Poc Chuc serves food from the Yucatecan region of Mexico, in the southeast of the country. When it first opened, it was much nicer than the other Mexican places around; it certainly wasn’t your everyday taqueria. I’d been to the Yucatán in the 80s so I was familiar with some of its food. Even Tommy’s out on Geary, which is pretty much a standard (although wonderful in its cheesiness) Mexican-American restaurant, has a delicious version of the famous dish, and that was all I ever ordered there.

After all those years, we came back one night and found the restaurant had not changed much, albeit it may have been a little more run down than I remembered.   Hell, so am I, nine years later. At the last table in the back sat the owners’ son, a boy of about 11, who alternately worked on a school project, helped serve dishes to the tables, and sliced onions in the prep area. I was happy to see it was still very much a family-run place, with balloons floating limply from a chair, leftovers from someone’s birthday party, paint chipped here and there, and bad music blaring from the juke box – to me, ear-grating Latin pop. But the food was still excelente.