#9, #198: Mad Mex - A Cinco De Mayo Fiesta

The Best Happy Hour for Margaritas AND The Best Way to Celebrate Cinco de Mayo

LivingSocial has recently demonstrated an ability to throw a wrench into our plans. We woke up Thursday morning to find that we had no choice but to go to Mad Mex for a Big Azz margarita on Cinco de Mayo. And, because we already had Mad Mex's happy hour on our list of things to do, we decided to go big.

We arrived at the Oakland restaurant around 4:40pm and the place was packed. We were told that tables were only for people who would be ordering food (appetizers didn't count). After a brief attempt to find a seat at the bar, we decided we were getting a table no matter what the rules were. Michelle found us two seats nestled in with a group of four women and we were good to go.

We ordered a Big Azz frozen mango margarita and the Pickadippa with cheese dip, guac, and pineapple-habanero salsa all to share. Because of the simplicity, the food and drink both came quickly. Together, we voted the cheese dip to be sub-par, guac to be average, and the pineapple-habanero salsa to be good. Considering Michelle doesn't like mango flavored anything, we thought the margarita was delightful however, we agree that the presentation could have been better - it was Cinco de Mayo!

Mad Mex itself is a small, dark space. At night, this is no issue but during the day it felt as if we were Alice (in Wonderland) falling through a deep hole. As we left, we both felt we were in need of sunglasses to help adjust to the natural light.

6 and 7 down, 358 to go.