El Camino Real

awesome, fresh, and delicious street style tacos. very authentic and filling. In my opinion one of the top 3 places in the Kansas city area to get street style tacos.

Fresh corn tortillas and Pork with pineapple = El pastor taco. Fantastic! I will be back again and again.

Amazing food. My family loved it. They forgot my order of beams and rice but I did order alot of stuff alacart. Tamales were amazing. Even with a few minor mistakes this place is a different must have. We will be back

When we left California we were worried that we wouldn’t find authentic Mexican food. How wrong we were! El Camino Real is homemade Mexican cooking brought to a restaurant. The tortillas are made in the restaurant. We ordered a wide selection of food and it was all delicious! I can’t recommend this restaurant high enough.

I’ve been looking for a spot in kc for my «street taco» fix and this place is definitely it. Never disappoints!

I put the chile relleno in my mouth, and at that moment the clouds parted, angels sang.
I was in a state of rapture.
So, passed the chile relleno test with flying colors.
The salsa was a divine blend of ancho and guajillo laced with smoky chipotle. It burned just right, not too bland, not too hot.
The taqueria makes their own tortillas, too.
And now, after an exhaustive search, I have found my Mexican joint!

Best tacos you can imagine! These things are as good as any street taco made in Mexico. The fresh rolled tortillas are amazing. Be careful though, the salsa they give you has a bite. These are not Tex Mex tacos.

Best tacos in Kansas City, hands down. I’m kind of glad the location and parking is kind of ehh… not optimal, because I’d be a house if it was. For $ 6 for 4 tacos (a fair price in a sea of overpriced Mexican food), I’m truly the happiest of campers.
Some of the best Mexican food I’ve ever had has been from places like this (I always worry about Mexican the fancier the restaurant is, the taste usually is never there for me). Great chips and salsa as well. I’d buy that salsa by the bottle if I could.
As I’m still dieting and trying to losing all the weight on the planet, El Camino Real will remain an occasional place in my life. But you owe it to yourself to go at least once. No one is doing it like that in Kansas City, they should but they’re not. El Camino Real is crushing that taco game.

What can I say about this place other than «WOW» 10 times over. The Pastor is that good. I’m originally from
Los Angeles and been all over East LA and Mexico and hands down this is the best BBQ Pork I’ve ever had. The meat is on a skewer served with pineapple and Corn tortillas are freshly made right next to the carving station. You have to see it and taste for yourself. The Asada and other meats are good as well, but the Al Pastor is the show stopper.

If you want authentic Mexican food, handmade tortillas, cheap prices and fast, friendly service, El Camino Real in Kansas City, Kansas is the place for you.
I grew up in California where El Camino Real, the royal road, runs the length of the state with Spanish missions founded by Father Junipero Serra strategically placed every 50 to 100 miles. This El Camino Real provides sanctuary, very much like those 21 California missions, but in the form of excellent food rather than shelter. Unfortunately, it just happens to be about 50 miles from my home.
A small place with 15 – 20 tables, the little kitchen sits in open view as you walk in the door where a lady was making fresh tortillas for each order. I grabbed the last table in the place and the server quickly brought chips, salsa and small cups of pico de gallo, cilantro, and diced white onions to add to the tacos. The chips were obviously made in-​house and were thick, warm, and crispy just the way I like them. I asked if they had a small or side order of guacamole so I could try it, but the server told me they only sell one size and it was $ 3.99. I told her «thanks, but no thanks».
The tacos are in the traditional Mexican-​style, with only the meat of your choice (pastor, asada, carnitas, picadillo, pollo, pescado) piled on two hot, grilled, handmade tortillas, not the crispy American variety you get at Taco Bell and most Mexican restaurants. I had one taco al pastor ($ 1.50 — sliced pork with pineapple), one carne asada ($ 1.50 — sliced steak) taco, one picadillo ($ 1.50 — ground beef) taco and a chicken enchilada ala carte ($ 1.50). Adding diced white onion, pico de gallo, fresh cilantro and salsa to the tacos, the only thing missing was some guacamole, but they were delicious nonetheless. I would have preferred a cheese and onion enchilada, but I failed to specify, so what I got was a chicken enchilada. My least favorite variety, it was still pretty good, although not very hot, and the red (chili) enchilada sauce was dark, rich and superb.
My only gripes are that you cannot get a side order of guacamole and the fact that they used a microwave oven to heat my enchilada, resulting in inconsistent melting of the cheese (see photo above) and a lukewarm enchilada. But hey, compared to the sad excuses for what they call Mexican food in Lawrence, these flaws are minuscule.
My bill came to a little over $ 7 including tax, so with tip I paid $ 10 for a great lunch. A value meal at a fast food joint costs nearly that, so this filling lunch was a tremendous value. I tried to talk the owner into opening an El Camino Real in Lawrence. He seemed interested, but alas, it will not likely happen in my lifetime. Too bad.
CombatCritic Gives El Camino Real 9 Bombs Out Of 10 … Bombs Are Good!

