Tarcisio “Quicho” Perez is the owner of Mexican taco truck, Taco Nazo. A little research on Yelp and TacoTrucksColumbus.com will reveal what many of us that have tasted Taco Nazo already know. Taco Nazo is one of the best in Columbus. This May Taco Nazo will celebrate its seventh year in business.

Jorge Lasso’s number is 614 403 4136.

Hmm…maybe we should do a fundraiser to help this great cause. What do you think?

On the morning of Sunday November 6th, Maria Garcia, Marianna Zhumi & Maria Saico, were heading home after completing their shift at Park Street Cantina, They were southbound on Wilson Rd. when a northbound suv crossed the center line and struck their car, the suv driver and a passenger jumped out and ran off before deputies arrived, because beer cans were found inside the suv, authorities suspect that alcohol was a factor in the crash, so far, the suspect have not been found.
Zhumi was dead at the scene, Garcias died at the hospital and later Saico passed away on Wednesday at the Grant medical center.

Here is the news video from FOX 28.

LET’S HELP THIS FAMILIES, COME THIS THURSDAY NOVEMBER 17th TO LOS GUACHOS TAQUERIA LOCATED AT SULLIVAN AVE. IN WEST BROAD STREET, WILL DONATE THE ENTIRE SALES OF THE DAY, TAKE YOUR FREE FOOD IN EXCHANGE FOR A DONATION. PLEASE MAKE AN EFFORT TO BE PART OF THIS CONTRIBUTION. THANK YOU.

2400 East Dublin Granville Road
Columbus, OH 43229-3520
614.537.1311
Open Tuesday-Sunday: Tuesday-Wednesday 10-9. Thursday 10am-2am. Friday-Sunday 10am-3am.

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El Taco Peton is the newest truck on the NE side of town. Parked in the lot of La Cabana lounge it’s open late at the weekends. This truck is the former Pupuseria Salvadorena and is maintaining the same location, so it is appropriate that they still serve pupusas as well as some standard taco truck fare.

These were the thickest pupusas we’ve ever had but they were well cooked and had a nice crunch to them. We visited El Taco Peton on a cold wet rainy evening – so apologies for the menu photo.

The most interesting thing on the menu was the chalupas, something we haven’t seen on any other taco truck menus in Columbus (yes, we know – Taco Bell has something with the same name). The version of chalupa here was different than what we expected – a taco with mashed potato and onion and topped with lettuce and shredded chicken. I liked it but I’m a sucker for mashed potato. The chalupa is pictured below with a couple of tacos (al pastor and asada).

One of the other more unusual dishes was the pambaso (pambazo) – a torta where the bread is dipped in a red guajillo pepper sauce and the filling is potato and chorizo. We didn’t think that it was quite as good as Don Pedro’s – our favorite pambazo in town – but it’s still a satisfying sandwich.

2725 W. Broad St. (Corner of Broad & Harris, in Sunoco lot)
614.286.7044
Open 11am – 10pm, 7 days/week

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It’s always a pleasure to be able to share a good new taco truck with our readership, and El Halcon is good.

It’s also brand-spankin’ new, and as clean and tidy as any truck we’ve ever seen. The owners started with an unmodified trailer and outfitted it with their own kitchen which, somewhat atypically, includes a full gas range in addition to the typical plancha (flat cooking surface). We’re eager to see what their plans are for that!

Portions are generous. The tortillas for tacos are larger than the usual, and are filled with a surprisingly large quantity of meat. Three of their tacos would make for a full meal.

We’ve never seen lengua served like this at a taco truck before (above, left) – literal slabs of it piled high. It was tender, juicy, and thoroughly flavorful. The carne asada, right, was also solid.

Having passed our usual taco truck test order with flying colors, we moved into more adventurous territory. ‘Zazonada’ was a term we’d never come across, so a zazonada taco was next. Appearance-wise, it struck us as little more than carne asada tossed with a sauce, but the char of the beef mixed with the deeply umami quality of the sauce meant that the whole was resoundingly greater than the sum of its parts. We suspect there might have been some soy sauce in there somewhere, but whatever it was (and the owners aren’t telling)… it was delicious.

