Tacos El Bandido Express
13812 Newport Ave.
Tustin, CA 92780
I usually take my nieces out to dinner once a year for their birthdays. This was not my niece Kaylie's birthday. We took her to dinner this time because she would be leaving with her church to visit the Philippines for two weeks. She had never left the country before, and we wanted to wish her well and learn about her upcoming trip. I asked her what she wanted, and she suggested tacos. She must have great taste in food, just like her uncle. I looked up places in the middle of where we both live, and the one that stood out to me the most was Tacos El Bandido Express.
To tell you the truth, I don't know much about this place other than they have a very respectable 4-star rating on Yelp, and they opened in December of 2021. There's a food truck that is located on Garden Grove Boulevard that is named Tacos El Bandido. They use the same logo and have similar menus, so they might be related. There's no website listed for either place, so I'll assume they are somehow related.
We arrived at this blink, and you'll miss it strip mall at 4pm on a recent Sunday. The best landmark I can give you is that El Bandido is across from Wahoo's, at the corner of Walnut and Newport Avenue. There are wanted posters above the register featuring large pictures of most of their menu items, which is helpful for indecisive eaters like my niece Kaylie.
The menu is varied, and they offer descriptions of everything in both English and Spanish. One portion of their menu is dedicated to the hottest trend right now, birria. The menu does not clarify whether this is goat or beef birria, but as you'll later see, we can confirm that it's birria de res, also known as beef. There's a menu board of specialty items and another one listing the options for their tacos, burritos, tortas, and flour and corn quesadillas. Nine kinds of meats are offered, ranging from asada and carnitas to the more adventurous lengua, cabeza, and the always delicious suadero (beef) taco. Lots of options, so we quickly ordered and waited less than ten minutes before our food was ready. Let's see if this place would be an excellent send-off for Kaylie.
It's not the most authentic of dishes, but I have been on a real Asada Fries ($10) kick lately. This version was straightforward, with pinto beans, cheese, pico de gallo, asada, guacamole, and sour cream topping the fries. I loved that they used crinkle-cut fries because they stay crispy longer than regular fries. The asada was seasoned well and was another standout. These fries could have been balanced out with some extra cheese and guacamole added to the mix. They were layered well, and I'd get them again.
Katie is a big fan of birria and an even bigger devotee of Ramen Birria ($10). I used to think this mashup was just a fad, but it's pretty good. I should have had Katie lift some of the noodles with her spoon for the picture, but you'll just have to trust me that there is ramen in this rather large bowl. The birria was hearty and went well with the provided noodles. Katie calls this dish comforting and looks forward to the cooler days ahead when she can see this dish heating her up against the arctic chill that winter in Southern California can sometimes provide.
Keeping the birria train running, we also ordered this Quesadilla Birria ($9.50). This is my favorite way to eat birria besides a quesa birria taco. The corn tortilla was handmade and provided a sturdy structure for the plentiful birria and cheese housed inside. It was not the easiest thing to eat, but it was satisfying. I should have opted for some consome to dip this in. Next time, I will know better.
Here's a quick shot of the cavalcade of tacos we ordered this early evening. They have eight meat options, and these street-style tacos are priced at a modest $2 each. They drop to $1.50 if you eat here on a Tuesday. They are very reasonable, and they come with two corn tortillas and are dressed simply with some avocado sauce. Onions, cilantro, and red and green salsa are available at the salsa bar on the left-hand side of where you order. Let's see which tacos I liked the best.
My first three tacos were Carnitas, Asada, and Pastor ($2 each). Each of these was very solid. I loved the pastor with its little chunks of pineapple, adding bursts of flavor with the marinated pork. The asada, like on the fries, was seasoned well but was more tender than what was on the fries. The carnitas were good, but I would have liked more variety in the carnitas. I like it when you have different textures of the shredded pork. Still, not a bad taco out of the bunch.
For my last taco, the one on the left, I tried their Suadero Taco ($2). For those of you unaware, suadero is a brisket taco. It's cooked in its own fat until it becomes melt-in-your-mouth tender. The one here at El Bandido was very tender and not a taco to be missed. I've now made it my mission to order a suadero taco at every place I visit that offers one. I want to raise awareness of how delicious suadero is. The carnitas taco on the right was not mine, but I may have helped Katie finish it after she was too full from slurping down her birria ramen.
I really enjoyed our visit to Tacos el Bandido Express. Everything we had was very good, and the prices were very modest, a combination you don't often find. Even though we were here at the early dinner hour of 4pm on a Sunday, this place was busy and had a good, consistent flow of customers during our stay. Even though a sign alerted guests that they made their food to order, so it might take a little longer to get their meals, we did not find that they took any longer than we had expected. I foresee plenty of return visits here in the next few months.
Out of five locomotives (because one of the most famous bandits in history is Jesse James, a man who is presumed to have robbed at least 20 trains in his time), five being best to zero being worst, Tacos El Bandido Express gets 3 locomotives.
As I mentioned before, Tacos El Bandido Express does not have a website, so for all the latest information about them, click here to check out their Yelp page: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tacos-el-bandido-express-tustin
No comments:
Post a Comment