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Mexicali Taco & Co. (Los Angeles, CA)

Mexicali Taco & Co.
702 N. Figueroa St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Dining date: 2/7/12

mexicali sign

I first heard about Mexicali in the early part of last year, when LA Taco was hosting a popular vote for best taco in Los Angeles. They ended up winning that competition, and I made my first visit to the taco stand (located in a parking lot at 1st & Beaudry downtown) shortly thereafter. I immediately became a convert and cursed myself for not hearing about them earlier, given I lived just a couple of blocks away.

My weekly trips (sometimes more, sometimes less) became part of a routine until, all of the sudden, the operator of the parking lot decided to end their partnership. It was a most inopportune time given their burgeoning popularity, but just a few months later it has led to this: the brick & mortar location of Mexicali Taco is set to open, a couple blocks from their original setup. What’s in store? Regular hours (lunch service!), less smoke, and the same grub many in the city have been craving during their hiatus.

The grand opening is set for Feb. 15th, but I stopped by during a soft opening for friends & family. The new restaurant is clearly a stark contrast from the old parking lot with bright lighting and ample seating. An open kitchen allows generous views of the action to anyone walking by.

mexicali front

mexicali kitchen

The menu is pretty similar to before with a few additions. Prices are nominally higher, no doubt to help cover the cost of rent and overhead.

mexicali menu

Like the old parking lot setup, a variety of salsas and other toppings are on-hand to allow customization of the tacos.

DSC_0154

DSC_0156

A few drink offerings were available too, including a pretty nice horchata (and a barley version).

drinks

In our group, cachetadas were a popular choice. The tortillas were grilled until very crisp, having the texture of a large nacho. They were then topped with a choice of meat, cheese and a chipotle aioli.

Chorizo and chicken cachetadas

cachetadas

Chorizo cachetada

chorizo cachetada

Carne asada cachetada

carne cachetada

fried egg cachetada

A new option is to top any item with a fried egg, ranchero style. What a nice touch. The texture of the tortilla was the difference-maker, being extremely crispy, while the meat, cheese and spicy aioli made for some tasty bites.

A couple of new items were the Cantonese-Baja style peppers and nachos. I shied away from the potentially spicy pepper but did go for nachos, topped with a choice of meat, cheese and a salsa with peppers. Probably the easiest dish for sharing and pretty well done.

Cantonese-Baja style peppers

pepper

Chorizo nachos

nachos

Perhaps the simplest of items and also one of the ones that put Mexicali on the map – the carne asada taco features a choice of corn or flour tortilla (the flour tortilla is brought in from Mexico) topped with chopped up steak. That’s it. The salsa/topping bar offers a host of options to customize the taco to individual liking.

Carne asada taco

carne asada taco

My favorite item happens to be the vampiro, a chicken vampiro to be specific. It looks like a quesadilla on the outside; when opened up it reveals melted cheese, garlic sauce, and a wonderfully smoke-imbued chicken. So delicious.

Chicken vampiro

chicken vampiro

For dessert, there was a special appearance by The Churro Borough – I hadn’t seen these guys since Baja Night 3.0.

churro borough

Five flavors of ice cream/custard were available, sandwiched between two warm, flat churros.

churro ice cream sandwich2

churro ice cream sandwich

These babies were as good as they looked. Delicious. The textural contrast was something else, with the rich creaminess countered by the light, flaky dough. Great balance of flavors too, with the cinnamon-sugar of the churro being a good accompaniment; not overly sweet at all. Why haven’t I seen this elsewhere? So good.

Congratulations to the whole Mexicali team. The food was exactly what I remembered; comforting, full of flavor and ultimately very satisfying. The Churro Borough is not a permanent fixture here, but I hear it will pop up on occasion. If so, it can’t be missed.

Mexicali Taco is a great addition to the downtown area, and I’m hoping to make it part of my lunchtime rotation too. I expect the place to quickly be a popular destination downtown, particularly for the late-night fix (open until midnight Fri-Sat). Selfishly, I just hope it’s not too popular – I hate waiting for my chicken vampiro.

The Mexicali partners: Esdras, Javier and Paul.

mexicali team

Note: All food and drink were hosted.

22 Comments

  1. YUM! Let me know when you are up for a return visit once they open! I’ve never been and would love a Mexicali veteran to show me the ropes! We can get the Gastronomer to join us. 😉

  2. Looks like a great start to what will hopefully be a successful venture. I’ve got to get one of those chorizo cachetadas, with egg. Will Churro Burough make any return appearances? Those ice cream sandwiches look great.

    1. Sounds like the perfect breakfast pick-me-up. I believe the Borough will be making some repeat appearances, though it sounds like it will be pretty sporadic at first. Those sandwiches are as good as they look.

    1. It looks like it’s as final as it’s gonna be for opening night (I tend to think all menus are constantly changing in some capacity). Mexicali has never served carnitas or al pastor as far as I know, so I wouldn’t count on it. Chicken, chorizo and carna asade are the staples and they do them well.

  3. Looks bomb . Heard about this place on piolin Feb 14 in the morning just randomly turned on the radio !! Soo I’m thinking of paying them a visit from Riverside let me go try them tacos 🙂

  4. Man, I envy Phoenix because they have some great asadero taco joints where they specialize in the asada taco served on a flour tortillas (nope, not the store bought Guerrero or Mission Foods variety loaded with preservatives) but real flour tortillas. I love reading in the review that these tortillas are brought in from Mexico. I’m a big fan of flour tortillas and am very glad to see a Southern California taco place serving it up like that. I can’t wait to go try these guys out and review them on Yelp, post ’em to FourSquare, add em to my Pinterest board and start promoting the heck out of ’em to my friends on Facebook and Twitter.
    And yes, I live over 50 miles away. But that’s not an issue…If they build great tacos with good flour tortillas, I am there!

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