Tacos Los Panchos, fine tacos in Mexicali, Mexico

Besides describing their tacos as delicious, the best way I can think of to describe Tacos Los Panchos would be a father and son, taco tag-team.

Tacos Los Panchos is located next to a park, close to government buildings, and across the street from Mexicali's main hospital, on Calle Lemo de Tejada. It's a very popular eatery, especially with hospital staff and nearby government employees, as it's close, very reasonably priced, entertaining, and their tacos are delicious.

Tacos Los Panchos is a father-son operation. The father, Pancho Sr. slices vegetables, takes orders, runs the cash register, buses tables, and is quiet and reserved, perhaps even stoic. Pancho Jr., on the other hand, is completely different from his dad, in that he's chatty, outgoing and flirtatious with the ladies. Jr.'s main jobs are to slice meat and cook tacos, but it looks like he really doesn't take his culinary duties especially seriously, as he prefers to chat and kid around with the customers and flirt with the many pretty senoritas. This guy's mouth is moving 100 mph while he's cooking meat and tortillas on the griddle. What is this guy doing? Talking to anyone and everyone who cares to chat; however I noticed that his emphasis was on beautiful women. Not surprising for a one who admires beautiful women, such as myself. All this is action is taking place while a stereo plays American classic rock 'n roll from the 1960's. Jr is a kick to watch in action.

Left: Tacos Los Panchos, across from the large city hospital. Right: Pancho at work at the grill. Notice the impressive array of condiments.

Los Panchos is an open-air restaurant, under a large, brightly colored awning. It's one of those semi-permanent establishments that they leave up all of the time, but you could pack it up and haul it away in a matter of a few hours. They have plastic tables and chairs, so you can sit under the awning and stay out of the weather while you're eating your tacos. They serve only tacos, but they serve any variety that you want, and they really are focused on their tacos, as they do tacos right.

Left: Pancho prepares my taco de pollo. Right: Mmmmmm, here it is, ready to eat. Excellent taco!

Like most outdoor taco restaurants, Los Panchos uses a propane-fired grill/griddle for cooking. Pancho Jr. likes to cook the meat to the right side of the grill and the tortillas are cooked on the left side of it. The left rear corner of the grill is covered with aluminum foil, and serves as a platform to keep a pot of beans warm, and a stainless steel container that contains something, probably very delicious. It's an ongoing process, adding small pieces of meat to the griddle in little piles, adding larger pieces of meat to the grill, stirring meat already cooking on the griddle, keeping an eye on the meat that is grilling., and cooking tortillas to the left. The griddle is lightly coated with vegetable oil to keep the food from sticking. When brown spots appear on the tortillas, Pancho Jr. flips them over with a large spatula. When the tortillas are done, he arranges the meat to the shape of the taco, places the tortilla on top of the meat, flips the whole thing over on it's side with the spatula, and places the food on a plastic plate, covered by a plastic wrapper. All while chatting a mile a minute and groovin' to his 60's rock 'n roll music, chatting with customers, and flirting with the senoritas. Quite a show!

If you like garnishes with your tacos, you've come to the right place. Tacos Los Panchos has bowls of garnishes placed on sort of a garnish bar and when you get your tacos from Pancho Jr., you go over to where the garnishes are and load 'em up onto your taco. Los Panchos offers the following garnishes: Tomatillo salsa, tomato salsa, salsa cruda, creamy guacamole with tomatillos, chopped onions, pickled jalapenos and chopped cilantro.

Photo: Pancho hard at work. Check out the griddle, as he is warming tortillas, cooking meat, keeping a pot of beans warm, and I'm not sure what's in the covered pot. Notice the impressive array of condiments and garnishes in the foreground. You don't want to miss this operation!

Tacos Los Panchos serves any variety of tacos that you want, and you have your choice of flour or corn tortillas. I decided to have a taco de tripa on a corn tortilla, but he was out of tripe! I guess tripe must be very popular in Mexicali, so I had to settle for a chicken taco; not a bad deal.. I made up for the lack of tripa, as I loaded my taco with creamy guacamole, onions and salsa cruda for garnish. Mmmmmmm good! Since this was my last stop before going back to the U.S., I was out of pesos, but Tacos Los Panchos was happy to accept my dollar. Total cost? I gave them $1.00 U.S.) and got back $2.00 (pesos) in change.

Tacos Los Panchos makes delicious tacos and it's fun to watch Jr. in action. The only caveat is due to the fact that this place is extremely popular, it can get pretty busy during the peak hours. When you're visiting Mexicali, Tacos Los Panchos is the place to go for an outstanding taco.

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