Taco tour! 9 essential spots in downtown Tucson
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Click through for more information on each one. (Plus: A few extras from earlier in the series.)
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El Charro and Hotel Congress are just the beginning ... Andi Berlin thinks you need to try all these restaurants.
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Korean kimchi tacos, a most unlikely hybrid, are usually a marvel of sweet chile sauce and funky fermented cabbage. But downtown at 47 Scott, they're are all about the grill.
The first thing that hits you is that wonderful char, caked into ridges of braised pork belly and bubbling out from the flour tortillas. These are meat tacos pure and simple. All of the sauce in here comes from little shreds of tangy Brussels sprout leaves fermented into kimchi from the house sauerkraut: not exactly that fat slab of chile-glazed cabbage you might expect. But drier, more delicate, and dare I say it? German ...
Interesting newsy bit: The tacos are a new addition to 47 Scott's happy hour menu. When Executive Chef Daniel Thomas came on from Scottsdale's J&G Steakhouse in July, he revamped the menu and added the happy hour.
Location: 47 N. Scott Ave.
Phone: 520-624-4747
Hours: Happy hour is 4 to 6 p.m. seven days a week. Full hours are 4 p.m. with last seating at 10 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and 10 a.m. with last seating at 10 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Janos Wilder seems to be racking up his frequent flyer miles these days: This month's Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails menu explores the Sichuan cuisine of Chengdu, China. But these braised beef cheek tacos hit close to home.
Served on flour tortillas with a zippy chiltepin salsa and radish sticks that merge into the cabbage slaw, the tacos remind me of Tucson's best resort food. They're not meant to be fussy, but they've sure got panache ...
They are bar bites after all, situated on the bar menu somewhere between the warm Oaxacan peanuts and the fancy Sonoran J Dawg. They are little snacks that slip down easy with the whiskey-spiked Tucson Lemonade. (Or in my case, the J Bar Margarita ... another La Paloma classic) Because here, the familiar is both a comfort and an excitement. And as it turns out, margaritas taste great with Oaxacan mole French fries!
Weird fact: Janos really does walk the walk when it comes to pioneering Sonoran flavors. The man practically christened this taco voyage by stepping behind me in line at Aqui con El Nene when I was doing Taco Numero Uno. He has good taste when it comes to takeout.
Location: 135 S. Sixth Ave.
Hours: 4 to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 4 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Phone: 520-623-7700
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Why is carne seca a Tucson specialty? According to El Charro Café's Ray Flores, it's something in the air. The Mexican shredded beef dish thrives in the arid desert climate, because it's actually the air that dries it, not the sun.
That's why if you want to get real carne seca, Flores says you have to go to El Charro. The iconic Tucson restaurant still dries its meat outside in special cages up on the roof. First they marinate strips of Angus beef in green chiles and garlic, then give it a good 24 hours in the rack before it gets freshened up on the flattop grill. Slow and long, so the meat gets salty and crackly, but doesn't burn.
The meat comes to the table all dressed up fancy with Cotija cheese and thin slices of radish. But this is pretense. This is a traditional hardshell taco, with green peas and potent stringy beef that tastes like it could have tasted 50 years ago. In other words, delicious!
Weird fact: Apparently, Flores used to dry the beef on tree limbs.
Location: 311 N. Court Ave., also have locations at 7725 N. Oracle in Oro Valley and 6910 E. Sunrise near Ventana Canyon.
Phone: 520-622-1922
Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Payment: accepts debit and credit
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Don't let the line intimidate you ... The downtown spot Street Taco and Beer Co. can get pretty packed with businessfolk during the weekday lunch rush. But there's an upside to the assembly line approach: It's freaky fast!
Some of the crispier taco meats like carne asada tend to suffer after spending time in tubs, so I decided to work the system: carnitas! Marinated in spices and then slow-roasted in an oven for four hours, they are a soft and magical meat.
