| Large taqueria with indoor and outdoor seating. |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1005
Reviewed: 4/16/2007
Rating: 8
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I got an email a couple of weeks back from Dominic telling me about the carnitas at Tapatio. To summarize, I was told it was better than Taqueria La Bamba. I was like...wow, those are bold words since La Bamba has been in my top listings for 6+ years. Always up for the challenge we a lunch visit.
Tapatio is relatively new replacing the veteran Burrito Real. Since my last visit, they done a lot of upgrades to the dining room making it the nicest taqueria in the burrito triangle area.
Although I was here for carnitas, I wanted to try other meats and the best way to do that is with tacos. I went with 1 carnitas, 1 shrimp, and 1 chicken, all regular tacos.
shrimp ($2.25, image 9) - from the pictures you can't tell there's any shrimp but it's buried under the mushroom, onions, tomato, and butter saute. I thought the taco was far too wet and overwhelmed with butter. Corn tortillas good and grilled. Rated 7.
chicken ($1.95, image 10) - I thought I ordered pollo asado? Topped with red salsa, onions, cilantro over what appeared to be stewed chicken. Flavoring wasn't bold like a good grilling and without the spicy salsa, it would be dull. The tortillas needed more grilling. Rated 7.
carnitas ($1.95, image 11) - I saved the best for last and cleared my palette with a rinsing or two. There was a ton of pico de gallo on top of the crunchy pork. Carnitas looked beautiful with a outer dark brown layer and light brown mid-section. The meat should look like a brown gradient, darker the meat, the crunchier and if it's lighter, more tender. Tapatio's carnitas are more in chunks instead of shreds and had an enjoyable salty flavor. Really really good and now I'm having serious doubts which taqueria has the best. Rated somewhere in the 9's.
Tapatio's carnitas is a contender for the top and has sparked a carnitas shootout in the near future. Who will hold the crown?
Overall, the visit was a success. Free chips and salsa is always a winner in my book and with excellent salsa, just makes the experience even better. I thought the shrimp and chicken tacos were average, not worth going out to try but the carnitas is definitely a must order.
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Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 735
Reviewed: 4/16/2007
Rating: 7
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Today was a nice lunch with Dominic and Mike. Weather was great, and we had a nice table outside. We had been here before when the place was burrito real, and the place deserved a fresh review with the name change.
Here's the quick rundown. The ordering is different (thankfully). I hated the burrito real way of picking out the burrito one item at a time. Just make the thing and I will specify if there is something I don't like in my burrito. It gives the true nature of a burrito place this way.
The weird thing here though is the ordering system. You place your order at the register, and then have this wire system where they shoot the order across the floor to the people in the kitchen. Really odd. I think a cheap computer setup would protect against situations of improper queuing of the orders. In our case, Dominic got his order like 5 minutes before the rest of us. Very inconsistent.
I was going to go with the shrimp burrito, but remembering my recent unsatisfying shrimp experience at La Gaviota, I changed my mind and went with the fajita style vegetarian burrito.
Unlike the monstrous Burrito Real burrito, this one was rather tiny. And while Mike and Dominic enjoyed beautifully grilled tortillas, mine was just steamed. So lame. But I guess its probably more appealing for the hardcore vegetarians out there. For me, though, this was a miss. I think I feel pretty confident in saying that the others had better food than I did, and I just ordered the wrong thing here. I would go back and try the shrimp burrito next time, but no more veggie burrito here for me.
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Reviewer: Dan
Total Reviews: 78
Reviewed: 12/11/2007
Rating: 8
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I visited Tapatio's for the the first time at peak lunch hour on a Thursday and the place was dead. Weird. The interior is clean, open and pleasing on the eyes. I ordered the regular chicken burrito to go and picked up some fresh homemade chips & salsa while waiting (a big plus for these excellent chips). Service was quick (but there were maybe three other people there.) Unfortunately my burrito had to sit in the bag for awhile since I was caught in a meeting back at work, but it was worth the wait. Molto delicioso with tender chicken. Price was $6.33. On the high side, so I can't justify an 8.5, but definitely an 8 so far.
On my next visit I arrived late and the place was dead again. I had some more time on my hands, so I ordered a two-taco plate for eating in: one carnitas, one carne asada. The air conditioning was a bit aggressive, so I sat outside. Food arrived in a reasonable time. Here is the breakdown:
Carnitas taco – Pork was in small cubes rather than the shredded style at most other places. Great flavor and texture. The usual onions and cilantro on top. This was a great taco. A solid 8.5 by itself.
Carne asada taco – doused heavily with sauce but pretty flavorless, plus I got a huge nasty piece of fat which I couldn't eat. Disappointing. A 7.0 rating for this baby.
Rice – overcooked, so that the grains were split. Decent flavor though.
Refried Beans – Sucked. These had exactly the same dense texture and flavor of canned beans. Some of the worst I've had in a taqueria. I'm not sure what tweaks me off more, a taqueria that uses canned beans, or one that cooks their beans to look and taste like this!!! Total cost for this meal was $7.25. On the high side. Despite the nice carnitas, I'll have to lower my rating for this trip to 7.5 for the higher price and terrible beans.
On my third visit I decided to try their chile verde plate. Total cost up front was $10.23. I got some chips and salsa at the bar. The chips were warm and tasted like they were just made. Bonus! True to form, the place was not crowded and I had my choice of tables and sat down. My food arrived in few minutes. My meal was served on a pretty large oblong plate and with decent presentation. The breakdown:
Chile verde – nice cubes of tender pork with not too much fat. Delicious.
Rice – pretty good this time.
Beans – completely different than my last visit. These beans were quite tasty. Good flavor and thinner texture.
Salad – the tomato slice on top was super ripe and had good flavor. I never see tomatoes this nice at a Mexican restaurant!
Gaucamole – on the thin side but decent flavor. I ate every bit.
The plate also comes with hot corn tortillas and sour cream. I think I used one tortilla before going back and getting more chips, since these were so damn good. All in all, this was a very satisfying meal and a solid 8.0. I had my doubts about Tapatio's after my last visit, but I may be back again.
Pros: Good carnitas; Good burritos; Chip & salsa bar are included; Not crowded
Cons: Inconsistency issues (e.g. beans); On the pricey end of the taqueria scale |
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Reviewer: ne00
Total Reviews: 173
Reviewed: 8/16/2008
Rating: 7
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I remember coming to this place a few years ago and the way to order anything was stand in line and order your item then point to the ingredients you want in your item and then go to the cashier to pay for it. I came on Friday as a co worker was treating us to lunch and this time you order it from the cashier, pay for your food and then they relay it to the kitchen. Once it's ready they bring it to your table.
I ordered an al pastor sope and a carne asada taco. The taco portion is huge, they cram so much meat onto the taco, with what normally takes 3 or 4 tacos to get full, 2 tacos is plenty.
Chips/Salsa bar: All you can eat chips with various salsa. 8/10
Carna Asada tacos: The tortilla is not oily enough. The Carna Asada lacked any flavouring even with the salsa. Needed some salt to lively things up. 7/10
Al Pastor sope: The sope shell was kind of soggy by the time it reached the table. The al pastor was cut up into tiny bits pieces and not enough flavouring. 7/10
My co workers all dated the place their food items 3/5. The complaints were all the same, not enough flavouring, too bland, and the tortillas weren't oily enough as they were on the dry side. The chips/salsa bar received higher praise at 3.5/5 but the rice milk drew the highest praise coming in at 4/5 rating.
The food filled me up, place was clean, plenty of parking, good service. I don't really see myself coming back unless someone else was paying. It's decent but there are better taquerias in the area. |
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