**** This location of Tacos El Poblano has closed
Here's the last of my series of South Bay Taco Shops. I was taking a one of my weekend "drives" a couple of weeks back. And while driving through "Downtown" Chula Vista, I noticed a new restaurant.
It would have been "just another taco shop" except for the sign that said "Los Authenticos De Tijuana Ahora en CA". Which got my attention. I decided to stop, even though I had just finished two tacos from Tacos Yaqui. The fairly modest storefront, hides a pretty large, somewhat cavernous restaurant.
As I walked up to the counter, I could see flames rising from the grill next ot the cashier. So ordering was pretty simple, it had to be Carne Asada, and "something"……
That something was a Birria Taco($1.75):
El Poblano serves you tacos the way they think it should be served. There's no salsa bar, though the pickled peppers and carrots (escabeche) is fabulous, refreshing, and almost sweet. The birria was very mild, as I enjoy a bit more spice and "wildness".
A minute later my two Carne Asada tacos made its way to my table.
I loved the crisp but still pliable grilled tortillas, which added a nice bit of smokiness to the equation. The simple, but effective guacamole added richness. The salsa was nice and spicy, but the carne asada brought this down. As you can tell by the grey pallor, this was not the carne asada I just witnessed being grilled. It was tasteless and rubbery, not good eats. Everything about this taco was spot on, except the carne asada. And I'd usually visit another time before doing a post. So check out the rest of the post below, because on my next visit, it was just perfect, smokey, with nice caramelization.
Tacos El Poblano
217 3rd Avenue
Chula Vista, CA 91910
The South Bay Taco Crawl……
I guess this was inevitable. I'd been hitting multiple taco shops in the South Bay in recent weeks. And after receiving an email from "Grace" who was visiting San Diego, and wanted some recommendations on doing a "taco crawl" I thought, "why not do this yourself". I tried this once with a good FOY, a small but mighty eater. Unfortunately, we never made it past two shops…….
This meant I needed to bring in the "heavy artillery". There was only one person that I know of, who could handle this…… and I wasn't even sure that I'd be able to keep up. That person was….. "the man, the myth, the stomach….." my Urasawa eating buddy, Captain Jack. And of course, he was up for anything. So things started off this morning with CJ in my car, making our way down to the border…..
I had everything planned; we'd start off with Tacos Yaqui. Unfortunately, when we arrived in San Ysidro, we found that even though the sign said they open at 9am, and it was 930, they weren't open. It was time for "plan B". I headed up the I-5 and ended up in the now-all-too familiar RTA/Toys R' Us parking lot, and Mariscos El Pescador.
I figured we'd grab a Gobernador and a Tacos de Pescado (fish taco) and we'd be on our way. Pretty filling, but delicious, and we'd still be able to go on. But after the consomme and two tacos, the Owner, Cruz Vazquez, who we chatted with before the crowds, decided that we just had to have the "Tacos de Mariscanos", a mixto (mixed) taco. The size of which was daunting…..
This was like an over-stuffed mixed seafood version of the Gobernador, with sauteed fish, scallops, pulpo (octopus), along with the wonderful shrimp. With some of the spicy pickled onions, this was excellent. If the Gobernador, is "the Governor", this is "El Presidente"……
As an exclamation point, Captain Jack had a torta from the Torta Ahogadas truck across the parking lot. (A eating on the hood of your car post is coming up soon) I abstained, because this was a taco crawl, right? Talking about wiggling out of a tight situation.
After which, we headed off to Internacional 2000 for some Al Pastor, only to find that they weren't ready….. which led me to "plan C", and a visit to El Poblano. We grabbed a Adobaba Taco and a Carne Asada Taco. This time around, the Carne Asada was excellent, nicely caramelized, with a wonderful smokey flavor. Good stuff. I of course, kinda did the "four corners" here, engaging CJ in small talk. I also found that I eat pretty fast, so the delay gave me time to digest and adjust. After about fifteen minutes of small talk, CJ said the faithful words, "we're not done yet, are we?"
Which meant it was time to move on, and return to Tacos Yaqui, where we put down a Perrones Taco each, and some chips. Comparing the carne asada from Yaqui to El Poblano is like apples to oranges. Yaqui's carne asada is like eating steak, it is beefy, but milder in flavor, and served on a grilled flour tortilla with melted cheese, El Poblano's carne asada is smokey, and crisp.
Again, I finished several minutes ahead of CJ, and had time to digest.
We ended (taco) things at Internacional 2000 Taco Shop and had two Al Pastor tacos each. A nice, tasty, greasy end to our "taco tour". Funny thing, at the end, we both weren't full, but we were satisfied. I had an inkling to make a stop at Tacos El Gordo, but decided that I'd had enough. CJ on the other hand, decided otherwise, and we made a last stop a Panchita's for some sweets……
This "taco tour" was pretty easy, at no time did I feel uncomfortable. I'm not sure if it qualifies as a Food Marathon, but I'll tell you that I didn't have any dinner tonight…….