These carnitas can sit as long as they want, because they aren't trying to be crispy. They are moist and fatty with big chunks that you can rip off and shove straight into your mouth. I would eat them with a ladle if I could.
This isn't to say that the other meats here aren't great. (The line moves fast after all, so they probably don't sit for long.) But honestly after this taco, it will be very hard for me to order anything else.
Insider's tip: This place really does have one of the best salsa bars in town. Don't miss out on that blended avocado salsa laced with bright cilantro ...
Location: 58 W. Congress St.
Phone: 520-269-6266
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Seis Kitchen and Catering makes its corn tortillas from scratch, starting with the nixtamal. The word refers to the ancient Aztec process of making masa by boiling down corn with lime water. It's an essential step in tortilla-making, one that's most often skipped in favor of industrialized store-bought dough.
But down at the Mercado San Agustin, tortillas are serious business. They are fresh and hearty and thick; good enough to eat rolled up by themselves. But they're also a base for some interesting regional styles of meat: the achiote-glazed Cochinita Pibil pork and the Poc Chuc chicken of the Yucatán. And my favorite, a Seis original called the crispy avocado tacos.
Co-owner Jake Muñoz said he wanted to make a beer battered fish taco that vegetarians can eat. So he takes avocado quarters and coats them in a thick batter laced with Modelo Especial. Then they go into the fryer and come out as bulbous masses filled with avocado so soft and warm it's stunning. All with a crunch like a savory donut. Dare I say it, even better than the fish tacos of the coast. 'Cause hey, when life gives you avocados ...
Insider's tip: Seis is also the only restaurant in town that serves Poc Chuc, a grilled slab of chicken or pork that's popular in the Yucatán. The Poc Chuc tacos took first place for chicken tacos in the 2012 Tucson Taco Festival.
Location: 130 S. Avenida del Convento in the Mercado San Agustin
Phone: 520-622-2002
Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays
Payment: accepts debit and credit
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The Iguana Cafe, that nondescript gray storefront across the street from the Ronstadt Transit Center, has gone strong for almost 12 years as other bars on Congress fell by the wayside. Jesus and Rosie Padilla's bar is a subtle reminder of the old downtown, before redevelopment brought in all the gourmet and the glamour.
During the day it's got a working class kinda vibe, with people sipping beers along the square bartop that takes up most of the room. An old jukebox seemed to be playing Carlos Santana's entire discography ... A fitting soundtrack for these tacos dorados, some of the tastiest I've had downtown or anywhere.
My chicken was shredded real soft, with little bits of tomatoes and onions giving it some extra juice. Then it was rolled up in a corn tortilla and fried to a perfect crisp. Nothin' fancy, just good old fried tacos with an unassaulting "guacamolito" sauce of finely blended avocado. Good stuff!
Weird fact: If you eat here you gotta roll with the punches, 'cause weird stuff might happen: One guy was caught trying to walk in smoking a cigarette, and I got in a conversation with another dude about how eating iguanas is good for you and gives you "mucho mucho power." No iguanas on the menu though, just chicken.
Location: 210 E. Congress St.
Phone: 520-882-5140
Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Cauliflower is serious business over at The Cup Cafe, where the sturdy vegetable gets spiced up with chile and yellow curry powder. These cauliflower tacos are a light little bite: flash fried without batter to springy crisps with meaty centers.
Avocado adds a nice creamy base, but the tacos here are much drier than I originally thought when I saw curry was involved. The shredded cabbage and thin pickled onions, all slipped into a crispy tortilla from Anita Street Market ... made for the perfect sunny lunch out on the patio.
Insider's tip: In addition to the cauliflower tacos, Congress also does drunken fish tacos with beer battered cod, and Mission Street Tacos with crispy pork belly.
Location: 311 E. Congress Street
Phone: 520-622-8848
Hours: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
What came first, the turkey or the egg? At Penca's brunch service they tend to come out about the same time. The downtown restaurant serves upscale tacos starting in the a.m., so I went for the guajolote taco: moist shreds of roasted turkey on a hand-pressed corn tortilla.
