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| - We will routinely drive 20-40 miles for good tacos (hello La Loma in Akron and Senor Tacos on Painesville!). However, it would be really really REALLY nice to have a great taco place 5 minutes from home. Enter San Diego Taco Factory.
The space is cheery with bright colors and upbeat music.
Kevin, the owner, was running back and forth between the counter and the kitchen when we walked in. The menu is a slightly bewildering option of different shells, proteins and toppings that you mix and match - it's like a chaotic Barrio...on steroids...lots of steroids. After spending several long minutes staring at the blackboard and printed menu, we cornered Kevin and asked him to order for us. We ended up with three tacos (chile mole, puya pork and machaca mole), a kids quesadilla and a half verde half mole wet burrito with carne asada, pinto beans and Colby cheese.
The food arrived and my eyes nearly fell out of my head because, holy mole, that burrito was the size of my head! Husband was already well into his tacos by the time I took a bite of the burrito. The carne asada was extremely flavorful and the verde and mole topping the burrito were perfectly tangy and smoky. The chile mole taco was delicious. The sopapillas perfectly crunchy, cinnamony and sweet. The kiddo loved the rice and black beans. On a regular night, the burrito would be dinner for two or two meals for one but tonight we demolished it all!
We watched a busy Kevin taking the time to interact with almost every customer that walked into his restaurant tonight - we are big fans of restaurateurs who make the effort to do that. We are even bigger fans of people who are visibly putting in a tremendous amount of effort and energy into doing what they love. As we were chatting with Kevin, we were told that starting May 5, there will be even more items on the menu including al pastor, agua frescas (Jamaica!) and horchata.
If the pastor is as good as the food we ate tonight, we will save quite a bit on gas as 20-40 mile long taco trips are exchanged for a 3 mile one...I am looking forward to that.
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