After our brief venture for Tex-Mex tacos last month at Órale Juanito Palermo my mind turned towards more classic Mexican street tacos, one of the best street foods on the planet. From just a few years ago basically all of the Mexican restaurants here in town serving up crunchy corn tortilla style tacos, and most of those tortillas coming plastic wrapped in boxes, we’ve started to see more and more places both making their own tortillas, and trending towards the smaller, street style versions common in Mexico. Standouts (that are still open) over the last few years have been Güey and Juan Pedro Caballero Chuntaro Style, both of which have garnered numerous repeat visits. So what’s new in this milieu, or at least new to me?
Today I’m going to take a look at three recent visits, and let’s go from good to very good to excellent, just to build the excitement factor in.
No Mames Wey Palermo, Fitz Roy 1617, Palermo – taking over half of the space that used to be Schwartz & Berg deli which closed during the pandemic (the other half now one of dozens of branches of the Dashi sushi chain). Yet another place that seems to think red or pink lighting in a restaurant is a good thing. It’s not. It makes your food look bad, and it’s just annoying. Big space, a bit cafeteria-ish. It’s one of seven locations in the city, and this is a chain of taquerias from Spain.
A miniscule ramekin of broken chips hit the table along with a “hot sauce” that contains nothing hot – something freely admitted by the waitress who told me it had no chilies in it… so why call it hot sauce? But they do actually have two hot sauces, made in house, one from jalapeños and one from serranos. Both good, though surprisingly, the jalapeño one was the hotter of the two.
They offer seven different tacos – I missed that they have a tasting plate of six of those – excluding the vegan alternative. To their credit, and unlike almost every other place in town, you can order single tacos of each type, or combo plates of three, or the aforementioned six, and you can mix up what kinds you want. You don’t have to order three of a kind as most spots make you do. These were all good – al pastor, cochinita pibil, birria were my choices. The first was maybe a bit heavy on the pineapple, but other than that, my only complaint is a bit of one note to the toppings – I want something more than some red onions (or pineapple) – some herbs, some radishes, some something. And use limes, not lemons, please. I know they’re more expensive, but the difference is worth it. The hibiscus refresco was quite good. A trifle pricey for a trio of tacos, beverage, and tip coming in at 13000 pesos. I’d go back, albeit there are better spots around.
Taco God, Federico Lacroze 3522, Chacarita – This place regularly gets great customer reviews, and often from folk who know something about Mexican food. So despite any misgivings I might have had about the name, I headed out to try their advertised street food style tacos. Now, in retrospect, I should have probably stuck with just the tacos, mostly because opting for their tenedor libre, the all-you-can-eat menu, is a bit overwhelming. Still, they kept bringing food even though I was just tasting things and not finishing them by midway through.
A trio of sauces on offer – a simple, not spicy cilantro sauce, a “taco sauce” that was more tomato than chili, and a moderately hot chili sauce with some really good flavors.
For example, I really didn’t need their version of nachos, really salty tortilla chips with a dry black bean mash and watery cheese dip. A few chips and I called it quits on those.
The cheese quesadilla was decent, though just plain mozzarella cheese, and the ground beef topped version was about the same. Use some flavorful cheeses in there!
The tacos are where they hit their stride. Really quite good. The round here was carne asada, chicken, and carnitas. The last was definitely my favorite of these. And a good selection of toppings. Again, limes instead of lemons please.
A crispy tostada topped with pollo tingaI, a stewed chicken. This might actually have been my favorite thing, surprisingly. Certainly a tie with the carnitas taco.
Umm… weird. Now, I’m no expert on Mexican cooking, but I’ve eaten a lot of it over the years. When I think of chilaquiles, I think of tortillas that are fried and then stewed in either red sauce or green sauce, and then topped with sour cream and green onions, or something similar. These are those same salty tortilla chips (use unsalted ones here) that are fried and then dropped into the birria, the shredded, braised beef, and its consommé. So the chips are still fully crunchy, and they’re basically just piled into beef soup. I could be wrong, maybe it’s a regional variation, but to me, these don’t come across as chilaquiles.
Sorry, took a bite before I realized I hadn’t snapped a photo. The taco XL gringa – basically a double soft flour tortilla with ground beef, tomato, lettuce, and a drizzle of something that was probably meant to be sour cream. Not my favorite. I actually didn’t go back in for another bite.
Great, friendly service. I’d go back for just the tacos, I don’t think I’d go for the other stuff. It’s also worth noting, that I could have curated my own all-you-can-eat, and picked what I wanted to order, rather than leaving it in their hands – so I could have just had plate after plate of quite good street tacos. Worth noting, and I didn’t realize it until looking over the receipt at home, they charged 17,000 pesos for the tenedor libre while their menu is quite clear that it’s 16,000 pesos (and a trio of tacos runs around 6500 pesos, versus the place above). Not a lot of money or anything, but if you’re going to raise your price, raise it on the menus (which is handwritten in erasable marker on a plastic covered menu).
Aurelia Cantina, El Salvador 5090, Palermo – Touted these days as the only “real” Mexican restaurant in town, by them, and quite a few reviewers, this place has been on my list for a bit. Henry and I decided on it for date night last week. It’s small, pretty, and with widely spaced tables. Service is amiable, a little “correct” at times, but not off-putting. One faux pas for us, we ordered a bit more food that we should have, and it turns out, they don’t offer takeout containers to take home something you don’t finish. We ended up paying for a dish that we only tasted a little of and didn’t eat. They also made a whole production out of looking for something to put the food in, though they didn’t think they had anything. Come on, you already know you don’t have it, stop pretending, and second, get some takeout containers. You’ve been open a year and a half, we can’t be the first people that couldn’t finish and wanted to take something with them.
Excellent cocktails, really good black bean plate with lots of cheese, though again, really salty tortilla chips. Amazing hot sauces, not over the top in heat, but just fantastic flavors. I want jars of these. To go. Oh yeah, nothing to go.
An very good version of sopa azteca, though could have used a lime wedge or two on the side to give it a little more brightness. Still, we finished every drop of it.
Cochinillo tacos – suckling pig, that is. See, there are the limes! Excellent. A little bigger than street tacos, and missing that swath through the juices for the tortilla, but absolutely delicious.
And, a very different version of an aguachile than I’ve ever had – it’s always been green rather than red – but that aside, it was really tasty. We were just full, and highly disappointed that we couldn’t take it with us – note to self, don’t over-order. All of the above, with tip, came in around 66000 pesos.
Overall, some of the best Mexican food we’ve had in Buenos Aires, and worth the slightly higher prices.