Gorgeous. Each ingredient brought a fresh color and a clear purpose: the silken pink chipotle crema coating the delicate meat, the shredded red cabbage with its bitter snap, the pop of the bright green onions. So different, yet they're all pulled together by that hearty masa, filling your mouth with the timeless flavor of warmed corn.
Insider's tip: How do they get the turkey so soft? Before they roast it, they brine the whole bird and add a mirepoix of carrots, onions and celery.
Location: 50 E. Broadway
Phone: 520-203-7681
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
- Andi Berlin | This Is Tucson
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You may have seen the colorful sign go up downtown: the state of Sonora with green wings and a white shrimp. It's the emblem for Sonora Wings & Seafood, a new lunch joint owned by Cananea-native Antonio Montoya.
The restaurant opened quietly Tuesday in the former Kearbey’s spot at 100 N. Stone Ave., Suite 102. Its menu is small but eclectic with everything from boneless wings to campechana seafood cocktails and shrimp tacos sourced from San Carlos. Montoya also does a special chiltepin wing sauce with the spicy round Sonoran peppers. His wings are juicy plump with a nice crisp skin.
Montoya is no stranger to the neighborhood. Before he decided to branch out and open his own shop, he ran the nearby Sonoran taco place Bernardo's Mexican Food with his father-in-law Bernardo Acosta.
"I love working downtown," he said. "Downtown is one little family. I love this place."
Sonora Wings and Seafood is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Montoya says it'll expand its hours to weekends and Friday nights when the shop gets its liquor license. The restaurant will also run specials this weekend for its grand opening during Second Saturdays.
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
You will never see this taco in the daylight. Kyle Araishi fires up the grill at about 10 p.m. and keeps it going through the wee hours, keeping the dance floor hot and smoky at La Cocina.
Even in the dark you can see that these are serious bar bites: grilled on real mesquite wood and sent directly to your mouth before the night air fades away that beautiful char. They can be splashy numbers dolled up with cilantro and shredded red cabbage. But tonight they were also doing Korean BBQ tacos, a hybrid popularized by the Kogi food truck in Los Angeles.
The beef on my taco had been trimmed from a brisket cut and then tenderized with a marinade that includes orange juice, Tamari and various spices. After it came off the grill, Kyle threw on a slab of Korean kimchi he'd gotten from Grantstone Supermarket, then a tower of crispy onion rings and chopped cilantro. Sweetness, tempered by the funky fermented cabbage and that sharp flavor of the smoky mesquite wood. Ironically, it was some of the most authentic carne asada I've ever had.
Insider's tip: Korean tacos are only on the menu every couple months, but Kyle usually does some kind of weekly taco special like Hawaiian or chimichurri. Plus, there's always the LaCo dog, a Sonoran hot dog with some chipotle sauce and more.
Location: 201 N. Court Ave.
Phone: 520-622-0351
Hours: 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards, at the bar
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
In Spanish, they call it "pato." Surely not to be confused with "pata," which once got me a steaming bowl of cow's feet soup. The word means duck, and if you can find it in a taco, you're definitely onto something.
This fabulous fowl is a staple on the menu at Elliott's On Congress, where they take pulled duck breasts and smother them with a housemade buttermilk ranch dressing mixed with both pickled and fresh jalapeños. These aren't spicy tacos by any means though; they're creamy and light, with a fresh hit of pico de gallo. With meat like this, you wanna showcase it ...
Weird fact: For a sports bar, these guys sure have a lot of duck dishes. Aside from the pato tacos, they also do duck egg rolls, duck sliders, a duck club and a barbecue duck sandwich with pepperjack cheese.
Location: 135 E. Congress St.
Phone: 520-622-5500
Hours: 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. every day
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
It was only a matter of time until the banh mi sandwich — the famous culinary crossbread of Vietnam — became a taco. The fresh cilantro, the jalapeños, the shredded daikon and the carrots? Right at home on a taco bar ... And the Sriracha sauce? Destiny ...
