El Come Taco offers a variety of tasty tacos
El Come Taco on Fitzhugh has good tacos, but the ambiance leaves much to be desired
As I saunter into this joint, I’m met with an empty room and one employee at the register attached to the bar. The lighting is warm, but the decor is less than inviting.
I go up to the counter and order three of each of the chicken, pastor, lengua and chorizo tacos. It wasn’t until later on that I realized there were special add-ons, like muenster cheese, weren’t offered when I ordered.
So, I’m standing at the counter, asking questions about the food, and, although the guy is friendly enough, I get the sense that this transaction needs to be quick. It seemed I was supposed to look at the menu and figure it out without guidance in the amount of seconds it takes to keep it from getting awkward.
It’s totally bar service here, which I don’t mind. I get my water in my little plastic cup and my tamarindo Jarritos and pick a spot to perch with my guests — Aubrey, a lovely girl, and the other, a rat not worth mentioning. I’m looking around and noticing a very disjointed interior.
There’s a geometric, neo-art deco bar face with a stainless steel top, a plain concrete wall on one side and then a very busy “rustic” cantina style wall on the other.
The branding of the establishment seemed to carry through from the website to the façade to the black-and-pink van with the logo on it parked out front. But, unfortunately, it all fell apart as I actually entered the restaurant — mismatched furnishings, haphazard embellishments seemingly there to make the place more festive but more of a reminder that it’s not. I don’t remember any music playing either.
My first impression was not good.
El Come Tacos’ churritos have just the right amount of snap
Then come the tacos. At first glance, they looked edible enough and we dug right on in. All tacos are garnished with cilantro and onion. We also get three sauces: One is a smoky picante sauce that isn’t very spicy but very flavorful. First we try the chicken. It’s a little dry but decent enough, probably my least favorite out of the four. Next, the pastor: “Is this cannibalism?” I wonder. I shrug it off, and, to my delight, with the added garnish of pineapple it’s a very tasty taco indeed, although, I’m more of a hot dog kinda guy.
Then we try the lengua. Ahhhh, lengua — the bellwether of all taco joints. If you don’t know, lengua is beef tongue. Depending on how you cook it, it can become bland and rubbery.
This was neither. It was very tender, very flavorful. I’ve always liked lengua, and that’s probably because when I first tried it as a kid my parents decided to just not tell me what it was. This was my favorite taco, very well done.
Last came the chorizo. You can’t beat chorizo, and this one is savory, spicy and everything it should be.
Overall, I really enjoyed all the tacos, even the dryish chicken one.
Of course, we had to order churros. They came out very promptly and plainly on a plastic cafeteria-like plate just like the tacos, stacked like Lincoln logs and with a very thick caramel sauce. Typically, churros can be over fried and maybe a little too crunchy, but these were fluffy and had just the right amount of snap a churro should have.
The caramel sauce was ok — very thick and a little difficult to dig out with the fluffy texture of the churro. I’m a slut for cinnamon, however, so I made it work.
I really want to be able to say I had fun at El Come Taco. But aside from the good food, I really wish there was something a little more special at the restaurant other than a cute little avocado piñata at the entrance. This is definitely a place I’d go back to for the lengua but not for the experience. I really think it has something special to offer with the food, but I think they’re totally missing the mark on their marketing.
This has the potential to be a very Instagrammable place, which is something the owners may not care about, but guests do care about. I believe they’re the same people who operate La Viuda Negra, a very popular speakeasy-style cocktail bar next door in the same building. That place has the neon signs and all the gravitas of a trending, fun place to go; El Come Taco does not.
I simply didn’t have fun, which is disappointing on so many levels because I’ve heard so many good things about this place. To me, it just seemed like it doesn’t believe in itself enough to try and impress the patrons, so why would I believe in it enough to recommend it to someone?
But the food! The food saves it. So even as bummed as the ambiance left me, I still think you should go, and if you go, you should definitely get the lengua tacos!
El Come Taco, 2513 N. Fitzhugh Ave.