El Gran Taco

This is one of my favorite restaurants period. They make everything fresh and even make their own chips. The mini tacos are super affordable at $ 1.20 a piece. I an a big fan of really authentic Mexican food and I have to say they excel at this. They have done of the best lengua I’ve ever tried and their tripas is always crispy. This is my favorite place to go when my work isn’t serving something good for lunch (yes, I’m spoiled lol)
Also try the jamaica, they make their own and they do it very very well.

First off, let me say that I can count the times I have reviewed a restaurant on one hand.
I’m much more a word of mouth type person, even if I’m blown away.
That being said, El Gran Taco has one of the best Green Chile Burritos in the valley. Why do I say that? Because the friends I’ve taken to El Gran Taco and I have had most of the rest available for sale.
In my «greedy little green chile loving heart», I almost don’t want anyone else to find out about them, but then again, something this great has to be shared. Right?
I noticed that all the other reviews here are focused on the other, important, but slightly less «life altering» things about El Gran Taco.
So with an overwhelming sense of civic duty, I now fulfill a much needed public service. An awareness campaign for deliciousness of the «chile verde» variety.
I urge all citizens with taste buds, use this information for your own self assured happiness, and … could whoever ends up ordering my medal of honor, after everyone understands how correct I am, please be sure and spell my name correctly?

I’m an easy grader, I know.
But I loved the place, remined me of being in Mexico.
Pouring rain, ambient lighting inside, great food and nice people.
I had a plate of 3 little tacos: Barbacoa, Carne Asada and Pastor.
Very tasty, and the double corn torilla ensures they behave as they should.
Rice and beans on the side — properly seasoned.
REAL beans — not lard beans. Actual beans, made by hand I am sure.
Good ice tea.
Clean, well lit and a nice clean bathroom.

I had lunch with Jacob L. in this rather charming little gem in Sunnyslope. The restaurant is bright, clean, and cheerfully decorated. The food was tasty and inexpensive. The rice and beans that came with my order were good. Of the 3 tacos I tried, I liked the pastor the best — it was really tasty; the carne asada was good, and the tongue was not as flavorful as I had expected but still OK (
). Good quality food, so I’m definitely coming back here — probably on a weekend, to try the other dishes — especially the menudo. And of course I HAVE to get the flan.

I’ve been trolling all the Mexican reviews lately and have seen many people talk about beef tongue and beef cheek tacos. I got it in my mind that I had to try this somewhere. Search for lengua brought up a few places and this was closest to home.
Company always makes a food adventure more fun so I dropped NormR a message and asked if he wanted to grab some lunch.
We arrived at 1:30 on a Saturday and the place was empty. This appeared to be a family affair type place and were greeted by who I would assume was a son with a spiked mohawk. I already liked the place but this was a little weird for a Mexican joint.
After looking over and menu and doing some guessing as to what things were he came over to take our order I asked him a question about something. He informed me the English version was on the opposite side. Ahh the DOH moment ;) been having way to many of those lately.
This is a really cool little restaurant. Someone had painted Mexican jungle themes all over the inside and outside of the place. It was a really homey, cozy type feel. I think Norm was able to get some good picture of the interior. They had a great patio area that would be fun to make use of the few times a year you can in the valley.
Onto the foodz!
Chips/​Salsa:
Not the high point of the meal. The chips were a little on the stale/​heavy side. The salsa was very runny and was far from the most flavorful I’ve had.
Tacos:
All these were served in soft double corn tortillas with onions and a verde salsa. The verde sauce was very good. Garlic, tomatillo cilantro, citrus, salt. Just the thing you want on a street type taco.
Beef Cheek:
This had a nice strong beef flavor with a decent but not overly amount of gristle. Honestly I’m not sure what I expected it wasn’t anything super mind blowing. I’ve had much better beef tacos and I didn’t pick up a huge different between the cheek/​head and some other cut of meat.
Pastor:
WOW! that’s right. a full blown WOW. This stuff was freaking amazing. For those who are unaware this is a marinaded pork which is cooked the same as a shawarma. Its stacked on a vertical rotisserie with onions and peppers and cooked slowly and shaved as ordered. I want a freaking 5lb burrito filled with this! This was almost enough for me to change my entire cheat meals plans just to go back here tonight and stuff myself with this.
Beef Tongue:
I’ve never had this before but Norm had and said it was very mild. To me it tasted like beef with a strange texture. I was kind of disappointed because I was expecting something very different. I’ll let Norm comment on how this compared to other tongue dishes he has had.
Liver:
This was VERY strong. Like I had to take very small bites because it was kicking me in the face. We weren’t sure if this was beef or pork liver. I believe its something I could really like after I’ve had it a few times. This may have been the first time I tried liver beef/​pork. The more I think about it the more I like it. To me its kind of like learning to enjoy a really strong cheese. Gotta get your feel wet before you dive in.
Guacamole:
I have regained faith in humanity over the last month. Most of the Mexican places I’ve been to recently have been making this correctly and letting the avocado be the star of the show. This was really good here and very fresh. No tomato ruining things. The guac had mild green onion, garlic, cilantro, citrus notes which is just how it should be.
All in all I was happy with the meal. I will be back here for some more pastor. I’m curious how the rest of the Mexican staples are here.

