Rico's Tacos, El Tio, Inglewood, CA

What a week, what a day.  Somehow I got a flat tire today.  It just added to the immense joy that I have been overwhelmed with.  Here's the thing, guys, hipster guys, if you don't know how to change your tire, it is time to learn.  Watch a Youtube video or something, but you need to know how to do it without calling AAA or some service that you paid for.  Let them deal with the real stuff, not changing your tire, you should be able to do it yourself.  Lucky for me, a flat tire does not stop me from going Tacoteering.  I was at the office for some meetings and was heading to The Counter in El Segundo.  I stopped not too far from LAX in beautiful Inglewood, CA.

Rico's Tacos, El Tio in Inglewood was the recipient of some real live Tacoteering today.  Place was busy, really busy.  I was there watching people just line up and order.  The building is modest, for sure it has been painted recently.  The inside was pretty perfect.  I like the outside patio, ambiance is right on point for a place like this.  It also really fits the neighborhood.  It blends in and stands out all at the same time.

The menu is good.  What they need without too much fluff.  They know how to execute.  I will say that I found them a bit slow, but they were working hard.  This is the part of the menu that I was interested in.

Here is the rest of the menu and their waters.  They make their waters in house, pretty cool, pretty common though.  I didn't have any, but they looked good and people were ordering them, so I'm sure they couldn't be bad.  Everyone working there was speaking perfect English and perfect Spanish.  Great having such great diversity in such a small place.  I have to say that their hiring seems great.
RATINGS:
ASADA: 4, really tasty.  Nice balance, subtle flavors, for sure something that I really liked.
LENGUA: 3, this was so close to a 4.  Flavors were good, buttery.  I think that they need to cook it for just a few minutes longer.
CARNITAS: 3, this was very good.  Nothing with overwhelming flavors, but had nice texture and some good flavor that made it a solid 3 that I would say is worth stopping by for.
PASTOR: 1, I was so sad.  This was dry, not well marinated and I'm just angry about it.  The reason I'm not saying much more is that I'll just get negative on a place that is pretty solid.
BUCHE: 2, too mushy.  This really had not been cooked long enough and was lacking in flavor.  Very fatty buche, wouldn't recommend it.
CABEZA: 3, solid.  Just some pretty textbook cabeza. Good flavor, nice texture, not over or under cooked, but they didn't do anything to set it apart.

Not a bad looking spread.  The jalapenos are a nice touch and were great.  Firm but soft, spicy but not fire.  They carrots were so well  marinated.  I really enjoyed the extras that came with this meal.  I'll sum this place up, I'm glad I went, but I'm not going back.  The people were great, the ambiance was nice, but the food was just OK.  Nothing truly blew me away today.  It was good, don't get me wrong, but I'm not pining to get some more of their tacos, I need to continue the search for better ones and go back to places that have blown this place away.

As always, thank you for reading.  Thanks for telling people and following along on these taco journeys.  Today's gratuitous photo is of the donut wheel on the Impala.  The donut that too, me on this taco journey.

Stay Excellent!

LAX Tacos, Inglewood, CA

Flying home last night all I could hear was Randy Newman, "I love LA."  Boise, I have taken your taco challenge and just missed LA more and more.  I was thinking to myself as I was coming home, why would people not fight to pick me up from the airport?  It just doesn't make sense, you know I'm going to take you Tacoteering if you pick me up.  Your call if it is somewhere tried and true or somewhere new.  Melissa picked me up last night and I had three places in mind.  We braved the streets of Inglewood, CA to get to LAX Tacos.  The serenading of Elvis Presley on XM radio made the ride all that much better.

LAX Tacos.  This place has been around for quite some time.  This is a no frills street taco serving place.  It is on the North side of Arbor Vitae Street in Inglewood, CA.  Inglewood, CA is a great city for Tacoteers to be born, yes yours truly was born in Inglewood.  I think that my taco destiny played a part.  The taco gods knew that there is many great taco places that I could hit up around there.

Here is the beautiful patio layout.  Perfect for the neighborhood and the restaurant in general.  Tables are easily cleaned and kept, they are not easy to pick up and steal, not that there is any chance of that in this neighborhood.  Parking is a bit tough, there is a plethora of night clubs in the area that take a lot of the street parking and there is not exactly a large lot that is readily available.  The decor fits the place and fits the area inside and out.  The menu is good.  I hear their burritos are great, but we just stuck to some tacos.

