El Idolo

Hailing from Corona, Queens, El Idolo brings the taco truck experience of the boroughs into the heart of the city. Where other taquerias are stuck in their distant, gritty hoods, the mobile El Idolo has made Mexican food on the go, a very convenient option.
While most taco trucks will feature handful of additional items like nachos, quesadillas, or tortas, El Idolo provides a myriad of edibles that go beyond that and tacos. Cemitas, huaraches, flautas, sopes, gorditas and even tamales are on the table. They even have enchiladas ($ 9), which is really more of a platter with rice and beans than anything else. There is even a vegetarian taco option for $ 3 a pop. From an overall selection standpoint, El Idolo is already winner.
The food however, leaves something to be desired at times. Tacos are definitely passable at $ 2.50 for Manhattan intoxicated standards, but it’d be hard for me to crave their carne asada, carnitas, cecina, or al pastor tacos on a normal day. One of my favorite street side items, tamales, are more often than not, dry and clumpy. A lot of sauce is needed for tastebud rescue.
Even the gorditas and sopes are just run of the mill in comparison to the rest — but the tortas have been their saving grace. Cemitas while similar, don’t carry quite the same bite. I have yet to try enchiladas from the truck, but it seems the mini handheld items are more desirable and easier to eat.
In the end, it’s a taco cart at prices any Manhattanite would appreciate. The guys are friendly and the cart happens to be in an area that gets plenty of late night foot traffic. El Idolo doesn’t try hard to be cutting edge like many other Manhattan based trucks, they offer just enough merit an occasional late night encounter.

I’m skeptical about eating from places that the workers have no restrooms but I needed a quick fix and took a chance. Omg my food was delish… I will definitely visit this truck again. Prices were pretty affordable as well!

Tasty and fresh mexican food truck. Reminds me of Red Hook food trucks though this is more uneven. But you can get a tasty fresh lunch for under $ 6 which is harder than you think in the West Village.

I liked their steak burrito a lot the first time I got it — it was a pretty low-​key interpretation, and actually had white American cheese along with cotija (if that sounds disgusting to you make sure to ask them to leave it out), but it was pretty massive and satisfying for $ 7 or so. They also included a few nice pieces of avocado on the side.
The second time, it was much more iffy. The problem was that everything was salted to the point of being near-​inedible, and the beef also had way too much of that Goya spice mix a lot of these carts use. At 4 am it’s still better than nothing, but hopefully the guy will have cut the salt back to normal when I try it next.

I really wish this cart was better. I’ve tried it a couple times, always hoping that if I order the right thing it will be good. The best of the meats I tried was the chorizo, the worst was the chicken. Grey, bland, cartilage riddled chicken. Now that there are more taco options around W.4^th, I definitely won’t be returning to this truck.

My husband is a deal freak and has his manila envelope loaded with all the restaurant deal coupons possible. However this doesn’t mean that he doesn’t try new places without a coupon more than once in while.
We were on our way to one of the Indian places to eat at the Beaver street when we came across this big Mexican food truck. We were intrigued immediately.
My husband ordered a pork wrap and a veggie taco for me. My dish came with a queso fresco cheese topping and was very flavorful. My husband liked his dish too.
We are def. going back again whenever we’ll be in the neighborhood.

So far so good on my first visit to El Idolo. The truck is totally nondescript, without a snazzy name or quirky Food Truck 2.0 sign.
If there were such thing as an old school, no nonsense food truck, this would be it. They have everything you want – tacos, burritos, flautas, tamales, and my favorite – cemitas and tortas… so good! There are a bunch of awesome meat options, from chorizo and carnitas to tripe, beef tongue, and goat.
I will be eating here often and well.

I have tried better tacos & tamales elsewhere. The taco was extremely bland with tough meat in it! The tamale was also very disappointing!
For better tacos, try the carts at 74^th-​Roosevelt– Jackson Hts stop.

I was so looking forward to a late night taco after a night of heavy drinking but this place failed to deliver. The best thing on my taco was the green sauce to be honest. The tortilla was so bland I kept checking to see if I was eating paper and my chicken had zero flavor. I was trying to douse it with lime to see if something would come out but nothing. Nada. No es bueno. The fact that I was drunk and thought it was awful was a sign because you know EVERYTHING tastes delicious when one is wasted.