Read Korinas review… GOOD Mexican food.
I had the Steak Ranchero, flour tortillas and rice and beans.
The SR was like fajitas but with a little spicy sauce. Excellent
The Rice was rice… not the best not not bad either
The Beans tasted like a semi cross between ham hock and refried. Liked em! It was the Special of the day and was seriously only $ 5.95.
The tortilla chips were on the thick side and the salsa was on the thin side. I liked them both.
I am not sure what style Mexican food this is but it was really good and not loaded with the cheese. It was a nice change.
The building was clean! It looked like my mom’s kitchen… you know what I mean.

I love the traditional Mexican food here. Try every variety of taco they have — I’ll bet you’ve never tasted tongue so good! Seriously, the lengua taco is really tasty, as are all the other varieties. Don’t be shy. The carne asada is the traditional streeet taco style and won’t dissappoint. The barbacoa is excellent too, just close your eyes and ignore the psychedelic pink color. The flan is homemade, and excellent. Prices are more than fair, and service is quick. They serve beer and maragaritas (I don’t know what else). Maria, the owner is always friendly and will remember you if she sees you a few times.
The only bad thing about this place is the incessant parade of panhandlers through the parking lot and the outdoor patio. I eat outdoors whenever the weather is remotely tolerable (a byproduct of growing up in Minnesota where you can eat outside about one day a year between the snow and mosquito seasons), but am sick and tired of being harassed by red-​eyed, toothless meth-​heads. And I don’t come here after dark — same reason. Thank goodness it is staying light later now that spring is here, because the food is really good.

Bummed that Silver Dragon was closed, we had to think fast about where to head for lunch instead. That’s when El Gran Taco occurred to me.
I pass it every day, to and from work. It’s cute little exterior, newly-​paved, big parking lot, and well-​maintained patio always seemed so out of place in this somewhat rundown, industrial stretch of Hatcher Road.
Inside, it’s bright, and the walls are decorated with bucolic murals. At the counter, we looked over the menus, which are in Spanish on one side, and in English on the other. Listed are the usual Mexican food items, along with others you might not see as often, such as tacos containing brain or tongue.
We placed our orders, grabbed our can sodas, and took a seat. We snacked half-​heartedly on some cold tortillas chips and bland salsa. Besides us, the place was pretty empty. Just a couple of firefighters, and later, a local worker. At this point, my hopes weren’t too high.
After a about 10 minutes — just about the right amount of time to actually MAKE our food — the counter woman brought us our dishes. One of my companions had a HUGE honkin’ burro ($ 3!) and the other had the huevos rancheros. I got a ceviche cocktail.
According to my mates, the carne asada meat in the burro tastes «just like it does in Mexico!» and the huevos were «eggalicious.» I could see that the yolks were bright yellow. Mmm. fresh.
My ceviche (just under $ 8) was composed of a huge schooner, full of about a dozen shrimp, diced onions, cucumber, and avocado, swimming in a simple, limey broth. As an avid cilantro-​hater, I was overjoyed to see that only a few bits of that nasty green weed topped it off. All it needed was a several dashes of Tapatio and some salt.
No, it’s not innvovative or mind-​blowing. It’s just good Mexican food, in a pleasant environment, and gringo-​friendly. I’m actually a little glad that Golden Dragon was closed.