1441 E. Fletcher. (5919 W Linebaugh Ave, 5919 W Linebaugh Ave, 5919 W Linebaugh Ave)
There are four of these restaurants generally in small shopping centers, around town. They are order-at-the counter places. And although the place wasn’t bad, the pictures seen on websites of their food is a bit overstated—i.e. it isn’t as good as those pictures look.
The Food
They feature something they call an American taco and a Mexican taco. I got the Mexican version. The difference might be that the Mexican comes with grilled onions and cilantro. The beef was quite good. It did not come with cheese, which is fairly common with these places—not having cheese on tacos. I realize that I should have ordered both an American and a Mexican one for comparison. Next time.
I also ordered a taco birrira — which is a fairly standard for these authentic places. It is like roast brisket in a taco. This also does not come with cheese. shell had a reddish tint to it and it was a little crispier than the one for the Mexican taco. I have read that the reddish tint for a birria comes from the birria fat—so if that is true in this case, that would be a good thing both for the flavor and for the authenticity of the dish. This was, in fact, one of the better barrias I’ve had. It didn’t taste just like chuck roast in a shell. The barria dunking sauce wasn’t bad but I don’t think it really added anything to the dish.
I ordered an elote. I saw that they had one on-line but did not see it on the menu. But they had some cards on the table that showed a picture of it–so I showed them the card and asked for one of those. The corn wasn’t super flavorable but this one was encrusted with parmesan cheese instead of the usual mozzarella. There are some chili peppera in the dish that give it some heat, and I enjoyed that. All in all–I thought the elote was pretty good. After trying the elote at a few places, it is my impression that they mostly get a can of corn and “grill” it to blacken it a little, and then they dress it up with mayo, chilies and cheese. I am sure that some of the nicer places might use something closer to fresh corn, but in general, the evaluation will revolve around how these are spiced and dressed. This one was pretty good.
The refried beans were ok but nothing special. I was dissapointed that there was no al pastor taco, but accordcing to Chipotle’sTV ad, it looks like that chain is offering an al pastor–which means Taco Bell couldn’t be far behind. So since it is going maitnstream, maybe it is just as well not to have it.
And finally, I got some pork tamales. Not many places have these so I wanted to see how they were. They were wrapped in corn husks as they should be which gives them that corn flavor. However, they were very doughy and the dough to filling ration seemed to go strongly in the favor of the dough. I didn’t really like the taste of these, but this is the first time I have gotten tamales from one of these places–so I would need to establish a scale in order to decide how these measure up.
The Experience
For a small order-at-the-counter restaurant in a strip mall, it was a fairly enjoyable experience, although not without some hiccups (tamales, refrieds). I enjoyed the décor of the place and it felt fairly clean.
Verdict
I wouldn’t put this place as top tier but none of the food was particularly disagreeable, and it was served in a pleasant atmosphere.