We like April Bloomfield.  My favorite burger in the city is the blue cheese burger at The Spotted Pig and The Breslin reigns as one of ATO’s favorite places to chill and grub in the city.  But we might actually like April Bloomfield a little bit less after trying her self-admittedly unauthentic new taqueria in Murray Hill, Salvation Taco (so named because the space previously housed a Salvation Army store).  You’ll definitely find no salvation in these tacos…. or any of the food for that matter.

The only saving grace: the food is pretty cheap.  Not like taco truck cheap (not like taco truck good either), but definitely a step down price-wise from her other joints.  Here’s a spin through a majority of the menu:      

Chips and guacamole.  Only standard in taste but hard on the wallet at $9 a serving!

Crispy chicken feet.  Stingy on substance, full of cartilage and overly-aggressive in flavor.

Tomatillo and jicama salad - simple, bright and fresh.  A pleasant break from the abuses of the other dishes.

Crispy pig ears.  Appeared to be the same mix used on the crispy chicken feet, but these pig ears were gummier, chewier and quite a mouthful (which ATO preferred to the chicken feet).  Expect to find pig ear stuck in your teeth hours after consuming….

Al pastor quesadilla.  Tasty and nicely grilled, but nothing to write home about.

Kimchi pork belly pozole.  In my opinion, this was the best dish on the menu.  Hearty and complex, savory and addictive.  The lime added a great crisp finish.

The tacos!  From left to right: roasted cauliflower with curried crema, skirt steak with pecan and chipotle and Moroccan lamb on naan.  The roasted cauliflower was my personal favorite.  The rest were OK but not great.

The torta sandwiches, which all in all were disappointing and suffered from excessive salt, a want of texture and bad bread.  Above is the grilled lamb tongue torta.  The texture of this sandwich was especially off-putting.

Braised short rib torta.  Mushy short ribs and mushy avocado = mushy sandwich.

Confit chicken thigh.  Weirdly sweet, but not so bad in the end.

As is readily apparent, it wasn’t for lack of effort that we couldn’t find something on the menu that we really liked.  Oh well, checked the box; now off the list forever!

Website: http://www.salvationtaco.com/