El Santo Taquiera - Review
Gimme all the Birrias
Looking for the perfect taco place in Edmonton has been a struggle. So many factors go into this thought process of how good the proteins are, if the tortillas are flour or corn, and the price. Along with this struggle, the fact that birria tacos are growing in popularity cannot be ignored. Many brick and mortar restaurants offer it but usually on weekends. El Santo Taquiera offers their popular birra as long as other tacos any day of the week.
El Santo Taquiera is a food truck, and we were able to check it out on 107st and 101ave’s pop up event this week. The tacos offerings were vast but one that stood out was their features with local collaboration with Golomein who has some of the best noodles in Edmonton. So our taco order was the feature Golomein tacos, birria, pastor and carnitas.
Golomein Taco…drool
The top taco here is of course the birria. Slow cooked beef that is sweet, sour and slightly spicy, topped with diced onion and chopped cilantro and served on a homemade corn tortilla. It also came with beef broth for dipping these delicious tacos. Unlike another restaurant popular in the birria game where you have to pay extra for the broth...lame. Everything about the birria was juicy and delicious. The texture of the tortilla wasn’t too dry although I do wish most taco places would dip the tortillas into a fat mixture to give it that extra flavor when you bite into a taco. It’s the best tasting taco, why don’t people just do this?
Second best taco was the Golomein one. I totally forgot the ingredients but it did have that perfect sweet pork that is in their noodle bowls. Just fantastic and hopefully something that stays on the menu for a long time.
Third best was the carnitas. Pork braised in lard, orange juice, burnt sugar, and spiced to perfection, served on a homemade corn tortilla. Carnitas are braised and cooked in an authentic, handmade Mexican copper pot, which gives the meat added sweetness. Maybe one of the better carnitas I’ve had in Edmonton hands down.
Lastly was the pastor. I always wish it were like the tacos in Mexico City. (I’m gonna sound super pretentious now) In Ciudad de Mexico where the pastor is king, we had pastor pretty much every chance we could get. We went down the strip where the top 3 pastor restaurants were side by side. It was amazing, I can’t get that taste out of my mouth. This is why in Edmonton it’s sad to experience some lacking pastor. Everywhere could do better. Hell, a donair shop could offer it since they have the actual rotating spits to do it. Also at El Santo the grilled pineapple could’ve been better, it was pretty much from a can.
Sidenote, I had the horchata and it was probably one of the least flavorful horchatas I’ve had and probably won’t get it from here again.
That being said, the service was friendly, birria was great...but I can’t get over the 13 dollar taco scene in Edmonton. It’s not like it’s going away, but for what we got it was a bit pricy. 13 dollars for 3 tacos, where I average maybe 6 tacos to get full...that’s a steak in most places.
Sal says: Just Try It (3.7/5)
Erik says: I would say decent. I really liked the variety you could get. For a food truck I think it's exactly what you want. But still my complaint is the same with all these other taco place is that shit is too expensive.
