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    Nelly's Tacos

    4.6 (25 reviews)
    Closed • 9:00 am - 8:00 pm

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    Warm dishes
    Stacy S.

    It's Taco Tuesday, and my newest finding takes place at this little taco shop located inside a Mexican grocery store called, "Mercado El Rey". They're located inside a medium-sized shopping plaza off of El Toro Rd. in Lake Forest. Perhaps the most well-known business in that plaza is El Toro Meat Co., or the ladies may recognize Jeffrey Michaels Salon as a landmark. Plenty of parking is available in the shared lot. Step inside Mercado El Rey, head straight to the back in the right corner, and you'll find a petite woman smiling behind the counter. My guess is that she is "Nelly". The Taco Tuesday special is 3 tacos for $5, which is quite a deal! They don't have a large variety of meats - your choices are carnitas, al pastor, chicken and carne asada. I ordered 1 carnitas, 1 al pastor and 1 chicken. My husband got 2 al pastor and 1 carnitas. It comes with onions, cilantro & lime on top, with 2 small tortillas underneath. You also get your choice of red or green sauce. After you order and pay for your tacos with Nelly, stand back and watch the magic happen. A lady and man come out of nowhere and start grilling the meats. About 10 minutes later, they'll wrap up your tacos in foil, label them and send you on your way. There are no seats inside to eat, so plan to get them to go. Shockingly, my favorite taco was the chicken. I don't typically order chicken tacos at an authentic Mexican place, but boy was it delicious! My 2nd favorite would be the al pastor. It was very flavorful. The carnitas, on the other hand, was rather dry. I would skip that next time. In addition to their tacos, they also have burritos, nachos, tortas, chile rellenos, menudo, quesadillas, tamales, chilaquiles and other authentic items. They also do catering! Pro Tip: If you go there on Taco Tuesday, get there early! There was already a small line forming before I left, and I was there well before the dinner hour. I'd give the tacos 4.5 stars overall. Check them out if you're in the area. You can't go wrong with 3 tacos for $5!

    Michael B.

    I stopped by for the first time late last week and found a well stocked market with quality produce at great prices. But the best part was discovering Nelly and the hot food section that serves a variety of incredibly tasty dishes that are hot and ready to take home along with tacos, torta's and tamales. Nelly is super friendly and a extremely talented cook that gave me a taste of at least 6 different items she had made fresh that day which included soups, stews, 2 different kinds of mole. Her food is very unique and absolutely delicious. I really enjoyed her carne asada tacos and a carne asada burrito, but her chicken tamale (wrapped in a banana leaf) and her chili rellano were clearly way above average. Of the thousands of tamales I've had all over the southland over the last 50 years, Nelly's is clearly a standout and very unique. It was HUGE and only $3.50! You wouldn't want to eat more than one of them. I'm going to be a regular at this place forever more. I tried some of the salsas and guacamole that are in the refrigerator near the checkout. All were excellent. I recently enjoyed 3 tacos on a taco Tuesday ($5.00 for 3 tacos) and all of then were epic.

    torta comes with milenesa de res hotdog avacado eggs mayo salsa jalapenos queso fresca ham and BACON.YUM

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    4 years ago

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    7 years ago

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    5 years ago

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    3 years ago

    Carnitas Taco is good and tasty. You could order all meats by the weight. Salsa sauces are spicy. Good customer services

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    4 years ago

    Full bar, authentic food, real hot sauce .... This place is rad. Like a Mexican regal beagle

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    8 years ago

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    8 years ago

    Had some gorditas, good stuff. Good menudo too!!! I recommend this little gem for some good food and great service.

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    6 years ago

    Nellie and her family provide the best home made original mexican food. The tamales are AMAZING. THEY R AUTHENTIC.

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    9 years ago

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    8 years ago

    Can't go wrong with anything on the menu! Tasty authentic Mexican food! Barbacoa tacos and tamales hands down can't go wrong!!

