by Abel Horwitz
Daily Lobo
The first step into El Taco Tote tells you everything.
There's unlimited chips and a handful of salsas to your right, fresh grilled meats and tortillas straight ahead. A loudspeaker announces a number telling people their order is ready, first in English, then in Spanish. You walk up to the counter, order your meal and try not to squeal with delight when you find out how little it costs.
The mothership has landed. Our stomachs are home.
El Taco Tote, which is Spanish for "huge," prides itself on being a real Mexican grill, a place you go when Taco Bell isn't doing it for you any more. Appearance-wise, it's on par with the Mexican version of Carl's Junior - a slightly higher-class fast food joint than you're used to.
You pick the meats that go in your taco. You choose either corn or flour tortillas, which they cook at the same time as your meat. When your order is called, you pile on the salsa and veggies of your choice.
I ordered the combo meal, which gave me two choices of tacos, rice and beans and a drink. I got one fish and one top sirloin taco.
Because the food is cooked fresh to order, it takes a few minutes for your number to be called. During this time, I happily munched away on the unlimited tortilla chips and experimented with all the different homemade salsas.
The sirloin was excellent. As a college student who can't remember the last time he had steak for a meal, I was blown away with how good this taco was.
The fish taco was a different story. While the fish itself was excellent, El Taco Tote is missing two prime ingredients of a true fish taco: Shredded cabbage and a mayonnaise-based salsa. I had to settle for shredded lettuce and pico de gallo - which, in its own right, is excellent.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Because my meal cost only $7, this omission was easily excused.
El Taco Tote has vegetarian options - that is, if you consider bean and cheese tacos or cheese quesadillas vegetarian alternatives.
Its talent truly lies in the grill. Everything from pork adobado to barbacoa or chicken fajitas are all priced around $3 a taco.
The franchise, which started out of Juarez in 1988, plans to build 100 restaurants across America this year. Judging by the steady flow of customers the Albuquerque restaurant has had since it opened last week, El Taco Tote is here to stay.
El Taco Tote makes a delicious taco and to get this much food from a meal that costs less than $10 is pretty rare these days.
