hard Days's Night", the Clash's "London Calling", and the Rolling Stones iconic lips and tongue symbol! You can also see Bob Dylan (not a big fan of his) in the corner.

Oh yeah....The Doors! More Beatles! "Sgt Pepper" and  "Meet the Beatles" (the "first" album released for the States but it was really the 2nd studio album; the original UK title was "Meet the Beatles" with a different cover and song order. The album has the famous Robert Freeman photo with the Beatles' faces half in shadow and half in light). I can also see Elvis in the corner...

There is an open kitchen. The interior space is quite long. Lots of light here. Love the red walls and the album covers.  "Nobody gets...too much heaven no more!" (Bee Gees)

The owner's wife serve us some chips and house made salsas and pickled carrots and jalapenos. The condiments were cold (taken from a nearby fridge). The chips were kinds of sparse but they were nice, crisp, and thin. Not like those thick hard chips at some places. I liked the light crispiness of the chips.

As I took this photo, Bert realized that we did NOT order this appetizer. Good thing we did not touch it or start eating it. This was a bit confusing. Their "fresh" spring rolls were fried (which is what Bert ordered). These were the "Thai spring rolls" with the rice paper.

Now this was ours, the "Fresh Spring Rolls" ($5.95). The sauce was sweet chili with one lone cilantro stem. The men said it was supposed to be served with "sweet plum sauce" but this was totally not plum sauce.  I didn't realize this until I started doing this post.

Filled with rice noodles, cabbage, carrots, and wood ear mushrooms. They were just "okay" and not spectacular.

We wanted to try a little bit of everything, as you can see...

Since the restaurant is called 'Memelas', we had to try their namesake, so we got the Steak Memela ($6.95). The Memela is a masa cake that is fried or toasted; this is the name that is local for those from Oaxaca. Memelas are almost (if not) the same as "sopes" or "huaraches". The owner, Raul likened it to a sope for us. He was very friendly and happy to answer my questions about the menu and also about their music video selection (more on that later).

The masa is shaped and flattened and then grilled on the comal. It is then topped with rice, beans, cotija cheese and sour cream along with the meat of your choice.

We wanted to get something Thai as well, so for TC's sake, we ordered their Pad Thai with chicken ($8.95) - We shared all of our entrees. This was rather plain looking. There was a lot of noodles and a decent amount of chicken. The sauce was rather thin or weak tasting. We ordered it mild (since TC would be eating the majority of this) but it didn't have any kick at all. I was expecting more flavor and also more 'color' to this dish.

We also got a couple of tacos: Adobada ($1.95) and Battered Fish (1.50 + .30 for added peanut sauce). If you are so inclined, you could add red or yellow curry sauce for an extra .30 as well. The sauce made the fish taco a bit too soggy for me.

The sauce made the fish taco a bit too soggy for me. The portions were street taco size which was perfect if you just wanted to try a variety of tacos.

Of the dishes we tried, I liked the adobada taco the best with the memela second. Bert liked the memela the best. He enjoyed the combination of the meat, beans, and cheese on the masa. I thought it was a bit too heavy for me. As for TC, guess what was her favorite?  Yes, the pad thai.

So next time you see this spage age vestigial wing of this strip mall, give it a shot. There's more stuff on their menu that fuse Mexican with Thai that seem interesting and worth a second visit.

Who else has been to Memelas?

There are six menu item mentions on this nosh site...but no SD Bloggers that I know of...

Memelas
3001 Bonita Road
Bonita, CA 919102
(619) 498-1318

There is no official website so here are some yelp reviews...

Interesting concept this place had. Even though the service was a bit slow at times, the owner's wife was very attentive to us. The owner even gave us a few stickers with the hand and taco!Score! Oh and the music videos are definitely a plus! Which reminds me...when I was talking to Raul (the owner) about their videos, I asked if it was a channel they subscribed to. His answer was that they could download videos of their choice from a company. He gets to decide the music and videos. The music they play is mostly classic rock and various bands from the 70's, 80's (heavy on the 80's, yes!), 90's, and a few from the present day.

Some of the videos we enjoyed this evening were Led Zeppelin's "Over the Hills and Far Away", The Smiths' "This Charming Man", followed by a Morrissey video (don't remember the song), The Donnas' "Who Invited You", John Lennon's version of "Stand by Me", The Foo Fighters' "Learn to Fly", and a few new bands that I'd never head before (TV on the Radio, and something else).

What a totally fun part of the job, choosing videos and bands that you like and playing them on a continous loop while you work! If I owned that restaurant, good luck to the customers! I'd be blasting shit like Iron Maiden, Dio, Van Halen, Def Leppard (pre-"Hysteria" thank you), Boston, early Aerosmith, Guns 'n Roses, The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen!

Glad we went here and we will definitely be back to try their other tacos and maybe even try them with curry sauce!