El Fogon sucks. Here’s why

This week we are back at Taqueria El Fogon. 

The last time we were here we ran into several issues that sent us home with a far from amazing experience. I was so bummed by the visit that I didn’t even bother with a review. We had less than fantastic food and service. 

Somehow, the fogon fanboys have us back here because they just won’t shut up about this place. 

Instead of writing a review, I am going to make a list of reasons that this place sucks. I hate writing from a position of negativity but here goes:

1. The entrance does not look like an entrance. 
2. The restaurant is extremely dark as most of the lights are burnt out. 
3. The place is an electrical fire waiting to happen. There are extension cords running all over the place.  
4. The ceiling is sagging and has nasty dark spots on it. At some point, it is going to land in somebody’s food. 
5. I bought my 4 year old daughter a bottle of Jarritos. They don’t have small cups to pour it into and the straws will fall all the way into the glass. 
6. They don’t know if they want to take orders at the tables or at the counter so there is confusion on who has ordered and who has not. 
7. What sort of Mexican restaurant does not have chips and salsa? Hell, what restaurant does not have chips and salsa? 
8. The taco shells are extremely small. For $1.75, there should be more taco. There are better places, with similar size shells, for $1 every day. 
9. The carnitas had quite a bit of meat on it, unfortunately, it was cold. 
10. The al pastor tasted funny. They are usually my favorite tacos but not something I would order again. 
11. The meat on the al pastor was not warm 
12. The cheese quesadilla I ordered for my daughter was half filled with flavorless goop. The rest of the quesadilla was empty. I am not sure which half was better. 
13. The carne asada was not warm. 
14. The barbacoa was not warm. 
15. They do not accept modern payment methods. Come on guys, it’s 2018, get with it. 

The only highlight of this place was that the barbacoa had pretty decent flavor. That’s it. 

Shon's Take - Taco Tour Stop #52 - Bento Cafe - Central and Ridge

Time to play a little catch up - my apologies for the delay getting this one out, but life, work, and everything else seems to be happening. But at least I actually made it to this restaurant. It's been two weeks since Travis and I went to Bento Café, and Chris still hasn't made it over there for tacos. Turd.


Anyway, Tour Stop #52 brought us to a place that I would say has one of the more eclectic menus around - I've been to Bento Café once before, but NOT for tacos. I actually stopped in a few months back and had some sushi and I remember it being pretty decent. That's right - sushi and Mexican. Strange combo, but it seems to work for them.


Bento Café is in the former Poblano Mexican Grill space just south of Central and Ridge. I used to come to Poblano's quite a bit and Bento has kept a lot of the same stuff. No really - furniture, fixtures, even the menu (at least the Mexican grill menu) is still the same. The M.O. for the Mexican food is also the same - walk up to the counter, place an order, pick your toppings as you go down the line, pay and eat. Basically a poor man's Chipotle with a sushi option. Anyway, there were three taco options on the menu and so I went for one of each: chicken, steak, and a shredded beef. I had them make mine with lettuce and pico de gallo, with the salsas on the side.


I decided to start with the chicken taco - a fair amount of meat, but the flavor was nothing special. Not bad, but nothing amazing. Travis noted that the chicken was too perfectly diced and thought it might have come out of a bag. The steak was next and again, I think they treat the customers pretty well with a decent amount of meat. The steak was a better taco and had more flavor to it than the chicken for sure. Still both tacos really needed the toppings and the salsa on them to bring some extra flavor and unfortunately that's actually a minus when it comes to judging the meat. Awesome street tacos just need meat, cilantro and maybe a squirt of lime. These definitely had to be "Tex-Mexed" with more toppings to add some flavor. Last was the shredded beef taco. I would say this one was probably the best of the three. The beef had stewed for a while and was quite juicy, almost messy. But still, a decently tasty taco that really didn't need any extra salsas to spice it up.


Overall, I would say the tacos here are about what I would expect for a Chipotle style local restaurant. The service was ok, but I took note that almost every drink option at the fountain had a "Sorry, we're out" sign on it. Which would've been very frustrating if I were looking for anything else besides water. If you're in a hurry and understand what you're getting into here, this place probably isn't a bad option. But if I come back, I will probably be going for the shredded beef.... or maybe I'll just stick to the sushi again. My overall rankings on the 5-Taco Scale are below.


Food Quality - 2.5 Tacos
Price - $
Value - 3.0 Tacos
Cleanliness - 2.5 Tacos
Service - 2.5 Tacos
Overall Experience - 2.5 Tacos
Likelihood to Return - For tacos? 2.0 Tacos. For sushi? 3.5.... sushi rolls.

Travis - Taco Tour stop #53 - Taco Fajita - 1004 S Meridian - Round 2

So lately we've been on a bit of a kick to revisit some places. I mentioned awhile back that we had went back to Los Compadres and I'm glad we did.  Another place that has been sticking in my mind is Taco Fajita.  Now the other 2 dorks have actually been back multiple times and they've said that the service has been improving (specifically the wait) and the tacos continue to be very tasty.  If you take a look back at my previous review of them, you'll see that while their tacos were pretty good, we had an unacceptable wait (in my opinion).  Here's my review from last time.

I'm not going to take the time to review each individual taco again this time around.  So I'll keep this pretty brief.  I got 6 tacos this time and a variety of several of their options. So good!  Taco Fajita is climbing my list of favorites for sure after this visit.  Their tacos are very tasty and their salsas are very good also.  The service this time around was way more acceptable as we all got our tacos in a very timely manner.  So I think they're stepping up their game and you should definitely go check them out.

I still need to try the machete which has become a little famous - but I stuck with the tacos this time around.  Everything came out great and I'm definitely a fan of their food.  The staff is friendly and the value is very good.  Bonus for me is the location is reasonably convenient - although admittedly it IS very close to Pollo Express.  But that's okay, Taco Fajita will continue to get my business - especially as long as they keep up the good work on the timely service!

I'm revising my 5 taco ratings based on this visit:

Food Taste:
Value:
Cleanliness:
Service:
Overall:
Likelihood to return: