Editorial Review
Taqueria El Taco Loco (24th St) (San Francisco, CA)
Score: 7.5 / 10 Reviewed by: Dan
El Taco Loco is an oasis of relative calm in the middle of the chaos that ripples around the intersection of 24th and Mission. A steady traffic of addicts and delusionary folk wander by the front door at night; I like to think that this adds a bit of charm.
Burritos here are pretty good. On a recent visit, I was completely blown away by the carnitas; they're crispy on the outside, moist and chewy on the inside, with a flavor that blows the socks off of nearly every chunk of deep-fried pig I've had in my life. It's really good stuff, and they'll sell it to you here for ten bucks per pound.
This is fortunate, because Loco doesn't quite nail it in other areas. My first burrito suffered from poor integration; the carnitas was all on one side, and the other side was packed full of unfortunately unmelted cheese. As I ate my way through, the ingredient mix got a little better, but I never really got a full wallop of guacamole. What there was was decent, but there wasn't enough of it. Salsa is plentiful, and spicy, if a bit too heavy on the onions at the expense of tomatoes.
Subsequent trips to Loco have been similar; the place really wallops you with the meat while giving the other ingredients short-shrift. If you're a hyperkinetic carnivore, this is your place to go. If you prefer your burritos with a bit more bite-to-bite flavor variety, it might be a good idea to head further down the street.
UPDATE: I upped Loco another half-point, because my latest trip was a quite-good carne asada that kept the meatitude to a much more reasonable level. The asada wasn't in the class of the carnitas, but...yum.
–Dan
posted 10/25/2005 10:40 PM, updated on 11/17/2006 2:43 PM
