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Iron Cactus, The South of MarketOMR: 6.67
683 4th St.
cross street: Townsend
ph. 415/777-1004
Map Visits: 1
Housed in the handsome Gilt Edge Creamery building around the corner from the local ballyard, the Iron Cactus debuted in late 2009 — old-time hanging light fixtures, scorching table salsas, rad horchata, pretty much the works. It’s a lovely room, all windows on the entry side, accented by dark wood most everywhere else. As for the menu, it’s characterized by an abundance of prawn dishes and errors with apostrophes. The staff’s quite friendly, even if our first burrito experience here wasn’t. Wine and beer (bottled and draft) available. Closed Sunday evenings. The Iron Cactus Web site.

Will My Health Be Violated?

12/22/09Carnitas$8.556.67 Mustaches
Swish: burstage abatement (10); vegetables (9); spiciness (8)
Shrug: size (7); meat (7); rice (7); tortilla (6); beans (6); ingredient mix (6); temperature (6)
Clang: sauciness (5); cheese (4)
Intangibility bonus: 1 (of 2)

A sticky, overly elastic tortilla introduced us to the Iron Cactus’ burritowork, and we wish the whole meeting had gone better. Sadly, our lunch was sauce-deficient, length-challenged, and victimized by several bites that came in well under our temperature acceptability level. The veggie-based contingent — crisp and chunky pico de gallo, burly guacamole — remained impressive throughout, and we certainly had no gripes about this girthy/hefty burrito’s construction. But too many elements underperformed, from the tasty but overabundant Spanish rice (which included corn kernels and peas) to the drab, too-pasty refried beans. As for the carnitas, its flavor was fine enough, but it completely lacked the sort of charred crispiness we hope for in killer carnitas. The biggest drags here were all the unmelted cheese grates and the poorly realized ingredient mix, and don’t think those two things weren’t related. Some bites demonstrated sky-high spice; others were sea-level flat. We tried seeking out the good here, but instead were subjected to just too much six-mustache sub-mediocrity. Let’s try this again some other time, shall we?