But just so we know where Lucky Girl Cafe's coming from: The food truck is run by Mary Nguyen Hodges, who is of both Vietnamese and Lao descent. In addition to these Asian street tacos, she also does an East Asian cucumber and carrot slaw burger that she calls a Lucky Bun.
But back to the tacos, so fresh and flavorful they are! She braises the chicken in coriander and cumin, then throws it on a corn tortilla with English cucumber, cilantro and basil. A nice Southwestern touch: Instead of pickled daikon in the slaw, she uses jicama.
Weird fact: The truck was inspired by a story called "Lucky Girl" that Mary wrote during a creative writing class at ASU. Mary's mother-in-law, an English teacher, loved the idea of the Lucky Bun in her story and decided to recreate it. The rest is history ...
Hours and Location: Lunch: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays at Borderlands Brewing Co.
Dinner: 5 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays, jumps between Borderlands and Dragoon Brewing Co..
Brunch: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays at Exo Roast Co. Check luckygirlcafe.com for complete schedule.
Phone: 520-465-3902
Payment: accepts debit and credit
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
[Note! Bernardo's is now permanently closed ...]
At 2:30 in the morning, this shredded beef taco would be a godsend ... A little scoop of juicy meat, so fatty and plump on your tongue, nestled between a perfectly-fried corn tortilla with some cheese, tomatoes and shredded lettuce. Two salsas: green tomatillo and red chile Japones. That is all you need for instant bliss!
But despite its familiar late-night ambiance, Bernardo's Mexican Food is actually a breakfast and lunch place. Bernardo Acosta and his family from Magdalena, Sonora serve up a simple menu of green chile burritos, carne asada fries and combo plates with rice and beans. They've been here on this little downtown corner for 4 and a half years now, but for some reason, they're still under the radar. Why?
Weird fact: Before it was Bernardo's, it used to be a Taco Shop. And before that, it was apparently a Chinese restaurant ...
Location: 17 N. Stone Ave.
Phone: 520-903-0255
Hours: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays
Payment: accepts debit and credit
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
This is the rhythm of the night. Luscious chunks of Yucutan-style pork, plopped onto steamy corn tortillas and slathered with a salsa of pico de pajaro chiles and wisps of crunchy cabbage. You're sitting on the deck watching the sun go down behind the glistening office towers. There's techno, and fish tanks ...
And hey, did we mention it's free? At The Aquadec Rooftop Lounge on Friday nights, all you've gotta do is buy a $3 drink, and the "Taquito King" Ruben Soto will cook you up something incredible. Today it was his cochinita pibil tacos, with pork marinated in achiote chile, orange juice and Tecate beer. Then slow roasted for eight hours in banana leaves. My god, do I even have to describe them again? I know I have a great job, but this is torture!
Weird fact: I just wanted to apologize to the guy who really loves Ruben's chicken wings, which got pushed off the menu because of this taco project ... Maybe next week?
Location: 61 E. Congress St.
Hours: 5 to 9 p.m. Fridays
Facebook: facebook.com/taquitotours
Payment: All you gotta do is buy a drink at the bar!
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
It was inevitable. Someone out there had to make a gourmet version of a Choco Taco, the crunchy creamy dessert concoction that had us chasing down the ice cream man like packs of deranged spider monkeys.
And it is just as good as it seems. The new Hub Ice Cream Factory goes all out by making their own waffle cones and filling them with a liquid milk chocolate sauce that hardens up and becomes a shell. Then they pipe in thick, housemade vanilla bean ice cream and cover the top with Callebaut dark chocolate and salted roasted peanuts. What can I say? It's a bit denser than the processed stuff, and about three times as big. But it's a freaking rolled up ice cream cone covered in chocolate. Get out there and eat it!
Weird fact: The shop has a miniature choo choo train that comes out of the wall near the ceiling.