Not too many frills, but everything that you need for a late night taco.
RATINGS:
BIRRIA: 2, this stuff should be super tender, it was not.  It was not bad, but not great.  I just expect a delicious tender stew and this was tough.  If you cook goat to hot and too fast it tightens up!  I do like the way they serve it in the bowl with the tortillas, cilantro, onions and limes on the side, but the flavor was still lacking.
CARNITAS: 2, too tough!  Really not that great.  It was kind of chewy.  Maybe a trend of cooking on too high of a heat?
ADOBADA: 2, really greasy.  It ruined the good flavors that I think they were heading towards. Again, I found this meat to be a little bit tough.
ASADA: 4, probably the best thing that they made.  It is their top seller according to the guys working.  Not to shabby.  Good flavor, not tough and not too salty.
LENGUA: 3, textbook.  Nothing that blew me away, but nothing I was disappointed by. Flavors were good, texture on point, but nothing special about it.
BUCHE: 3, man this is so close to a 4.  I was impressed Melissa ate some.  That really threw me through a loop!  It was crispy, but not overdone, tasty but not overwhelming, like I said, I could be talked into this being a 4.

Yeah, I ordered a few tacos.  Look, I really have missed the LA taco scene.  I needed it in my life bad.  It was a warm welcome back to the land of delicious tacos that is Southern California.  It was also nice to see the family.  I have really missed them.  Poor Josh, Fo, Jess and the rest had to try to keep me as sane as I can be.  Phil left after only a few days and my sadness just grew from there.  Just a warning about the tacos, they come with some fiery hot sauce on them.  Really damn good, but hot.  It burned Melissa up!  Overall, I like the place, worth a try.

Thank you again for reading.  I really appreciate you all for reading!  Please keep telling folks.  There are many Idaho adventures that have not been read yet!  Don't miss out on all of the Tacoteering that goes on in other states!  More LA trips to come and I hit the road again soon.  Today's gratuitous photo is of my wife Melissa.  Her at LAX Taco last night Tacoteering like a late night champ because of all the flight delays.  11 years of marriage has taken her on a lot of taco trips, glad she still enjoys them.

Stay Excellent Everyone!

El Primo (Re-Visit), truck in the SFV

If this looks familiar, that is because it is.  Traditionally when I go and write about a place, if I go back, there is no follow up write, but for here, we are doing a quick one.  Why does El Primo get special treatment?  It is special.  This place really is awesome.  It parks on Saticoy, right by Reseda about 5pm until I'm not sure when.  They have hours listed from early morning.  I've seen them set up by 4, but it is usually right after 5.  This is the first place I wrote about.  It got good reviews, but not amazing.  It is one of those places that knows how to make a few things off the charts.  Order Pastor, Suadero and Tripas and you will be happy.  Asada, not the best they can do.  Their salsas are off the hook delicious.  Service is pretty quick, you get to watch them cut the pastor right off the cone and that just warms my heart like watching a kid open gifts on Christmas morning.

I came home on a late flight out of Fort Lauderdale.  That was an exhausting few weeks.  I'm here for a bit?  Have to fly out and get to work in New Jersey.  When I landed, said goodbye to the last of the coworkers that were stuck with me, Melissa asked if I wanted tacos.  Of course I do.  We were debating on a few of the "regular" places.  El Indio, Tacos Mexico, you know how it is.  I told her I wanted to go back to this place to try it out again.  I have wanted to get back to this place and this seemed like the prime opportunity.  We listened to Elvis Radio, I know you are all shocked, as we headed towards the truck.

We pulled up and I fell in love all over again seeing the salsa bar:

 Yeah, looks great, tastes better.  Melissa and I debated and new that we needed to maximize.  She went for a Pastor burrito.  It was so delicious.  The rice and beans were good, not overwhelming.  The pastor is just fantastic.  I'm not doing ratings on this place as I did them last time.  Their Pastor, might really be about as close to a 5 as you can get, I think I rated it a 4 last time.  Lets put it this way, you can't go wrong here!  The Suadero is a 5.  The Tripas is a 4.  Those two were not rated last time, so I figured I throw them out there.  They set up old plastic patio chairs against the wall, and you can eat there.  That is what we obviously opted to do.  It was a great call.

That is my wife Melissa eating.  Didn't realize until posting this picture that where someone had tagged is pointing right at her head.  Pretty entertaining.  This really is the first time that she has been Tacoteering.  I'm glad for her to finally be a part of the special thing that is Tacoteering.

