901 S. James Road
614.439.5308
Facebook
@lossartenes
Through our experiences with taco trucking, we’ve learned to be concerned for anyone that debuts in the cold seasons. Sad truth is, they don’t often last long enough to see the food truck friendly months. Los Sartenes opened a month or so ago – in the dead of winter – but we’d wager that they’ll experience a much kinder fate.
First off, this isn’t a low-budget operation. It’s slick in the best sense of the word. From the tidiness of the kitchen to the conspicuous newness of the trailer to the impressive clarity of the menus (both posted and takeaway), it’s clear that much planning has occurred and that plans have been executed skillfully.
At first glance, it almost spooked us a bit – we don’t often find the unadulterated flavors of Mexico coming from trucks with this level of refinement. Thankfully, the only sense in which our instincts were right were that, in addition to fine Mexican, Los Sartenes is also putting out some fine renditions of Central American fare as well. We started off with a couple of tacos – they passed our lengua test with flying colors – and then moved on to the following:
Traditionally a Salvadoran dish, the pupusa kicks off our exploration of the Central American side of the menu. Essentially a thick corn tortilla pancake filled with any of a variety of ingredients, a good pupusa is a great thing. We tried their cheese version and it was no exception.
For a truck that defies expectations, their yuca dish epitomizes it. We’ve previously thought of yuca as a Brazilian root vegetable side dish, and something that’s mushy, starchy, and kind of inert. But then again, we’d never seen it served with generous chunks of fried pork belly, curtido, and sauce. They’ve upped the yuca game, folks.
We were excited to see empanadas de platanos on the menu; they’re a favorite Salvadoran snack of ours, and hard to come by locally. Los Sartenes’ version didn’t disappoint – the empanada shell consists of a thick layer of mashed sweet plantain filled with a sweet soft cheese, and the whole shebang is fried and dusted with sugar. Don’t let the use of ‘sweet’ and ‘sugar’ deceive, though – while these are certainly dessert-worthy, they’re nonetheless fairly tame on the sweetness spectrum. And, they’re really good.
The menu is unusually extensive, and the fine folks that alerted us to their location (thanks Jeff & Pablo!) have mentioned a few other dishes that we need to try (the carnitas torta being first among them). Check these guys out, and let us know what you thought!
One thing to note – the tacos are $2, which is a little higher than average, but they are big.
This is the former location of Taqueria La Fonda
Looking forward to trying this weekend! Yum!
Visited Los Sartenes about a week ago and they told me the were leaving the Broads St location on 4/7 because La Fonda was coming back. At the time they didn’t know where they were moving to, but that it would be some where in the same area. I hope so, the food was vey good, IMHO.
Today they are on E 5th ave a few blocks east of Stelzer.
I know the family that owns the La Fonda truck and they have always had that location. La Fonda is not registered with the Ohio Secretary of State.
I believe I have spotted this truck in its new location on 5th Avenue, just east of Selzer Rd.
Is there an email where I can contact them? We are starting up a Food Truck Tuesdays at my workplace in Worthington and I’d like to invite them up. Thanks! : )
This truck signed a one-year lease at 901 S. James Road. I do suggest you update the address listed at the top.
Just tried Los Sartenes tonight. Ordered a variety of items: lengua tacos, carne asada torta, a couple pupusas and gorditas. All of the selections were very good and the torta was outstanding.
Please update that address to 901 S. James Road. I was in Columbus yesterday driving around East 5th Avenue looking for this delicacy. Ended up at a 5 Guys😦.
Hi David – we have that updated. Sorry about the 5 Guys.
Huaraches are great. Everything is fresh and quality is excellent. Homemade chorizo and handmade tamales.