Welcome to my blog for reviewing the best Mexican restaurants and food in Orange County, CA. I intend to cover as many as I can . . . and all sorts and price ranges: "From taco trucks to fine dining . . . and everything inbetween." Newer entries tend to focus on photos more than words. Number of restaurants covered so far: 268+. See The List
After driving past this place a dozen times, getting an e-mail from somebody wondering when I'm going to cover it, having some employees at my optometrist ask if I was going to cover it, seeing that people have been searching for information on it, and getting a phone call from my cousin about it, I decided to finally go to the new Alberto's in Huntington Beach.
This location had been a Taco Bell since the early 1970's, possibly even earlier, up until around 2002 when it became a Subway and it just opened up a couple weeks ago as Alberto's. The building certainly makes more sense as an Alberto's than a Subway.
I met up with my cousin Scott for a very impromptu lunch. He got the carne asada torta:
And I got the camarones empanizado, breaded fried shrimp with tartar sauce, rice and beans, and pico de gallo:
For dessert they have plain, cream-filled, or strawberry-filled churros:
Here's our second guest review, reprinted with permission, by new food blogger Griffin Tamura of Griffin Eats OC:
When you walk into Taqueria Mexico, you approach a counter with a glass partition. Behind the glass are steam trays full or delicious looking meats. The setup kind of reminds me of fast food chinese. You order what you want and they assemble it quickly as you watch.
I decided to sample some of their tacos so I could try as many different kinds of their meats as possible. I ordered four tacos ($0.95 each). I got carne asada, lengua, al pastor and carnitas.
The guy threw down eight mini tortillas, (two for each taco) covered them in big scoops of meat and then topped them off with onions, cilantro and hot sauce.
I sat down and squirted a little lime on all my tacos, and added a pinch of salt. I decided to try the lengua first. It was fantastic. Perfectly seasoned and tender. I moved on to the carnitas. They weren't the best I've ever had, but they were pretty damn good. The carne asada was juicy and the hot sauce complimented it well. The last taco was the al pastor. I was excited about the al pastor. They prepared it here like you might see Gyros prepared in a greek restaurant. A giant log of meat, slowly turning on a vertical spit, basting itself with it's own juices. Unfortunately, this was my least favorite meat of the four. It was good, but not fantastic.
I will definitely return to this place when I am in the area. If I'm really craving tacos, I may even make a special trip. It's so hard to find good lengua tacos these days...
Gustavo Arellano, in the O.C. Weekly, referred to Taqueria de Anda as the Carl's Jr. of Mexican food but after pulling up in the parking lot of their Orange location I was thinking it was more like the McDonald's of Mexican food, especially with the playground out front. Then after stepping inside and seeing their rather abbreviated menu I started to think they were more like the In-N-Out of Mexican food. Here you've got tacos, burritos, rice, beans, and drinks. The variety comes from the different types of meat that can be stuffed into the tacos and burritos.
Taqueria de Anda has seven types of meat from which to choose: carne asada (steak), al pastor (barbecue pork), lengua (beef tongue), cabeza (beef head, but I believe it is mostly brain - somebody correct me if I'm wrong), pollo, carnitas, and buche (fried pork stomach). The tacos are very small and are made to order, or more like as you order them. I decided to try one out-of-the-ordinary meat and two "ordinary" ones ("ordinary" being relative to my own experience) so I ordered lengua, carne asada, and carnitas, and some rice. My friend Chris reversed the ratio by ordering carnitas, lengua, and buche, and some beans. Everything was acceptably fresh and we both agreed that the "unusual" meats didn't taste all that unusual.
Taqueria de Anda's tacos didn't quite fill me up but I should've known up front that they wouldn't when I saw how small they were. They've got a salsa bar with the requisite mild, medium, and spicy salsas, plus salsa verde, radishes, escabeche, and some citrus fruits that looked like a cross between lemons and limes. They weren't exactly chartreuse, but more of a yellow background with streaks of greens. Made me think of when Sprite used to advertise that it had the "Great Taste of Limon." And they have Horchata Ole! to drink, so that's a definite plus. And if you ever get the urge at 3 in the morning to load up on some tacos keep in mind that this location is open 24 hours, 7 days a week.
I've been debating whether to give Taqueria de Anda three or three and a half Speedy Gonzaleses. Right now the angel on my shoulder is saying to go for the high end.