If you read the blog, you know that I travel a lot.  You know that I go Tacoteering all over the US.  You know that my Miami experience was pretty solid.  Let me tell you, there is nothing like SoCal tacos.  Big differences between LA and SD, but both are great and no where is comparing, so far.  It is good to be home.

Big thank you to my wife, we celebrate 11 years of being married in just over a month.  Three kids, a few states and a lot of tacos later, we still like going for the late night taco run.  Like all of the adventures, who I get to go with makes it even more fun.

I'll keep looking, you keep reading.  Thanks for the tweets, texts, emails, posts and telling people.  I've got a bunch of places on the radar here in LA and a number of places I'm looking at in New Jersey for my trip there.  I will try to get into NYC as I have spent a ton of time there and never wrote about the regular spots that I hit.  I know you folks need to know all about them.  My love to all readers, I know this one is a bit different then the norm, but that is the fun of The Order of the Taco.

Before I go, one shot of Melissa and I together at a Dodger Game last year:

Thanks for reading, keep re-posting, re-tweeting, and telling folks.  Send me suggestions, I'm always on the taco prowl!  Stay Excellent Everyone!

Fiesta Martin Tacos, Inglewood, CA

I just love this double picture.  It is above the door when you walk in.  Decor in here is nice.  Really nice.  The people here were really nice.  Not over the top or fake, but cool.  The outside of the building leaves much to be desired for, but the inside had gone through and taken something from every big Mexican restaurant remodel.  For example this star use to be in like every El Torito:

Looks pretty cool the way that they put everything together.  This place is on La Brea just before you get into Baldwin Hills.  Just so you know, it is an easy shot from Culver City if you are there an need to grab a bite.  They have a pretty nice salsa bar.  Different options, different flavors.  Good stuff.  They keep each salsa in 1/6 pans, not 1/3 pans to keep the salsa colder.  Nice thinking!  This thing was long.  It had pickled jalapenos, pickled onions, seasoned cucumbers and three different salsas.

 
Salsa bar has some great options.  The menu is good.  It takes a good amount of space, but it does have too much on it.  It is sticking to what they know.  They don't want too much flare, just the good stuff basics.  They have some great meat options.

So lets get to the food.  Nice.  They have some pretty cool ways to enjoy what they make.  The lady taking the order was great.  You order at the counter and they bring the food and beverages to your table.  It was pretty slow when we went in, but it was an off time.  Ratings are going to take sometime, so lets get right to it.

RATINGS:
SALSA BAR: 3, it was good, but nothing that amazed me flavor wise.  Some good stuff, but nothing that blew me totally away.
SALSA ROJO: 2, not very flavorful.  It was okay, not as smoky as it looked like it should be.
SALSA VERDE: 3, good, not great.  Did not blow me away, just kind of a run of the mill type of a thing, but solid.
JALAPENO SALSA: 3, so this stuff was basic.  Not great, but not bad.  It was not too runny which is usually the problem.
CUCUMBERS: 4, these were the best part of the trip.  They were really good.  They were spicy and delicious.  There was a bit of sweetness that was there.  The texture was really fantastic.
PICKLED ONIONS: 3, they were good.  This was a nice touch and they went great on the tacos.
ASADA: 3, it was good, but nothing special.
BARBACOA: 2, clove like.  It was not very flavorful and the texture was off.  It was not inedible, but not very good.
PASTOR: 2, eww.  Not very good.  Texture sucked.  It was borderline crisis.
LENGUA: 2, fatty, greasy.  Not very tasty.  It is just not good stuff.  I like it so much better in so many other places.
TRIPA: 4, yeah, I really liked it.  I think that they fried it.  It was really crispy and really tasty.  The texture was on point, the flavor was great.  It was not at all greasy.
BUCHE: 4, let me say it, this is not as good as Los Cinco Puntos or Tacos el Gordo in Chula Vista.  It is good stuff.  It was crispy, it was not overcooked.  They had seasoned this stuff.

Looks pretty good right?  Cilantro, onions and lime were at that salsa bar.  It worked well here.  I went a little heavy on the cilantro, it made me happy.  Cilantro is good for your kidneys.  Just think about it.  It is a great garnish and it tastes great.  Add it to your diet.  Back to the decor.  The decor is great.  I had to take a picture of the front door from the inside.  It has bamboo all around.  It was really cool.

