This is like a Mexican Cafe Bernardo, observed my 13-year-old daughter as we waited for our food at Azul. Good analogy: As at Bernardo's, you order at the counter, grab a picture card on a stick so a server can identify you and find a seat. The food's different, of course. It's Mexican, and it's fast, good and cheap. (Nothing costs more than $12.) While we waited for our meals, we listened to thumping Latin pop music and helped ourselves to a basket of thin, warm, crispy and addictively salty tortilla chips at the salsa bar. My daughter needed both hands for the plump Veggie Burrito ($6.40), filled with rice, beans, cheese, peppers, mushrooms and onions. My carnitas plate ($11.90) featured nicely crisped pork that was moist without being greasy, and our server brought us warm tortilla refills not once but twice. This upscale taqueria is located in the MARRS building at 20th and J, and I couldn't help feeling a little jealous of all those midtown loft dwellers who can run over whenever they have a craving for a chile relleno or grilled mahi-mahi taco.
1050 20th St., Suite 140, Sacramento; (916) 447-4040
