Over the past year or so, two long-standing Mexican joints along May Avenue—San Marcos and Chelino’s—shut their doors for good and, rather quickly, were replaced by a pair of somewhat similar restaurants, Azteca Mexican Grill at 4024 N. May and Armando’s Mexican Grill at 5900 N. May, respectively.
Both former favorites of mine, I was admittedly trepidatious about these new cantinas, thinking that they both were going to be imitaciones pálidas of those former eateries that has held Oklahoma City in queso-covered rapture for an untold number of years. But, after trying these self-described grills over the past few weeks, I can wholeheartedly say that they do live up to any and every Tex-Mex standard that border-based food-fans have come to expect around here.