As was their sope, which we tried with chorizo. The whole thing was good, but the masa base was exceptional – crispy on the bottom with a tender interior.

The shell of their gordita was similarly satisfying. We tried their ham and cheese version, and thought it would be the perfect thing for someone who wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about latino flavors. You could imagine someone selling these as an alternative to the traditional grilled cheese and doing well. El Halcon also sells a wide variety of more traditionally filled gorditas.

On a second tasting trip the focus was Tortas. The sandwiches are large, loaded down with the meat of your choice and plenty of toppings. Having sampled Tortas from Geoegesville Road to Cleveland Ave, the El Halcon Torta rates at the top.

Ready to take a trip to Broad & Harris yet?

1060 Georgesville Road (near SSA Office) and Growing Solutions Garden Center.

near Georgesville Road and Clime Road

614.732.2773

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This truck has been here for at least 5 years but with new owners and a different menu we decided to re-post it.

Mr Grill has a fairly standard menu with a good selection of meats. The one more unusual item is the migada. Usually a migada is a 4 inch diameter hand made corn base with pinched sides, topped with beans, meat, lettuce, tomato, sour cream and cheese. The term migada is also used by La Popular but most trucks call this dish a sope. The migada at Mr Grill at Mr Grill is much larger and fills the whole plate – which made the price make sense (usually they are $2-2.50). It was similar to a huarache but round. The migada also had avocado as well as the usual toppings. It was good but the size made it a little unwieldy to eat without silverware.

The tacos and gordita that we sampled were also good. The gordita shell was very fresh and not greasy. Meat-wise we particularly liked the buche and the carnitas was good too. Mr Grill offers 3 different salsas tomatillo, avocado and chile de arbol.

The highlight of our visit to Mr Grill was dessert. Not many of the trucks offer dessert items, but Mr Grill has mini cheesecakes and home-made flan. The flan was really good with a wonderful silky texture and exceptional value at $1.50 (the mini cheesecake was $1).

3330 E. Broad Street
614.625.6287
10-10pm Monday-Sunday

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Taqueria La Fonda is a good addition to the East Side taco truck scene. It’s located on the North side of East Broad Street just east of the intersection with James.

Offerings include the standard tacos, tortas and burritos as well as tamales and crispy corn tortillas (think taquito or flauta) – either chicken or beef served with lettuce, cheese and crema. The tamales (we had red) were good – plump, light and moist.

They also have sincronizadas which are similar to a quesadilla but contains ham and cheese. Usually, in our experience, a sincronizada is made with two tortillas stacked like a sandwich but as you can see this one was one large tortilla folded.

Meat options include chicken, al pastor, chorizo, steak, barbacoa, lengua and chicharron stewed in green sauce (pictured below with a taco de lengua). Chicharron guisado is in our opinion one of the more challenging taco truck dishes.

There is a good selection of tortas with some additional meat options.

5615 Cleveland Ave.
Southwest corner of SR 161 and Cleveland Ave.
Monday to Thursday 10:30 am to 10 pm
Friday and Saturday 10:30 am to 1 am
Sunday 10:30 am to 11:00 pm
614 843 4275
614 900 9886

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El Buen Sazon opened late July or early August 2011. This is a truck where a few Spanish language phrases or very good pantomime skills are needed. Some of the information on the signage is not translated correctly and in a few cases….pointing to what you want may not be 100% effective. The signage itself is very good – colorful and numbered, you could order by number with decent success. It took about 10 minutes to confirm the hours for the truck (the hours listed on the truck are not correct) and to clarify a few other menu options. The name roughly translates to “The Good One” or seasoning…..feel free to comment on this translation.

Octavio seems to be the taco slinger on site most often. He and the others working the truck are from Mexico City. The fare is standard Taco Truck cuisine – tacos, huaraches, tortas, burritos, quesadillas and soft drinks. On the weekends they serve goat (birria) stew and menudo (not the boy band). The most expensive item ($8.00) is the Torta Cubano (which is a large sandwich with the meat of your choice, sliced pineapple and a pile of other ingredients).

