Loading ...Dos Segundos
Posted by Foobooz on September 4th, 2008
David Snyder visits Dos Segundos, the Northern Liberties’ sibling of Cantina Los Caballitos and finds the East Passyunk scene may not have come along but there’s plenty of other reasons to make the visit.
There’s enough originality here to spawn its own fan base. For starters, I can’t stop craving the house-made chorizo. The deep flavors of cumin and juicy rendered pork fat shine best in the tacos.
In the tasty torta al pastor, a Mexican sandwich, pork legs soak up a traditional marinade, which includes sweet ground canella (Mexican cinnamon), before roasting on a trompo, or vertical rotisserie. The fat telera rolls sourced from Las Lomas Bakery drink up the al pastor’s delicious caramelized juices.
Dos Def [City Paper]
Dos Segundos [Official Site]
931 N 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA
Related Tags: David Snyder, Dos Segundos Cantina, Mexican, Northern-Liberties, Reviewed
September 4th, 2008 at 11:05 am
since i hate bashing anyone’s opinion, i have to conclude that dan snyder has no taste buds. and that’s ok, it’s a genetic condition. the new cantina has crappy crappy food, just like the original one. i had some friends up from texas and we ended up at dos segundos (i was feeling uninspired) and we picked at our food. it just wasn’t prepared well at all, flavors were off, meat wasn’t tasty, the beans were bad, the whole nine. a philly friend who was also with us (and who LOVES the cantina, bless her heart) was incredibly disappointed as well (and no, that was not the only time i (and my company) was disappointed there and not the only time i went). the only good thing about it is in the space that used to be azure, so i will always smile when i walk in to order drinks (and only drinks).
September 4th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Wow, that comment’s the first pan of Dos Segundos I’ve read outside the northernliberties.org message board … if only I didn’t get lost within the plethora of parenthesis. Seriously, I’m not a Cantina fan, so haven’t tried Dos; but there are some serious haters out there. I really have never seen anything like it.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Maybe if the uninspired haters of Dos would tell us what they actually ordered and what they didn’t like about their order, people would respond to them with something other than bewilderment.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Like Ch.t.I mentions, there’s a very strange crowd of persistent Dos haters that seemed to hate it before it even opened. Maybe Azure made a bigger impression on those people than it did on me, and they just can’t get over it being gone? I’ve been to Dos about a half dozen times and it’s been great. I guess to each his own, but the criticisms mentioned in the first post are just so far off my own experience, I have to wonder what he’s talking about. In particular, the flavors of the meats have been amazingly good, like Snyder mentions in his review, that Al Pastor pork is delicious. Reminds me of when I lived in Southern California. The refried beans are unbelievable, they taste like bacon! But fine, let the haters hate on Dos, maybe I’ll still be able to get a table for a while longer.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Cantina’s refried beans taste like bacon because they have bacon in them, but it’s not listed on the menu, much to the ire of some veg diners who found out the hard way.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
as long as they keep serving those super strong frozen margaritas i’m happy
September 4th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Dos Segundos is great. They have a ton of vegetarian and vegan fare all clearly noted on their menu. The tacos al pastor are out of this world and the seviches are totally banging.
I am a cantina fan, but this one is closer to home.
And even better than their margaritas are their flavored mojitos.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:26 am
The refried beans are indeed really delicious. They’re described on the menu as: “Frijoles Refritos – pinto beans fried with lard, bacon, onion, garlic” (That’s from the menupages online menu, and I’m pretty sure it reads that way on the printed one too.) So, yeah, not all that vegetarian… They have other beans that are…
September 5th, 2008 at 9:35 am
That’s an improvement for Dos, but the original Cantina still lists their beans as simply “refried”, which implies nothing about the lard and bacon. Cute.
I’m down with both places, though. I’m not there as much as Jay, but I try.