ELV note: East Charleston Blvd. between Maryland Parkway and Eastern is fast becoming its very own micro-climate of fast, fresh Mexican food. Here are three of the best — worth seeking out if you can pull yourselves out of Summ-r-lame or whatever white bread micro-climate you hale from…
Tacos el Gordo…. [nggallery id=819]…opened a couple of weeks ago in an old Wendy’s across the parking lot from the original Los Tacos. It is an awkward (to say the least) experience not recommended for those who aren’t fluent in Spanish. Even if they were speaking the King’s English , it would be difficult to fathom how and who to order from here, as you walk in and are immediately confronted by three stations in front of which a cluster of folks are standing about, jabbering to themselves and/or to the cooks, who are each cooking something different (and ready to take your order), or preoccupied so they either ignore you or point you to one of the other stations where at least one of the remaining cooks may or may not be able to take your order. Depending on what you want, that cook may or may not be the one cooking it, or he may motion you to another station, where, in some mystical way known only to Mexican cooks, this fellow will figure out what you want and place it on the pass thr0ugh in front of you, in some chronological order relating to the other two dozen or so folks waiting for their food. Whew!
ELV note #2: We thought we were being a bit harsh on Tacos El Gordo, so we returned last night. It was much less crowded, and easier to navigate. The cooks and staff couldn’t be friendlier to a hapless gringo like yours truly, but we still found the adobada fries a notch or two below the spiciness we were expecting. But the buche (pork stomach/esophagus) tacos were fantastic, and, according to commenter Humberto below, we have to try the mulitas (a quesadilla with cheese melted on the griddle), the next time we’re there….which we will be.
Instead of enduring the humiliation of standing in a freaking restaurant, ready to pay ready cash for decent food, and not receiving the slightest clue how to do so, our staff recommends traveling about a quarter of a mile west on Charleston, looking for a string of Christmas lights on the north side of the street, and grabbing some superior tacos al pastor or chorizo from El Pastorcito… [nggallery id=820]…a taco truck that parks there every Thurs.-Sun. at 7:00 pm.
The al pastor tacos from El Pastorcito seemed tastier, spicier and crunchier to us, and the pineapple salsa they serve in a big bucket was a treat, although the heat and freshness of el Gordo’s salsas were slap-my-ass-and-call-me-Sally-gooood. The cabeza from el Gordo was one of the gamiest we’ve ever had, so on the whole, we had to give our personal taco triumph to El Pastorcito’s combo platter (pictured above).
Of courses, if cluster-f*cks and taco trucks ain’t your thang, there’s always Los Tacos…[nggallery id=810]…for Mexican fast food at its best….and most convenient.
The food pictured above is from the new Los Tacos on West Sahara, and is every bit as tasty and easy to order as the lengua, cabeza, cocteles, al pastor, carnitas, and chorizo at the original…which is right next door to Tacos el Gordo, and much less frustrating to visit.
Dinner for two at any of these will never cost you more than $25 unless you’re built like this.
TACOS EL GORDO
1724 East Charleston Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89104
702.251.8226
EL PASTORCITO
Just east of 15th Street and East Charleston Blvd.
Thurs.-Sun. at 7:00 pm
Cash only
LOS TACOS
4101 Sahara Ave.
Las Vegas, NV 89104
702.471.7447
John,
Seriously??? I agree Los Tacos still ranks very high on my Taco places, but when you are looking for a true carne asada mulitas Tacos El Gordo is the best.. They make their tortillas there and then their al pastor meat is super wonderfully delicious.. The guacamole is turly Tijuana Style and that is what Tacos El Gordo is … Tacos Tijuana style and they live up to it minus the flies!! I agree it can be a challange to figure out. Left is Carne Asada only, middle is cabeza, lengua and tripas and right is al pastor which was very good.. However, los tacos and el pastorcito don’t serve mulitas and those are to die for..
John –
Glad you liked Tacos El Gordo – I’ve found that both the staff and patrons are more than willing to help out with directions to those of us that are less Spanish-inclined each time and it’s worth the minor discomfort.
One note – Tacos El Gordo actually does takes credit cards.
I pass by that taco truck often and wonder about stopping in. Think I will now. On the other hand, anyone know anything about that truck “FUKU Burger” just west of it? There is always a line in front of it..
I tried Tacos El Gordo today and loved it. I screwed up the navigation, but they were very quick to help me out. I was happy to see the place busy at lunch. We’ll definitely be back.
Tacos El Gordo opened way back in August. I told my friend Keith about it and he reviewed it on Yelp, August 16th. The place is fantastic – best taco in town and totally not intimidating because everyone who works there is SUPER NICE. :)
-Poly
On wed. 27th of april those vatos from “El Pastorcito” CATER to us at the Nevada National Guard on the north town armory, it was for retirement of a Maintenance guy, Any way, the food was great, we just ask for a simple menu(for gringos mostly) beef asada, pork pastor style and chicken, but everything was delicious, everybody was satisfied and eat plenty, El Pastorcito vato’s motto is: -no one is going hungry- and he stands by his word and food.
5 stars from NNG. we’ll use them again. for shure.