La Puerta - Taco Tuesday plus happy hour

It’s Taco Tuesday! Undecided of where to go? We wandered over to La Puerta in downtown San Diego to check out their Taco Tuesday specials.

Ask for the complimentary chips and salsa to start. These chips are fried as thick as pita chips and go well with the fabulous salsas here. The red salsa is almost like a V8 flavor and thickness (in a good way) but on the slightly sweeter side. The green salsa is of a medium consistency made with serrano and tomatillo plus you can taste a bit of the lime in there. I can't even think of another place I like more for the chips and salsa.

To celebrate Taco Tuesday, we decided to order every taco flavor available. The plate of four has a steak, chicken, veggie, and shrimp taco. The porkylicious plate of three has the cochinita, pastor, and carnitas tacos.

The Carne Asada taco has a peppery heat to it and plenty of charred grill. The meat was very tender with great seasoning.

The Pollo Asado (chicken) taco gave us an olive oil taste to the char with subtle seasoning flavor. The chicken was moist and easy to bite.

The Grilled Veggie taco had roasted peppers and onions and other yummies, sort of like a meatless fajita style. It's definitely wetter than some of the other tacos from all that vegetable roasted goodness.

The Ranchero Shrimp taco was a little plain though and maybe should have more lime squeezed or cooked into the sauce.

We enjoyed the Cochinita taco which was simply satisfying with its contrast of pickled onions to savory meat. This was the only taco WITHOUT guac and other toppings and we don't think it needs anything else!

The Carnitas taco was deliciously seared to a crispy edge with plenty of juicy morsels to please us.

The Pastor taco is always one of my favorites when we eat out. This meat was tender and well seasoned while the pineapple parts were still warm!

There’s also an excellent happy hour at La Puerta from 3-7pm. Every day of the week! They offer half off drinks and appetizers!

We've ordered two different quesadillas so far. The above is the Cochinita Quesadilla. This particular meat was very porky with plenty of cheesy goodness! It came with achiote sauce for dipping, which has that subtle heat that you don’t taste right away... saved for later! The pickled onions are a good side item to go with it.

The Carne Asada Quesadilla was just as good. It's paired with pico de gallo instead of achiote sauce.

It's nice to sit at the bar once in a while. Our bartender Israel was pretty cool too. Bad Medicine had a subtle smokiness with a sweetness from sugar. Too good. Remember the Alamo had a very familiar spice to it, sort of like holiday gingerbread. You can taste the fresh lime squeeze into it.

Here, I slurped down a blended Mango Margarita which was slightly pulpy with plenty of mango flavor without tasting alcoholic. Dennis goes for the stronger drinks like the Low Rider, the cadillac of La Puerta. It was said to be smooth and delicious.

We met a new friend (fellow home BBQ enthusiast) on a recent happy hour visit and have to agree that this is one of the best happy hours in downtown! If you arrive too late, you're going to have to wait! It's very popular for a reason!