Location: 245 E. Congress St.
Phone: 520-622-0255
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to midnight with a walk-up window until 2 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays
Payment: Cash, debit or credit
Korean kimchi tacos, a most unlikely hybrid, are usually a marvel of sweet chile sauce and funky fermented cabbage. But downtown at 47 Scott, they're are all about the grill.
The first thing that hits you is that wonderful char, caked into ridges of braised pork belly and bubbling out from the flour tortillas. These are meat tacos pure and simple. All of the sauce in here comes from little shreds of tangy Brussels sprout leaves fermented into kimchi from the house sauerkraut: not exactly that fat slab of chile-glazed cabbage you might expect. But drier, more delicate, and dare I say it? German ...
Interesting newsy bit: The tacos are a new addition to 47 Scott's happy hour menu. When Executive Chef Daniel Thomas came on from Scottsdale's J&G Steakhouse in July, he revamped the menu and added the happy hour.
Location: 47 N. Scott Ave.
Phone: 520-624-4747
Hours: Happy hour is 4 to 6 p.m. seven days a week. Full hours are 4 p.m. with last seating at 10 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and 10 a.m. with last seating at 10 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
Janos Wilder seems to be racking up his frequent flyer miles these days: This month's Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails menu explores the Sichuan cuisine of Chengdu, China. But these braised beef cheek tacos hit close to home.
Served on flour tortillas with a zippy chiltepin salsa and radish sticks that merge into the cabbage slaw, the tacos remind me of Tucson's best resort food. They're not meant to be fussy, but they've sure got panache ...
They are bar bites after all, situated on the bar menu somewhere between the warm Oaxacan peanuts and the fancy Sonoran J Dawg. They are little snacks that slip down easy with the whiskey-spiked Tucson Lemonade. (Or in my case, the J Bar Margarita ... another La Paloma classic) Because here, the familiar is both a comfort and an excitement. And as it turns out, margaritas taste great with Oaxacan mole French fries!
Weird fact: Janos really does walk the walk when it comes to pioneering Sonoran flavors. The man practically christened this taco voyage by stepping behind me in line at Aqui con El Nene when I was doing Taco Numero Uno. He has good taste when it comes to takeout.
Location: 135 S. Sixth Ave.
Hours: 4 to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 4 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Phone: 520-623-7700
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
Why is carne seca a Tucson specialty? According to El Charro Café's Ray Flores, it's something in the air. The Mexican shredded beef dish thrives in the arid desert climate, because it's actually the air that dries it, not the sun.
That's why if you want to get real carne seca, Flores says you have to go to El Charro. The iconic Tucson restaurant still dries its meat outside in special cages up on the roof. First they marinate strips of Angus beef in green chiles and garlic, then give it a good 24 hours in the rack before it gets freshened up on the flattop grill. Slow and long, so the meat gets salty and crackly, but doesn't burn.
The meat comes to the table all dressed up fancy with Cotija cheese and thin slices of radish. But this is pretense. This is a traditional hardshell taco, with green peas and potent stringy beef that tastes like it could have tasted 50 years ago. In other words, delicious!
Weird fact: Apparently, Flores used to dry the beef on tree limbs.
Location: 311 N. Court Ave., also have locations at 7725 N. Oracle in Oro Valley and 6910 E. Sunrise near Ventana Canyon.
Phone: 520-622-1922
Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Payment: accepts debit and credit
Don't let the line intimidate you ... The downtown spot Street Taco and Beer Co. can get pretty packed with businessfolk during the weekday lunch rush. But there's an upside to the assembly line approach: It's freaky fast!
Some of the crispier taco meats like carne asada tend to suffer after spending time in tubs, so I decided to work the system: carnitas! Marinated in spices and then slow-roasted in an oven for four hours, they are a soft and magical meat.
These carnitas can sit as long as they want, because they aren't trying to be crispy. They are moist and fatty with big chunks that you can rip off and shove straight into your mouth. I would eat them with a ladle if I could.
