Catrinas Tacos Y Mas
8311 Sheldon Rd.
Interesting thing-I plucked this place off the Apple Map—It was called La Senora De Los Tacos. But when I got to the address, I found it was Catrinas. Los Senora De Los Tacos does have a website and they list the address as 8806 W. Flora Ave. I can only hope that Los Senora De Los Tacos was better than this place because it not very good.
They apparently didn’t get my order right which I generally don’t hold mistakes in an order against a place unless I discover it is a repeated pattern.
The Food
I ordered an al pastor taco, an asada burrito and a pollo gordita. I got a taco that I think was supposed to be the al pastor, a pollo gordito and an asada gordito. As usual, I also ordered an esquites because I am always on a quest for a great esquites.
I am pretty sure the al pastor I got was, in fact, supposed to be an al pastor, but it was unfortunately hard to tell. I could not detect any of the signature pineapple. The meat was salty, dry and not very tasty. Adding some sauce helped but if you have to add sauce to make a dish palatable, that is not a good thing.
The gorditos has a crisp but that greasy outer shell. I liked the shape and the crispness at first, but the greasiness made it less appetizing. The meat one—I think steak— ad very poor quality meat with some gristle mixed in that I had to pull out, and the thing wasn’t entirely edible. The chicken was also of poor quality. I expect these places to use thigh meat as it is cheaper, but this one was not well-processed and was also rather unappetizing.
And then there was the esquites. It might not have been the worst I have had but if there is a median for esquites, then this one would have fallen well below the midpoint bar. The corn was the usual canned variety and distinctly not grilled—so it had little flavor. There was a -little cheese—probably cotija—and I did detect a little sweetness which is one of the flavors that are balanced in a good esquites. But having one flavor out of four will not make for a good dish.
The sauces
They gave me a red and a green sauce, and I saw that I could pay more for extra. Both sauces had some flavor and added heat which was a really good thing for this particular place because the food needed some help. I don’t think either sauce was homemade but they did make a good (and necessary) addition to this meal.
The Experience
It was in the corner of a gas station parking lot, which in itself, is not a bad thing. But there is the hope that the food will make this humble appearance seem worth it. The signs were colorful and the people were friendly—I’ll at least give it that.
Verdict
I would avoid this place. Maybe the one I thought I was going to (Senora’s) would have been better—I’ll have to investigate that. I don’t expect fine dining from my food trucks, but I do expect reasonably made food that doesn’t make me feel a little queasy, as this place did. I also believe in my heart that there are food trucks that are true gems. Unfortunately, this was not one of them.