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    Ask the Community - Nelly's Tacos

    If still in business, what suite #? Tried finding but maps took us to? La Cocina De Ricardo and we're in a hurry so we end d ordering there. It was terrible!

    We’re inside Mercado el Rey, next to Jeffrey Michaels Salon

    Do they serve barbacoa?

    Yes on Saturdays and Sundays

    View All 3 Questions

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    Notes: Starting off acknowledging another review I saw on here. Basically said the review was just…read morefor the drinks and gave them a 1/5 while in the same review stated, "I love the food." ‍ like do people not understand the concept of reviewing? This frustrates me to no end; places with tons of reviews may not be affected by a single bad review but lesser know spots with just a few reviews really do (on the overall rating). The food didn't take too long to come out so they were speedy enough. Also it looked like they were on the grounds of a church. Like are they just there or are they technically using part of the church? Also not a ton of parking so might really depend on when you come. Anyways on to my stuff, I teeter between 3 and 4 on this one. I ordered their taco Tuesday 3 quesabirria plate, a quesaasada and quesachorizo tacos just to try them. Pros: good crisp of the tortilla and generous cheese amount in the quesatacos. Good portion of consommé and not stingy with the limes and chili oil etc. plenty of seating. Cons: asada was tough, chorizo super salty, quesabirria were inconsistent in terms of amount of meat in each taco; some were well filled others were pretty bare. On that note my brother did mention it tasted very different the day we went, compared to when he usually comes. I'm not saying the overall flavor was bad on the quesabirria, I've just had some really good ones and this wasn't quite it for me to be at the top. The rest of the table enjoyed it though so that does kind of keep them a little higher in my book.

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    Xclusive Mexican Kitchen - Taco Sampler

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    4.6(605 reviews)
    0.9 mi
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    My sister and our pups went to eat at this wonderful little restaurant after a great hike with our…read morepups Kobie-Star and Willow . We sat outside in their outdoor patio where they had a couple of TV's -one with the basketball playoffs going on ( my favorite)! The staff was just amazing and welcomed us and our pups and brought out water for both pups without us even having to ask for it , love that . They have lots of food to choose from but we stuck with the traditional combo plate : Cheese enchilada and carnitas taco - mine was a crunchy and hers was soft taco ( both were delicious). I also ordered a delicious blended strawberry margarita and it didn't disappoint. Our servers were : Enrique and Alfonso both were great . They brought us extra bean mixture dip for the chips as their dips and chips are AMAZING as is their food . If you haven't tried this place, you must try this place as not only is the food great , the people that work here are really amazing and that made our time here even better . We checked their hours and found they are open ALL DAY something like 8AM for breakfast -10 PM like what ??? Not everyday but most days , this isn't fast food either ... You have to try this place and for those who want to eat inside it's nice inside or sit at their bar or sit outside at the really big outdoor eating area , you can't go wrong ... Stop by after a Target run it's near by !! Thank you to you all for helping us and our pups - Enrique and Alfonso we will be back for sure !! Thank you again ! Prices very reasonable! Location corner in center - plenty of parking Margarita $$

    Xclusive Mexican Kitchen seemed pretty promising - I like how they had Taco Tuesday so I came by to…read moregive it a try. The menu was pretty interesting, lots of variety. I will say - the ambiance is pretty cool - there are a lot of different liquors along the walls. ITEMS I TRIED - Taco Sampler: my husband got al pastor, steak, and carnitas. I got chicken and al pastor. I personally liked chicken the best because the other meats were a bit too salty for me. The meat however was just okay, didn't really taste too authentic personally. PARKING: pretty easy as it is in a plaza SERVICE: it was somewhat slow, and they charged us more despite it being taco Tuesday, it was about $10 more on the receipt. However, they did promptly take care of it once we asked about it. PRICE: for 3 tacos, you got it for $11 with the corrected price which was a decent deal. Overall, I think it was solid but I won't be craving this spot or suggesting it to others!

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    Nelly's Tacos - mexican - Updated September 2026

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