This isn't to say that the other meats here aren't great. (The line moves fast after all, so they probably don't sit for long.) But honestly after this taco, it will be very hard for me to order anything else.
Insider's tip: This place really does have one of the best salsa bars in town. Don't miss out on that blended avocado salsa laced with bright cilantro ...
Location: 58 W. Congress St.
Phone: 520-269-6266
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
Seis Kitchen and Catering makes its corn tortillas from scratch, starting with the nixtamal. The word refers to the ancient Aztec process of making masa by boiling down corn with lime water. It's an essential step in tortilla-making, one that's most often skipped in favor of industrialized store-bought dough.
But down at the Mercado San Agustin, tortillas are serious business. They are fresh and hearty and thick; good enough to eat rolled up by themselves. But they're also a base for some interesting regional styles of meat: the achiote-glazed Cochinita Pibil pork and the Poc Chuc chicken of the Yucatán. And my favorite, a Seis original called the crispy avocado tacos.
Co-owner Jake Muñoz said he wanted to make a beer battered fish taco that vegetarians can eat. So he takes avocado quarters and coats them in a thick batter laced with Modelo Especial. Then they go into the fryer and come out as bulbous masses filled with avocado so soft and warm it's stunning. All with a crunch like a savory donut. Dare I say it, even better than the fish tacos of the coast. 'Cause hey, when life gives you avocados ...
Insider's tip: Seis is also the only restaurant in town that serves Poc Chuc, a grilled slab of chicken or pork that's popular in the Yucatán. The Poc Chuc tacos took first place for chicken tacos in the 2012 Tucson Taco Festival.
Location: 130 S. Avenida del Convento in the Mercado San Agustin
Phone: 520-622-2002
Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays
Payment: accepts debit and credit
The Iguana Cafe, that nondescript gray storefront across the street from the Ronstadt Transit Center, has gone strong for almost 12 years as other bars on Congress fell by the wayside. Jesus and Rosie Padilla's bar is a subtle reminder of the old downtown, before redevelopment brought in all the gourmet and the glamour.
During the day it's got a working class kinda vibe, with people sipping beers along the square bartop that takes up most of the room. An old jukebox seemed to be playing Carlos Santana's entire discography ... A fitting soundtrack for these tacos dorados, some of the tastiest I've had downtown or anywhere.
My chicken was shredded real soft, with little bits of tomatoes and onions giving it some extra juice. Then it was rolled up in a corn tortilla and fried to a perfect crisp. Nothin' fancy, just good old fried tacos with an unassaulting "guacamolito" sauce of finely blended avocado. Good stuff!
Weird fact: If you eat here you gotta roll with the punches, 'cause weird stuff might happen: One guy was caught trying to walk in smoking a cigarette, and I got in a conversation with another dude about how eating iguanas is good for you and gives you "mucho mucho power." No iguanas on the menu though, just chicken.
Location: 210 E. Congress St.
Phone: 520-882-5140
Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
Cauliflower is serious business over at The Cup Cafe, where the sturdy vegetable gets spiced up with chile and yellow curry powder. These cauliflower tacos are a light little bite: flash fried without batter to springy crisps with meaty centers.
Avocado adds a nice creamy base, but the tacos here are much drier than I originally thought when I saw curry was involved. The shredded cabbage and thin pickled onions, all slipped into a crispy tortilla from Anita Street Market ... made for the perfect sunny lunch out on the patio.
Insider's tip: In addition to the cauliflower tacos, Congress also does drunken fish tacos with beer battered cod, and Mission Street Tacos with crispy pork belly.
Location: 311 E. Congress Street
Phone: 520-622-8848
Hours: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
What came first, the turkey or the egg? At Penca's brunch service they tend to come out about the same time. The downtown restaurant serves upscale tacos starting in the a.m., so I went for the guajolote taco: moist shreds of roasted turkey on a hand-pressed corn tortilla.
