Taco fanatics: Worry not. Though your local taquistador has been bogged down with midterms this week, alas he has not forgot about you, faithful readers. Check in next week for an interview with a surprise taco scholar. For now, enjoy this week’s batch of reviews.
Tacos El Toro De Long Beach
2081 Pacific Ave.
Tacos: $1.50
This is a friendly joint in the Wrigley District is filled with Mexican kitsch: horse saddles, photos of mustachioed revolutionaries and plastic tricolor garlands. It’s a festive atmosphere to say the least.
Off the bat let me say this place serves up tacos fit for baby hands—what I like to call gone-in-sixty-seconds tacos. While some might be into these tapa-sized appetizers, they’re not my thing, especially at a $1.50 a pop. To El Toro’s benefit, they nearly fill out the double stack of mini tortillas with meat.
The asada was char-less and rubbery—all and all, pretty bland stuff. The star of this taqueria’s show is the salsa. They have a mean, smoky salsa roja and a fresh, tangy salsa verde. It’s a good thing they serve chips.
Overall, middle-of-the-road tacos that are overpriced for their size, but hey, it looks like they have great tortas.
Tacos Guadalajara
2086 Pacific Ave
Tacos: $1.50
Walking by the corner of Pacific and 21st Street, one notices a conspicuous little window under a red awning from which the rich smell of cooking meat emanates. One then becomes befuddled because this little window seems to be on the side of an auto body shop.
But yes, here amidst the sounds of hammering and pneumatic wrenches, resides a place of tacos. If you order tacos at Tacos Guadalajara, you order con todo—with everything. That means you’ll get the house salsa roja that’s not spicy until after you stop eating.
I can’t say enough about the carnitas tacos here. They were tender, they were juicy, they were full of flavor. In a world where good carnitas are getting harder and harder to find, I salute you Tacos Guadalajara.
So you can imagine how disheartened I was biting into the carne asada taco. No char, no bueno. Sadly, it seems taqueros and taqueras across Long Beach have mostly forsaken the asada—which means grilled, ideally over charcoal.
All said, this place is worth a visit just for the tasty carnitas.