Tortas Las Llardas

This location has closed down and has been replaced with another Torta restaurant.

I ordered the Las Llardas special with chicken, lettuce, tomato, jalapeño, cheese and ranch dressing for $ 5.49. I was charged $ 6.48 (I’m certain the tax wasn’t supposed to be 99 cents on this order), and I received a torta with chicken, ham, tomato, avacado, cheese fresco and lettuce with mayo, I believe. There was also some sort of meat purée? I’m not sure if it was chicken or tuna or pork. If it was tuna, it wasn’t very fishy. If it was chicken, it was a little fishy. Overall it was good. But I got what I didn’t order and paid what I shouldn’t have paid.
The staff was efficient but not friendly. The location has bare walls and a very tall ceiling, so it feels slightly empty. The menu is very large. The table was a little sticky. And I was the only guest there. Someone did walk in while I was eating but they were gone very quickly, I’m not even sure if they ordered.

As a long-​time Houstonian, I’m late to discovering the magic of tortas (Mexican sandwiches) but have been making up for lost time lately. Saturday, I browsed Sergio S’s «Tortamania» list and decided to try this place out. The location is across from Delmar Stadium and up the street from Northwest Mall.
Décor is festive, colorful, and light. Tables, chairs, and booths are all newish and covered in heavy plastic for easy cleanup. Vases of fake flowers, along with rolls of paper towels, rounded out each customer setting.
A steady parade of people came in to place their order: some were to-​go while the majority sat down to eat and watch a game show called «La Guerra de Los Sexos» on the big screen. My college Spanish worked for me here: translated as «Battle of the Sexes», this was an odd but highly amusing show.
The signage is dually branded in Spanish and English which makes it easier to choose and buy something tasty. At first, I didn’t realize that all of the product descriptions were in English underneath the Spanish ones and I had a slight panic attack at the thought of ordering something unpalatable by mistake. After 30 seconds, I calmed down when I spotted all of the familiar English words. Then, I made a game of it by trying to figure out all of the ingredients without looking at the English equivalent.
Sampled the La Polanco, which was the item described by Sergio S. Comprised of refried beans, three cheeses (queso blanco, some mystery shredded white cheese, and American cheese), ham, tomato, and avocado, the sandwich would be grilled to a point where the cheeses would melt together.
At least, that’s what I thought — light grill marks were on the bread but not enough to melt the blocks of American and mystery cheese. Found it disappointing since the resulting taste was primarily of the American cheese and reminded me of a cold processed cheese sandwich made by the elementary school Lunch Lady. Towards the end, I disassembled the sandwich to remove the unmelted cheese in order to finish eating the very tasty bread.
I ordered a small horchata to go with my meal. While nice, it was a little too sweet. So, it didn’t have a desirable effect of improving the overall meal. Together, the meal and drink ran $ 8.11 with tax. I did not get a receipt to figure out the solo item costs.
I’m sorry to have to disagree with Sergio S’s rating — maybe, they had an off afternoon or maybe I picked the wrong sandwich. But, it didn’t click for me. His «Taco Addiction» list has been a consistent solid winner for me — so I’m going back to choosing places from that winning list.

The mural on the right when you walk into this place is reason alone to visit Las Llardas. I’m going to have to come back to study it’s narrative with more time, but the highlight of the mural for me is the cartoon torta riding backseat, clinging to a girl on a moped. Like our little cartoon friend – my girlfriend and I had to jet, so we got an order to go. Minus the moped I am sad to say.
What thrills me about this place – aside from the amusing muraling – is the massive list of agua fresca. I have to go back and find out what «Vampiro» tastes like. I saw it post order of my favorite agua fresca, melon. The melon fresca did the trick, but what to eat?
Their touted cheese lovers torta caught my eye. Ham, melted mystery cheese, soft mexican cheese and American cheese. Included are tomato, lettuce and avocado. I never would have thought to mix American and Mexican cheese. I thought it sounded weird and I was right. It’s a good weird though. And I can’t wait to get back and explore the rest of the menu to see what other weirdness I might find.
The tortas are 5 dollars a piece. A little steep in terms of tortas, but the quality and variety is better than what you would find in typical Mexican restaurants. During the week they have a lunch special that includes the torta, chips and soda. That sweetens the deal I think.
Everything is friendly behind the counter. And they’re quick, so good times! I was teetering between a 3 and a 4 star, so I rounded up. I have confidence that their mural will bring constant amusement to me in the future. I will definitely make my way back to Las Llardas, or as my girlfriend now jokingly calls it – «The Yard Ass.» God I love her!