Quick cheap and tasty tacos, burritos and tortas! Located conveniently on 6^th ave near Washington Square and the West Village. They speak minimal English and cash only but that comes with the territory. Get the carnitas torta!

Good, good tacos. I haven’t tried anything else. Whenever I walk by the Calexico cart in Soho, with their 20 minute waits, I just laugh. 5 minutes up 6^th Avenue is this truck. El Idolo is so fresh, so good, so much less expensive, and so blissfully hipster-​free. You aren’t even required to slouch and look bored at your iphone screen while you wait (bonus!) the very short 1 or 2 minutes for your food to arrive.
My only complaint is that each taco comes in an individual styrofoam tray, which is wasteful. I will have to start exploring other items on the menu. Just as soon as I tire of the tacos, which will probably be never…

I would give it a 4 star but I reserve those for actual cali burritos. As a californian living in the place where burritos were invented (mission district SF) I know how good they can be, how they are supposed to be rolled and what goes inside them. I have had disgusting overpriced 18 dollar burritos (I would list them all here, so you can cross them off your search list but i’m too lazy) that had mushrooms, eggplant, even stir fry in them, rolled like a fruit roll up. It begs the question, do east coasters ever actually travel outside and try the real deal before adding it to your restaurants menu? All of my west coast transplants have been looking for years for a decent burrito, and i am forced to get my fix at chipotle, which is a notch above taco bell. This roach coach beats those both. It vaguely reminds me of the $ 3 burritos (regular price for a burrito in cali) from the taco truck at ashby bart station in south berkeley california, vaguely. The radish condiments, the green salsa, the rice and beans that aren’t bland and refried beans at that (pretty rare here). $ 6. Unfortunately if you have to time to wander around in the snow looking for the mobile restaurant then great otherwise ur S.O.L!

NYC isn’t exactly a mecca of top-​notch Mexican food, so anyone who’s had the really great stuff on the West Coast or in the Desert Southwest knows that you have to adjust your expectations accordingly (read: DOWN) when ordering tacos, tortas, sopes, and so forth in this city.
Yet despite my lowered expectations, this place still to managed to underwhelm. Bland, pre-​packaged tortillas, gristly/​tough meat, and uninspired condiments will do that every time.
It’s too bad this place isn’t better, because the Village could really use a great, authentic taco truck. You can do much better in Queens, Brooklyn, Hudson County, or Passaic, among other places.

It’s great — nuff said!

It’s good. It’s cheap. It’s greasy Mexican food served out of a truck.
For $ 6 they serve up a pretty major burrito chock full of fresh meat, beans, rice and whatever else you desire. Their meat options run the gamut: feel like some tripe? A little goat meat, a slice of tongue? Yeah, it’s authentic in that they are «thinking outside the bun» a whole lot more than your local Mexican joint. The guys running the truck are also very sweet and speak Spanish a whole lot better than English, so if you can just do so. They make everything to order so the wait time can be a bit lengthy so it’s best to chill out, pretend you’re on vacation and grab your tacos to go for a little Washington Square Park picnic. Just don’t blame me (or them) for your heartburn afterward.

I LOVE THIS PLACE! This is the only place I know in the area that has «Authentic» Mexican food… They have all the meats. I mean not just chicken, pork, beef, but the good stuff too… TONGUE, TRIPE, GOAT… I recommend getting the Lengua (Tongue) Gordita. Wash it down with a nice cold bottle of Jarritos.

as someone who craves mexican food as much as i breathe or poop,
i think that el idolo does the job just fine. new york city has its way of constantly disappointing and worse even, overpricing.
to know:
–chicken is dry yet well seasoned.
–pork is the go to.
–vegetarian is standard but tasty.
–cheap but not cheaper than trucks in queens… clearly.
–if you ask for horchata, they won’t have it.
–nachos are the best buy of the bunch and the chips
are nicely crunchy and salty.
–an unimpressed but toothsome 3.5 stars

Just passed by this truck today on the LES heading over to Max Fish.
On the way home they were still there parked on Houston & Ludlow so I grabbed a taco.
In the meat selection list, there is no VEGGIE option, which I guess I wasn’t surprised at. What I *WAS* surprised at was how good the veggie taco I got turned out to be.
Avacado, some radishes, cheese, lettuce, rice + beans. Yum. Grabbed a menu, and seems they normally park at W3rd and Sixth, so will keep an eye out for them.