Aldaco's Tacos

Today I went to a new place I've never tried before -- Aldaco's Tacos.

Aldaco's Tacos
3623 West 6th Avenue

Amarillo, TX

(806) 374-4945

Aldaco's is a small hole-in-the-wall place on 6th street (Route 66). It's got just a few booths and a handful of tables. It's got some pretty funky decorations, from road signs to paper money taped to the fluorescent lights (which were off at lunchtime). They have a soundboard in the corner, and their menu advertises live music on the weekend.

I got water and the waitress (on her first day on the job) brought out my drink and some chips. These chips were those ones that are really thick (as far as chips go). They were alright, but I much prefer thin chips. Just a personal preference, I guess, but I like the crunch of a thin chip, and Aldaco's didn't do that for me. The hot sauce was good, it was home-made for sure. With large chucks of onion floating aroundin the thin sauce, it was tasty. It was not hot at all, but did have good flavor.

I decided to go with the Aldaco's Plate, which comes with a cheese enchilada, a beef taco, and a beef relleno. If you know me well enough, you know that if I go to a Mexican restaurant, I'll try the relleno to try to find the "Worlds Best". I'm still on the hunt, so I keep trying. So far, the best relleno I've had (the two best as a matter of fact), are down in Tulia. Tied for the best relleno is El Camino, the older, more famous Tulia mexican place, and the newer kid in town, El Burrito.

The kitchen is small, but my food was served quickly and smoking hot. The beans were so hot they nearly scalded my mouth. The plate looked skimpy -- a large plate with the relleno crunched to one side, the taco along side that, and the enchilada all alone on the other side of the plate. The beans took up most of the plate, nearly half! Rice & lettuce filled the holes between the enchilada and the taco. As usual, I started with the beans. They were fine, nothing bad, but nothing notable, either. Rice was normal, nothing special.

Moving on the the enchilada brought a bit more character, though. It was quite good, tasting more like a "homemade" enchilada than most restaurants provide. I'm not sure if the sauce is homemade, but it has a nice zip to it, and to be honest, I think it's from CANNED enchilada sauce. I guess I just like it that way, though. It had a reasonable amount of cheese in it.

Next, I tackled the taco. It's their namesake, so I hoped it was good. The beed was not seasoned much, if at all. The taco did have a lot of meat, and was topped with plenty of lettuce, tomatoes and cheese, but the blandness of the beef consumed any other flavor that might have been there. Their taco shells were the same variety as the chips, being quite thick. It worked well in the taco, because all of the "juice" from the taco didn't loosen up the shell as much as you'd expect.

Finally, it was relleno time. I took a bit of the little end, and got a taste of the batter by itself. It tastes like overcooked egg in too much grease. Not a good taste by any means. As I moved up the pepper, I got to taste the chili itself, and it was ok, but the batter still overpowered the slight pepper flavor you expect to taste. Towards the top of the relleno, I ran into the meat stuffing, which was just the same unseasoned meat that was used in the taco. I did get some seeds mixed in, but it wasn't enough seasoning for my taste to make a recovery.

Overall, I thought the enchilada was the best part of the dish, with it being just about average, maybe a bit above. The rest of the meal was disappointingly bad, not what you expect to find in a small local place. If I ever go back, I'll try their fajitas or something very different than what I got today.

Overall Rating: 25 (scale of 100)
Price $8.95 ($12 with tax & tip)