Fixin's kick tortilla soup up a notch at Guajillo's Shortcut to Mexico

We know San Antonio loves a deal, especially when it comes to good eats! $10 Taste is a series from MySA where we look for the most affordable and tasty meals across San Antonio that are 10 dollars, more or less.

It's finally October, and though the weather is still not feeling like fall, I'm declaring it soup season. That's why this week's $10 Taste is dedicated to my recent trip to Guajillo's Shortcut to Mexico , where I tried the restaurant's loaded version of tortilla soup.

I'm no stranger to Guajillo's, nor am I a stranger to its soup selections (the fideo is a delicacy), but in all my visits to the Mexican restaurant, I've never tried the Sopa Azteca. The menu describes it as a tortilla soup with queso blanco and strips of corn tortillas served with a side of fixings, including sour cream, avocado, queso fresco and roasted chile ancho, for $8.95.

I went to Guajillo's on a Tuesday afternoon and was sat in a window booth. A menu and some chips and salsa were left with me as a server fetched me a glass of water. The salsa was spicy and tangy, with hits of lime in the mix. Combined with crunchy tortilla chips, it made for a lovely complimentary appetizer.

My soup arrived before I could finish my chips and salsa, so I scooted those to the side and began planning my approach to eating the hot entree. It was an ample size and the fixings were plentiful to match, so I took to spooning some of the smokey broth off the top (and into my mouth) to get the level down to a place where I can drop chunks of cheese and avocado inside without overflowing.

The Sopa Azteca is savory though not exactly hearty, but for an additional cost, I could've added some chicken, which might make for a nice addition in the colder months. I spent the rest of my meal focused on scooping up the gooey melted cheese and corn tortilla strips soaked with spicy soup, as I didn't want to get full on broth and run out of room for the good stuff.

My total came out to $9.69 after taxes, but since I paid with card, some cents were added. For the price, it might be hard to find a better take on tortilla soup with all those accoutrements. Still, I found myself longing for Guajillo's fideo, because it was right there, but this time, Sopa Azteca did the trick.