DON GALLO

Stop reading this review, get your butt off the couch and run to this place. We mean it. We were basically moaning in delight all night here. Hmm, oh yeah, oh my God!, WOW!

************************************************************************
Hands down the best taco place we’ve found in the state. Authentic, fast, delicious. A no-brainer if you’d like to enjoy some real Mexican food.

• FINAL VERDICT
• AUTHENTICITY: 5 out 5
• FOOD: 5 out of 5
• PRICE: Baratisimo. All our food was $18.00. Tacos were $1, Huarache was $3, Burrito $6.50, Drinks $1.

DIRECTIONS
Google Map
On Chalkstone Ave, almost corner of Chalkstone and Academy (around 1100 Chalkstone Ave.)
Don’t have hours or phone number yet.
They take credit cards.
************************************************************************

THE LONG OF IT
Enough already. Don Gallo is a brand new restaurant, they’ve been open for a month, but they haven’t had their grand opening yet. Don Gallo used to be a taco stand inside the Poblanita Bakery and Store on Academy Ave. Now, they’ve opened as a restaurant just around the corner on Chalkstone Ave., across from the Walgreens.

The place is small, painted in like a salmon pink color. It has a huge wall painting of Mexico, with actual topographical relief, and a few other paintings around. It has about 12 tables, made of this fancy red granite with nice metal chairs. They didn’t even have a menu yet; they just told us they had the usual tacos, huaraches, tostadas, tortas. They said they had some new items, like enchiladas and some other chicken dishes. They were very casual about the whole thing, like you had to have been there before and they expected you to know what to order. The crowd was all local, families just walking in from the neighborhood.

As a manner of disclosure, we had all been to this place when it was a taco stand before and we’ve always liked it. The Poblanita store is a place where you can buy all type of Mexican and hispanic sundries, plus hard to find dry chiles and cheeses. Plus, they bake their own Mexican sweet bread, even Day of the Dead bread.

We ordered 2 tacos mixtos, 1 taco de chorizo, 1 taco de pastor, 1 Huarache de Steak, 1 Burrito de Chorizo, and 3 sidrales. The gringo said it was quite paradoxical that the food was so good it was almost gourmet, but they serve it in Styrofoam plates and plastic forks.

They started us off by bringing a basket of seemingly homemade corn tortilla chips, but instead of your traditional salsa, they had a chipotle and mayo dip that was plainly addictive. The guatemalan and I could not get enough of it. It was spicy. I was sweating.

TACOS MIXTOS: 5 out of 5
A traditional Mexican taco is a double small corn tortilla (4 in.) with some type of meat, cilantro and chopped onion. Then you squeeze a little lime on it and put either red or green salsa. A Taco Mixto, or mixed, has a bit of every meat they have. This means our tacos had tripe, chorizo, beef and pork. They were unbelievable. So many flavors hitting you all at once, I wanted to order more.

TACO DE CHORIZO: 5 out of 5
The chorizo was very good, and with a little of the red salsa, they were like a punch in your mouth. So good. The salsa wasn’t very spicy. The guatemalan assessed that it was made with cherry tomatoes and chile de arbol.


TACO DE PASTOR: 5 out of 5
A Taco al Pastor is traditionally a lot of thin sliced pieces of pork marinated in a red adobo, and then put on a spit with a pineapple on top and grilled, similar to Gyros. In Mexico City, people argue all them time about where to get the best Tacos al Pastor. It is hard to get good ones in the US because no one really does the spit, they instead marinate the meat, and then grill it to get as close to the flavor as possible.

Don Gallo did a pretty good job here, the pork having a sweet taste of pineapple. Very juicy and tasty.

HUARACHE DE STEAK: 5 out of 5
Oh my God! Were the gringo’s first words when he tried it. Then it was Wow! Every bite after that. We concurred with his assessment. A Huarache (which is also a type of sandal), is a long piece of corn masa stuffed with refried beans, then it had the most delicious skirt steak ever, covered in lettuce, thick yummy Mexican crema and cheesy queso cotija crumbled on top। It was just so intense and amazing। We order you to get a Huarache when you come to Don Gallo.

BURRITO DE CHORIZO: 5 out of 5
This was your traditional burrito, wrapped in a flour tortilla, with refried pinto beans, rice, fresh onion, lettuce and chorizo. What made this burrito special was definitely the Chorizo.

SIDRAL MUNDET: 5 out of 5
Apple soda, the best.

***************
TACOS: 5 out of 5
HUARACHE: 5 out of 5
BURRITO: 5 out of 5