Skip to main content

El Taquito ~


The Round Rock location is closed, the other 2 are open.

---

As mentioned a few weeks back, we have a fresh round of reviews from Mr. Music and family on a recent excursion down to Round Rock. Let's see how they fared! 

Mr. Music is a huge fan of good Al Pastor! Trouble is, I don’t really know where to find great Al Pastor anymore. While down in Round Rock over the weekend with the Music family, I saw that Austin and Round Rock are heavily populated with taco stands! I decided to do a little reading to see if I could find a place. Of course most of the places that were touted as great Al Pastor joints (and there were several!), were all near downtown Austin, East or South. By the time I took up this adventure, we didn’t really have that much more time so I decided to save them for another time and see what I could find on the north end. In comes El Taquito! I read some really mixed reviews about the place, but when I saw that they make Al Pastor using El Trompo, one of those big spits like they use for gyro meat and they make homemade tortillas, I figured it was worth a try. My only chance was to run down Sunday morning as Mrs. Music took the kids to the restaurant’s free breakfast buffet. When I got the place, I was a little disheartened; it looked like an upscale Taco Cabana! I was afraid it would be Americanized and fast food like. The counter looked like a fast food place as did the menu.. except for a few things. For one, they have a section on the menu showing the meats they sell by the pound! Deshebrada, carnitas, Barbacoa, Al Pastor and more! Alright, al pastor here I come! I ordered a pound! After I paid, I saw on the other side of the cash register was a big salsa bar! This is getting better all the time! There were two green and two reds and the sauces were labeled hot and very hot, except for one mild red! They also had cilantro, onion, marinated cucumber and grilled jalapeno strips on the bar! As I waited they brought me a basket of hot fresh chips; so I tried all the salsas, which were all very tasty and definitely had a decent amount of heat. I got the meat back to the hotel; it came with about a dozen thin, hot and fresh tortillas heche amano! Lots of cilantro and onion along with my buckets of salsa! The meat was great; it was hot and moist; it was seasoned pretty well and just a little greasy. The tortillas were nice as well. So here is the honest truth. I like this place; the food we tried was really good, not great. The service was awesome and the prices are good. It is pretty commercial compared to the little hole in the walls I usually haunt and is a bit like a chain, but a very good chain! I’d love for one to open in my neighborhood. 

El Taquito is an Austin area chain with 3 locations including the Riverside neighborhood of Austin, and Pflugerville.

- Mr. Music review
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Five Guys Burgers and Fries ~ national chain : Colorado Springs, Colorado

Latest visit: Oct 2023 (Colorado Springs - Interquest) First visit: Jan 2007 (Reston, VA) Locations: 49 states + DC. Only Alaska is missing. There are 30 in Colorado (4 in the Springs). That's +3 from last year. Texas has 68 (our former locale of Southlake is closed, so Hurst would have been the closest). There are 123 in California which is their largest state presence. The original Reston location that I first went to is still going.  In what appears to be a recurring theme, I state each year this will be my last visit to Five Guys. Only to return anyway. This year's excuse is I wanted to try their new location, which very recently opened up close to our house. This is definitely the closest we've ever lived to a Five Guys - even the Reston location was further from my office at the time. And I thought maybe it would make a good choice for a weekday lunch while working from home, thus putting Five Guys back into the rotation. I put that idea to the test here this Saturda...
2 comments
Read more

Denver's Old School Italian Restaurants

I know, I know... I haven't posted anything in 6 months. You were checking back every week, then every month and now I've fallen completely off your radar. Sorry about that. My only lame excuse is that I've been "saving up" for a good one. I've been wanting to write about Denver's Italian restaurants since we returned part-time last year. And you all know how the RJG feels about this style of restaurant . As someone who grew up in Dallas, perhaps I've been more drawn to cities that embrace their history rather than completely demolish it. Only recently has Dallas become more acutely aware of their past. Previously, any buildings not in use have been razed as fast as possible, to make way for the next brand new shopping center - all in the latest architecture naturally. Contrarily you have cities like St. Louis that are 19th and 20th century industrial ghost towns - places frozen in time because for most everyone who could, they just up and left to ...
8 comments
Read more

Pietro's Italian ~ Dallas, Texas ***CLOSED***

Last visit: Feb 2016 First visit: Sometime in 1984 When Mr. Music told me this earlier in the year, my heart sunk. It was reason enough to stop talking and writing about restaurants. All I can say is this: We did give you advance notice. The below was published on  March 28, 2010 , so Pietro gave you a good 7 years to check it out. If you missed it, then I'm sorry to say there is no replacement. No other place like it. A part of me went with it too... January 2014 update: Pietro's is as magnificent as ever. Mrs RJG and I just had another exquisite meal here. It remains my all-time favorite restaurant even after 30 years of going here. I beg and urge you all to try it at least once if you have a hankering for Old School Italian food. I'm sure it will not be here forever. Pietro must be close to 80 now, and it's hard to imagine the restaurant without him. We try to go 3 to 4 times a year, almost always on a Saturday or Sunday because of the traffic to get to inner Dalla...
12 comments
Read more