Las Tortas Locas is a local chain of Mexican restaurants specializing in tortas (Mexican sandwiches), tacos, burritos, and other Mexican food. Currently, there are eight locations in the Atlanta metro. This one is store #3 and it's located on Chamblee Tucker Road near Buford Highway. There's actually another Las Tortas Locas *on* Buford Highway near Clairmont Road. Don't get the two confused.
At the time of writing this review, I've been to the Las Tortas Locas in Sandy Springs and this one. I've liked both. These are fast-casual restaurants with delicious food, quick service, and affordable prices. The restaurants are casual and no-frills. These places are authentic and in my experiences, both the staff and customers have been primarily Hispanic with Spanish as their primary language (so there might be a language barrier).
This Las Tortas Locas has existed for least 10 years. It's located in an unassuming strip mall with a laundromat and a Vietnamese cafe. The restaurant is fairly spacious with seating for about 60 customers (guesstimate) at both tables and booths. There's an open kitchen, two registers, multiple TVs, and a salsa bar. There's really not much to the place. It's simple.
The menu features over 25 different kinds of tortas priced at $5.45 to $6.49 each. In addition, there are tacos ($1.99 each), quesadillas ($4.95), burritos ($5.59), huaraches (tortillas topped with a variety of ingredients, $5.45), consome (soup, $2.09 or $3.75), flautas (rolled tortillas with fillings, $5.89), and sides ($1.59 to $4.49) like papas con queso (fries with melted cheese) and arroz y frijoles (rice and beans).
There's an affordable lunch menu where everything is under $6. They serve Jarritos soda (Mexican brand soda) and various agua frescas (horchata, jamaica - hibiscus, tamarindo - tamarind, and mango; $1.59 to $2.25 each). There's a dessert case next to the registers with prepackaged items like gelatina, arroz con leche, pastel de tres leches, flan, and chocoflan. Desserts run roughly $2 to $3.50.
Here's what I tried:
* Torta Nortena ($6.49) - milanesa, queso chihuahua y queso fresco. (breaded steak, Chihuahua cheese and fresh white cheese)
* Tacos ($1.99 each) - pastor (marinated spicy pork), carnitas (pork chunks), and chorizo (Mexican sausage)
* Burrito bistec ($5.59) - grilled steak, onions, and cilantro
* Queso fundido y chips ($4.49) - cheese dip and chips
Overall, I thought the food was great. Everything was tasty.
I enjoyed the Torta Nortena. It wasn't as massive as some tortas I'm used to seeing, but I appreciated that. Comparatively, this torta wasn't as huge, unmanageable, and messy to eat, yet it was still flavorful and filling enough. I thought all of the ingredients were on point, especially the bread which was subtly crispy on the outside and soft and scrumptious on the inside. Along with milanesa and cheese, this sandwich also came with lettuce, onion, tomato, and jalapeno inside. Yum.
The tacos were terrific. Las Tortas Locas' tacos are served on double-layer corn tortillas with chopped white onion and cilantro. The savory pastor taco meat comes right off a spit which you can see spinning in the kitchen. The pastor taco I tried came with melted cheese and ripe pineapple. It was wonderful. The carnitas taco was perhaps the best I've ever had. I was impressed with not only the flavor, but the consistency of the meat. Oftentimes, carnitas can be dry and tough, but these chunks were quite moist and tender. As for the chorizo, it was very good too. One thing I really like about Las Tortas Locas' chorizo is it's not too greasy or oily and it still tastes good.
The burrito was solid. It was packed with plenty of warm, succulent steak along with fresh, chopped onion and cilantro. The size of the burrito wasn't massive like the Mission-style burritos you might get at a Chipotle, Moe's, or Willy's and it wasn't small like the burritos Mexican restaurants serve on their combo plates. Instead, it was somewhere in between. The flour tortilla wrapping was soft and flaky. All in all, it was a pretty appetizing and satisfying burrito.
I thought the queso fundido y chips was OK. The chips were harder, thicker, and more golden brown in color than the average tortilla chips (which was fine; I didn't mind them). The queso dip was alright. It wasn't bad, but also not very memorable. Nothing set it apart from other queso dips I've had. Its consistency was a bit on the thicker side.
The self-serve salsa bar had seven different sauces/salsas on ice plus six other condiments like radishes, pickled jalapenos and carrots, lime, and sliced cucumbers. All of the items on the salsa bar seemed fresh.
Service was speedy. All of the employees were uniformed and numbers were called on a microphone-speaker system when orders were ready for pick-up at the counter. The men's restroom was clean and the dining room was clean enough though some of the tables did feel a little sticky. read more