Gorgeous. Each ingredient brought a fresh color and a clear purpose: the silken pink chipotle crema coating the delicate meat, the shredded red cabbage with its bitter snap, the pop of the bright green onions. So different, yet they're all pulled together by that hearty masa, filling your mouth with the timeless flavor of warmed corn.
Insider's tip: How do they get the turkey so soft? Before they roast it, they brine the whole bird and add a mirepoix of carrots, onions and celery.
Location: 50 E. Broadway
Phone: 520-203-7681
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
You may have seen the colorful sign go up downtown: the state of Sonora with green wings and a white shrimp. It's the emblem for Sonora Wings & Seafood, a new lunch joint owned by Cananea-native Antonio Montoya.
The restaurant opened quietly Tuesday in the former Kearbey’s spot at 100 N. Stone Ave., Suite 102. Its menu is small but eclectic with everything from boneless wings to campechana seafood cocktails and shrimp tacos sourced from San Carlos. Montoya also does a special chiltepin wing sauce with the spicy round Sonoran peppers. His wings are juicy plump with a nice crisp skin.
Montoya is no stranger to the neighborhood. Before he decided to branch out and open his own shop, he ran the nearby Sonoran taco place Bernardo's Mexican Food with his father-in-law Bernardo Acosta.
"I love working downtown," he said. "Downtown is one little family. I love this place."
Sonora Wings and Seafood is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Montoya says it'll expand its hours to weekends and Friday nights when the shop gets its liquor license. The restaurant will also run specials this weekend for its grand opening during Second Saturdays.
You will never see this taco in the daylight. Kyle Araishi fires up the grill at about 10 p.m. and keeps it going through the wee hours, keeping the dance floor hot and smoky at La Cocina.
Even in the dark you can see that these are serious bar bites: grilled on real mesquite wood and sent directly to your mouth before the night air fades away that beautiful char. They can be splashy numbers dolled up with cilantro and shredded red cabbage. But tonight they were also doing Korean BBQ tacos, a hybrid popularized by the Kogi food truck in Los Angeles.
The beef on my taco had been trimmed from a brisket cut and then tenderized with a marinade that includes orange juice, Tamari and various spices. After it came off the grill, Kyle threw on a slab of Korean kimchi he'd gotten from Grantstone Supermarket, then a tower of crispy onion rings and chopped cilantro. Sweetness, tempered by the funky fermented cabbage and that sharp flavor of the smoky mesquite wood. Ironically, it was some of the most authentic carne asada I've ever had.
Insider's tip: Korean tacos are only on the menu every couple months, but Kyle usually does some kind of weekly taco special like Hawaiian or chimichurri. Plus, there's always the LaCo dog, a Sonoran hot dog with some chipotle sauce and more.
Location: 201 N. Court Ave.
Phone: 520-622-0351
Hours: 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards, at the bar
In Spanish, they call it "pato." Surely not to be confused with "pata," which once got me a steaming bowl of cow's feet soup. The word means duck, and if you can find it in a taco, you're definitely onto something.
This fabulous fowl is a staple on the menu at Elliott's On Congress, where they take pulled duck breasts and smother them with a housemade buttermilk ranch dressing mixed with both pickled and fresh jalapeños. These aren't spicy tacos by any means though; they're creamy and light, with a fresh hit of pico de gallo. With meat like this, you wanna showcase it ...
Weird fact: For a sports bar, these guys sure have a lot of duck dishes. Aside from the pato tacos, they also do duck egg rolls, duck sliders, a duck club and a barbecue duck sandwich with pepperjack cheese.
Location: 135 E. Congress St.
Phone: 520-622-5500
Hours: 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. every day
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
It was only a matter of time until the banh mi sandwich — the famous culinary crossbread of Vietnam — became a taco. The fresh cilantro, the jalapeños, the shredded daikon and the carrots? Right at home on a taco bar ... And the Sriracha sauce? Destiny ...