The best part of the trip was the company.  We've been crazy busy and buried at work.  We had to go from ES to Culver City.  We were on our way to a taco truck, but it moved!  We kept driving back roads to get to the office.  We pulled up to this place, yes, I made four rights to get to the right spot.  We went in and ordered and you read the rest.  I was so proud of us, we actually got through lunch without talking about work, or anyone or anything to do with work, well accept for how glad I am I get to work with Ramon.  Last thing before I go, a gratuitous picture of Amber:

Thanks for reading, re-posting and retweeting, thanks for being a part of the Order and reading.  Stay Excellent Everyone!

Paco's Tacos, Near LAX

Yeah, I know, you've seen this place too.  I've driven by a bunch of times never gone in.  We were going to go to old faithful El Tarasco but opted for something new.  Somewhere I have not written about.  So, I went here, to Paco's.  HUGE mistake.  This place, well, yeah, it sucks.  I don't know how they were as busy as they were, and they were not that busy.

Here's the good.  They make their own tortillas, that is cool and they are delicious.  I did not have a drink, but the bar looked pretty cool and the drinks looked good.  The company was nice.  My dad was with me and we got sometime to chat and enjoy some one on one time.

As for the rest of the story, well, lets just jump into the ratings:
CHIPS: 2, they were just not very good.  Tasted like they came out of an old bag from Vons.
SALSA: 3, not bad, what you would expect.  They just get a little seasoning happy.  I love a twist on flavors.  They add clove.  That is cool, but too much clove, not cool, too bad dude, you could have been a 4.
TORTILLA: 4, they were good.  They were not amazing.  Amazing is many other places I've been to, but they were above average.  I think that they handle the dough a little too much and it caused them to be a little less fluffy then they could have been, but they were still above average.
ASADA: 1, this might have been the worse asada I've ever tasted.  It was horrid.  Really, really, really horrid.  Tough, chewy, no flavor, nasty.
PASTOR: 2, eww.  Yeah, that is my description.  Way too much aciote, too much clove and too much seasoning in general.  Again overcooked.  Don't eat it.
HARD SHELL BEEF TACO: 3, this is one of the things that they are known for.  Well, I'm sad to taste that.  It was ok.  Typical three.  Not great, not bad, not much of anything that I'm thinking about ever again in my life.
CHILI RELLENO BURRITO: 2, if you don't know, I'm a huge relleno burrito fan.  I love them.  This thing was full of broth, celery and more celery.  The pepper was not cooked correctly and the inside was not good.  They screwed up a huge favorite of mine.  Come on people, you can do better, I would think.

So there is the burrito and the taco, yeah, you can see all of the celery.  Plenty of cheap cheese that they try to mask their flavorless food under.  NOT FOOLED.  Here is the skinny on the place, it is super pricey.  You are going to drop some bucks in this joint and the service is horrible.  It might be one of the places you can go for the worst service imaginable.  They were slow, unattentive and down right rude.  While taking our order, another waiter walked up to ours, handed him someone else's check and he didn't say anything to us, walked away, processed then came back to us and asked if we wanted anything else.  Yeah, not a fan.  I love the way that they couldn't refill chips or salsa without us flagging people down over and over.  NOT IMPRESSED.

The food is all over seasoned.  They love clove and cinnamon.  They are fans of aciote.  They just drench cheap product in seasoning and spices and think that the consumer will be fooled.  We did not go rogue here.  We ordered a hard shell taco (supposedly one of the things that put them on the map), Paco's Burrito (chili relleno) and Paco's Plate.  The beans are just ok, the rice is junk.  Yeah, junk.  It is just not very tasty.  Use broth, fake broth instead of tap water?  I don't know, but they need to figure this out.  This place has been around so long, maybe it's resting on its laurels.  I can assure you I will try to avoid even driving by.  I really was just disappointed all the way around.  This is Paco's Plate:

So this turned into a burn.  Me just burning away on some place.  I do apologize that these just happen.  It was just junk.  The plus side is that I got to spend a bit of time hanging with just my dad.  It was fun to be with him.  I'm sorry that I feel like we got ripped off, I'm sorry that we had to endure that horrible meal.  I'm glad that you folks too the time to read.  I'm glad that I got to take my Order of the Taco tattoo tacoteering. Here is the link to their website in case you are bored:
http://pacoscantina.com/
This is my dad, in case you didn't know him:

I appreciate everyone who read and took the time to hear about this experience.  Please tell your friends to follow, I'm going to start getting some Order of the Taco gear going soon.  Party on everyone and Stay Excellent.