La Azteca Meat Market

This review is for the taqueria only.
Overpriced, over cooked, and not a fan of the hot sauce.
Spent 8 minutes waiting in a long line to pay for the taco plate before even going to the counter to get the tacos. I was behind 3 people in the taco line after I already paid, so from the time I walked in, to the time I got my tacos, was at least 16 minutes. I was not in a hurry because my truck is across the street in the shop so I was just killing time anyway.
They spoke English, and the woman preparing the tacos was very courteous. The woman at the counter, not so much, but she did speak English.
Now to the food…
3 tacos, rice, and beans $ 7.99+tax
It was a normal sized styrofoam plate so the tacos next to the beans were covered in refried beans from touching. No big deal, but they only had enough pastor to make 1 taco, so I tried the carnitas, barbacoa, and pastor. The carnitas was kind of dry and not anything to write home about. The barbacoa tasted weird, like the meat had been sitting out all day. Hard to explain, but where as usually I wouldn’t complain about extra fatty beef, this was too fatty for the price. The pastor was overcooked to the point it was dry and a little hard. The rice– eh, the beans– not bad.
2 types of hot sauce.
Verde– what was left from me scraping the bottom of the bowl to get enough for a taco was not so great.
Rojo– had a weird smoky syrup taste that was immediately put down and not used again. This must be why the verde bowl was empty and the rojo was full.
I will not be coming back here, even to the meat market or bakery. Not worth giving it a shot in my opinion. 3stard was being generous

Ok, so I never knew La Azteca was a chain. I’ve been to the one in Denton and they have some great fajita meat and some cool sweet breads and other bakery items. This place was a smaller version, and within a strip mall. Apparently they are under some renovation because the produce sections was greatly reduced.
We were making street tacos for the evening and I was able to get all the veggies and cilantro we needed plus some good corn tortillas. The meat was a little steep in price, but believe me, once it was on the grill… it didn’t matter. Overall their merchandise is in line, pricewise, with what it should be.
I will say, that after going to El Rancho right after, you can see the drastic difference in the two Mexican grocery stores. This is more like a mom and pop type run place, while El Rancho is closer in line to the large chains but with the ethnic flair to it.
I still plan to patronize both places. This location is a little hard to find if you don’t know where along the 35 service road it is. Look for A Better Tattoo right out in front, it’s right there in the strip mall.