But just so we know where Lucky Girl Cafe's coming from: The food truck is run by Mary Nguyen Hodges, who is of both Vietnamese and Lao descent. In addition to these Asian street tacos, she also does an East Asian cucumber and carrot slaw burger that she calls a Lucky Bun.
But back to the tacos, so fresh and flavorful they are! She braises the chicken in coriander and cumin, then throws it on a corn tortilla with English cucumber, cilantro and basil. A nice Southwestern touch: Instead of pickled daikon in the slaw, she uses jicama.
Weird fact: The truck was inspired by a story called "Lucky Girl" that Mary wrote during a creative writing class at ASU. Mary's mother-in-law, an English teacher, loved the idea of the Lucky Bun in her story and decided to recreate it. The rest is history ...
Hours and Location: Lunch: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays at Borderlands Brewing Co.
Dinner: 5 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays, jumps between Borderlands and Dragoon Brewing Co..
Brunch: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays at Exo Roast Co. Check luckygirlcafe.com for complete schedule.
Phone: 520-465-3902
Payment: accepts debit and credit
[Note! Bernardo's is now permanently closed ...]
At 2:30 in the morning, this shredded beef taco would be a godsend ... A little scoop of juicy meat, so fatty and plump on your tongue, nestled between a perfectly-fried corn tortilla with some cheese, tomatoes and shredded lettuce. Two salsas: green tomatillo and red chile Japones. That is all you need for instant bliss!
But despite its familiar late-night ambiance, Bernardo's Mexican Food is actually a breakfast and lunch place. Bernardo Acosta and his family from Magdalena, Sonora serve up a simple menu of green chile burritos, carne asada fries and combo plates with rice and beans. They've been here on this little downtown corner for 4 and a half years now, but for some reason, they're still under the radar. Why?
Weird fact: Before it was Bernardo's, it used to be a Taco Shop. And before that, it was apparently a Chinese restaurant ...
Location: 17 N. Stone Ave.
Phone: 520-903-0255
Hours: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays
Payment: accepts debit and credit
This is the rhythm of the night. Luscious chunks of Yucutan-style pork, plopped onto steamy corn tortillas and slathered with a salsa of pico de pajaro chiles and wisps of crunchy cabbage. You're sitting on the deck watching the sun go down behind the glistening office towers. There's techno, and fish tanks ...
And hey, did we mention it's free? At The Aquadec Rooftop Lounge on Friday nights, all you've gotta do is buy a $3 drink, and the "Taquito King" Ruben Soto will cook you up something incredible. Today it was his cochinita pibil tacos, with pork marinated in achiote chile, orange juice and Tecate beer. Then slow roasted for eight hours in banana leaves. My god, do I even have to describe them again? I know I have a great job, but this is torture!
Weird fact: I just wanted to apologize to the guy who really loves Ruben's chicken wings, which got pushed off the menu because of this taco project ... Maybe next week?
Location: 61 E. Congress St.
Hours: 5 to 9 p.m. Fridays
Facebook: facebook.com/taquitotours
Payment: All you gotta do is buy a drink at the bar!
It was inevitable. Someone out there had to make a gourmet version of a Choco Taco, the crunchy creamy dessert concoction that had us chasing down the ice cream man like packs of deranged spider monkeys.
And it is just as good as it seems. The new Hub Ice Cream Factory goes all out by making their own waffle cones and filling them with a liquid milk chocolate sauce that hardens up and becomes a shell. Then they pipe in thick, housemade vanilla bean ice cream and cover the top with Callebaut dark chocolate and salted roasted peanuts. What can I say? It's a bit denser than the processed stuff, and about three times as big. But it's a freaking rolled up ice cream cone covered in chocolate. Get out there and eat it!
Weird fact: The shop has a miniature choo choo train that comes out of the wall near the ceiling.
Location: 245 E. Congress St.
Phone: 520-622-0255
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to midnight with a walk-up window until 2 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays
Payment: Cash, debit or credit
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