A Chorizo taco, quesadilla with al pastor and a huarache with goat meat were sampled. Based on these few items, the food at this truck would place in the middle of the taco truck bell curve. Since this is a new truck, expect things to continue to get better over time. Buenas Suerte Taqueria El Buen Sazon.

233 W 5th Avenue
Corner of 5th and Forsythe, Victorian Village
Monday-Saturday 11am-9.30pm (or later)

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We were sad when the owners of Taqueria Davanne returned to Mexico but it wasn’t long before their truck was reincarnated to become Los Primos. The truck is still parked outside Las Maravillas Mexican Market and you can go into the store to buy drinks or do some shopping while you wait for your food.

The truck offers most of the taco truck staples – tacos, burritos, quesadillas and tortas but no sopes or gorditas. Taco meat options are steak, chicken al pastor, chorizo and cecina (marinated beef). In addition to the standard fare they also offer enchiladas and restaurant style plates with either steak, milanesa (breaded steak) or cecina.

We ordered tacos with cecina, chorizo and al pastor and all were solid but the pale green salsa (we weren’t offered a choice) was a little disappointing.

When we visited they were also offering tostadas de ceviche and tamales as specials. The ceviche had nice chunks of fish and some heat. You may want to add some extra lime and hot sauce. It was thoughtfully packed to go with the tostada separate so it didn’t get soggy. The tamale (green with chicken) was small and suffered from having been overly nuked.

421 Georgesville Rd  (Near railroad tracks and U Haul location)
Open every day 9.30am-10.30pm or later.

Click here to map it.

Taqueria Tres Reyes is the latest incarnation of the truck formerly known as Super Torta II. The owners of Super Torta decided to focus on their restaurant (Super Torta on Georgesville) and sold the truck to a cousin (also from Oaxaca). The name means three kings because there are three joint owners. We guess they all wanted to be the boss!

The menu is similar although they are not offering Tlayudas. We had a carnitas torta which was good and a couple of tacos. The lengua was very tender. The tortas are a little different to other trucks. They do not use any lettuce, they use black beans instead of pinto beans and they use Oaxacan string cheese. The torta Oaxaca and milanesa were recommended by other customers. The truck only opened last week so we expect the menu may develop over time but the offerings so far are solid.

El Fogoncito
2575 Morse Road
(just East of Cleveland Avenue, South side of the street)
614.900.4784
Hours: 11-11 Tuesday-Sunday

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Good new al pastor fans, the brother of Los Guachos’ owner has opened his own taco truck on the North-East side of town. El Fogoncito is offering Mexico City style al pastor and a menu similar to Los Guachos. The truck had its grand opening this weekend and was already doing a brisk business on its first weekend. We’ll post better photos soon, but in the mean time we wanted to share it with you as soon as possible.

Fogoncito, translated, means ‘little stove’, but there’s nothing diminutive about the truck. It’s palatial – bigger and shinier than even Los Guachos with a little more seating and an impressive kitchen. El Fogoncito is also the name of the restaurant in Mexico City that claims to be the inventor of the gringa. For those who have not visted Los Guachos, a gringa is a soft flour tortilla with caramelized cheese, your choice of meat (most commonly al pastor), onion and cilantro.

El Fogoncito offers gringas, tacos, tortas and carnequeso which is a corn tortilla taco with cheese. Like Los Guachos they also offer 2 for 1 tacos on Tuesdays. Meat options are spit-roasted al pastor (marinated pork), asada (steak), suadero (rose beef), chicken and tripe. Gringas come in ‘single’ or ‘double’. Campechanas is also offered which means a mix of two meats. El Fogoncito also has some specialty plates including alambres and chupa cabras – steak, al pastor, cheese, onions, pineapple, mushrooms, cactus and grilled jalapenos.

Salsas and condiments are also similar to Los Guachos with a mild avocado cilantro sauce, a smoky chili de arbol salsa and bowls of onion and habanero relish.

If you love Los Guachos is safe to say that we think you’ll love El Fogoncito too.