Don Taco

Don Taco is one of the many Mexican eateries nestled in Smiley’s Flea market.
This place seems to have the most permanent location of the lot. A well lit private dining room, an ipad POS system, and a large amount of picnic tables on a covered patio.
I was excited to check it out. I walked in to find two tables of strong manly men chowing down and was immediately excited. Man food, eh? I’m a man. I like food, this looks good to me!
I approached the register and was warmly greeted. Being that it’s called Don Taco I decided to try the al pastor taco. My friend had raved about their tamales so i decided to get one as well.
My order came out with a lightning quick vengeance. Please don’t go to this place expecting something fancy. This is a taco shop. This taco shop in particular may be even less frills than other taco shops. My taco was served in a paper tray, with nothing but tortilla and gloriously fiery red meat. There’s a condiment bar where you can dress your taco with as much cilantro and onion as you see fit.
Something different is happening here at Don Taco and I can’t figure out if it’s a regional thing or if they’re just switching up the game. Where as I spent most of my life in California eating baja style tacos which are always served on two corn tortillas, Don Taco is serving tacos on a single flour tortilla. Not a flour tortilla like a soft taco at Taco Bell, but a flour tortilla that, best as I can tell, could very well be made in house. This is completely new to me.
The taco was also quite petite as far as $ 2 tacos go. $ 2 to me says one or two handfuls worth of taco action, but this guy fit nicely in my palm. I’m cool with smaller tacos, but I feel like at a taco joint the price is a reflection of the size of the taco you’re ordering. Hmm.
Biting into the taco is a joyous mess. What the taco lacked in size it made up for in flavor. Holy crud. Man. Seriously. Wow. Damn. The Al Pastor is the best I’ve had in a very long time. So much flavor, so rich. After my first bite there was crimson pastor oil running down the lines of my fingers and palms. Awesome.
But just like that, it was gone. I wanted more, but couldn’t bring myself to spend another $ 2. It was fantastic, but the value, for me, was simply not there.
The tamale was wholly forgettable. I have to assume that my friend last had one on a good day and I got an okay one.
As a final note, I noticed that all of the manly men who were enjoying their meals together were not, in fact, eating tacos. They were all diving deep into large bowls of menudo. I’m going to give this place another shot. I’m going to skip the tamale, get my one taco, and try out the menudo, and hopefully give this place a glowing updated review.

Don’t go expecting anything too fancy, but definitely don’t expect to leave hungry either! This authentic, affordable Mexican food is made to order and masterfully (yet simply) prepared. I would give this place ten stars if I could.