It felt like a legit taco shop just like in Mexico. I do like how they give you a side of cilantro, onion, lime, and salsa as opposed to putting them on the tacos (not a raw onion guy myself).
The tacos al pastor were awesome, they had the grilled pineapple as well (I only had three, but could’ve had 20). The carne asada was ok, it was just ok. They didn’t have carnitas that day, but I’ll be back for that.
My girlfriend had sopes with chicken, they were huge and delicious.
I like to keep it simple and stick to the tacos, but I’ll update this if I have anything else there.

Best street tacos around and very friendly! Great chips and fresh food!
Just wish they had better parking :(

It’s a small, quaint environment — very good service. Homemade tortillas with fresh ingredients and sides and the meat was tender and juicy. Limited beer selection, but well worth the visit!

Just ate here not 10 minutes ago and had to say a few things. I’m from Chicago which has many Mexican restaurants, most of which are authentic mom and pop style. El Camino Real is hands down my favorite in KC, and I don’t think I’ll need to go anywhere else for tacos. Had el pastor, asada and chorizo, all great and I didn’t even have the pico. About 10 min from crossroads/​Westport, I just wish it was 24hrs so I could go after a night out! Two thumbs up!

Holy hell. I’ve had the best tacos in Austin, TX and their meat and the value comes nowhere close to El Camino Real. For real.
Free chips and even free pico upon request. I went here 6 days in a row once and go on average once a week. Al Pastor is of course the best, street tacos $ 1.25?! try em with flour tortillas for just $ 2 dollars.
Their salsa Verde used to be the best thing in the world but has recently been a little different for some reason. small loss compared to everything else.
Rice and beans are super authentic and are the best ive had outside of my late grandma, Lupe Galarza’s house.

Best street style tacos in KC. Period
Tacos al Pastor are the best. They also have good Asada. Yum

I hate to offer a dissenting opinion from my friends Donna and Billie however, I wasn’t all about El Camino Real. I clearly ordered the wrong taco.
I appreciate the handmade made-​to-​order tortillas. The chips and salsa were also great, as was the service, however I found the carnitas taco to be super fatty and greasy. Yes I understand that carnitas is pork,… and the nice thing was the portion size of carnitas was more than any other stop of the day, but i somehow received a scoop of the fattiest carnitas that I would ever care to have.
I would definitely go back to try the pastor and give Camino Real another shot.

So this was our last stop on a Saturday Taco Crawl. After many earlier tacos, we weren’t nearly as hungry as when we started. That being said, I could have eaten a half dozen of the Tacos Al Pastor… AMAZING. We watched as our tortillas were handmade and cooked fresh. The meat for the Al Pastor tacos was shaved from a large block of meat and everything was delicious. This location is walking distance to major locations downtown and is #1 on my work lunch list. I strongly encourage taco lovers to visit this location and enjoy some amazing food.

The last stop on today’s taco crawl and the overall the winner for everyone. The pastor tacos are the must have here, but what really sets them apart is the fresh tortillas. I don’t mean there is a pile that was made that morning or yesterday, they are made to order right next to the grill. Just the smell of the fresh masa makes it worth stopping in. Top those fresh tortilla’s with some marinated pork and pineapple and you just have a huge bite of yum. The salsa still has seeds so be careful! I got a bite that was super hot!
I was disappointed they no longer serve margaritas as I was ready for one at the end of the crawl. They have a nice selection of beers.
Parking is a problem here. The street in front is all no parking. I have no issues walking, but for most Kansas Citians who seem to, be prepared to walk a block or more to the restaurant. It is worth the walk!

This place was a random find and soooooo good! I haven’t had real street tacos anywhere in the Midwest that are this yummy.
El Camino Real is a whole in the wall churning out delicious el pastor tacos topped with grilled pineapple. The waitress set us up with chips and salsa right away and then came back with cilantro and pico for the tacos.
We will be back again real soon.

El mejor Mexicano autentico en Kansas City.
¡Muy, muy bien!
–Homesick south Texan