I've lived in the bay for 22 years now and I must say that I have never been as dissappointed in Mexican food in _any_ area at large as I have been of Richmond. It could be something I'm not understanding in terms of the food culture here, but it seems like the things I like to eat are simply not done well, albeit a few stellar exceptions.
Tacos El Indio falls squarely into this category; they don't even list chicken on their meat options for burritos. What I had was extremely mediocre, bordering on inedible. I'm reviewing this spot because I was recommended to try it based on some sort of 'hot and new' status that Yelp is encouraging in my local search results, and it was a huge dissappointment.
My notes below.
Pros:
- Avocado: They DO have avocado, which for whatever stupid reason is a rarity at Richmond taquerias (moreso with taco trucks). I would say that this is where my 1 star comes from (yes I would give some places a zero if I could), as I think that in today's Richmond-burrito-climate seems heroic. Oh and even better: it was fresh.
Cons:
- tortilla was overly chewy / rubbery and dry
- chicken is typical of a lot of Richmond "grilled chicken" fillings: Cut up into miniscule pieces, after being overly martinated and left out for way too long, then reheated with expired cheap oil. The result is a rubbery texture with a hard exterior that tastes overly saturated and flavorless, albeit the taste of the oil (think boiled-chicken-taste, but worse). One reason this could happen is that an establishment makes carnitas well and considers that method of preparing meat to translate over to other proteins. Of course, it doesn't.
- Salsa protocol: I was asked whether or not I wanted "spicy" sauce inside the burrito which consists of Chile de Arbol, and let's be honest; that ain't spicy. Before I'd asked about which type of chile, I declined to have too much of the "spicy sauce" in the burrito, heeding the warning, but asked to have the salsa on the side.
- Salsa portions: 1oz salsa cups and they only give you one of each. And worse still, you'll need the salsa because of how bland the food is. I asked for two extra as I'd not ordered as much inside the burrito, but the cashier told me "this time I can give you two extra" - 4 total - "but next time each is $0.50 per cup". Really? Nickel'n'diming on tiny salsa cups?
- The menu (as indicated by the photos shared of the establishment thus far) is literally wrong and they haven't bothered to update it since they opened. There are a bunch of things crossed out, but in no way does it represent what you can actually order. In fact, the item I ordered - a chicken burrito - is not on the menu. The meats "grilled chicken" and "shredded chicken" are not on the menu in the burrito section, they're presented via word of mouth at the window.
- Consistency: My first bite was a bit into an incredibly dense amount of folded tortilla, which is not my favorite experience. It's indicative of a poor balance of ingredients inside of the tortilla and not enough filling per the tortilla size. read more