El Chucho disappoints
Heard word that El Chucho had just opened up in Columbia Heights, and went to check them out, optimistic that DC might actually get a good taqueria. But alas, the wait continues.
The small restaurant was packed this Sunday afternoon; we had a (hot - inside temp still was in the 80s) 15min wait. We (gf and I) were seated at a small table next to a group of 3 (bar on one side of small space with a row of 2 small square hi-tops along the other wall), and promptly ordered. We ordered all of the tacos (which come 2 small tacos per order) except for the tripas plus the torta ahogada. They have a selection of house made sodas, of which I ordered the pomegranate-apple. There was no "soda" evident in the drink and it tasted like water with a shot of sweetened apple juice in it (it was very watered down).
The torta ahogada came out first, but the pork was like a ground pork (as opposed to carnitas style), and the cheese seemed to be like some supermarket sliced variety. The sauce wasn't spicy at all, and I could not really taste any chiles (de arbol). It had more of an Italian taste to it (tomatoes and oregano). My initial remark was that it tasted like a Mexican-Italian sloppy joe. The bread was pretty good though.
The tacos came out next and were small as expected, and came with their own garnish/salsa already. We asked for more salsa, and they apparently only have one at the moment (their "kitchen is small" was offered as an excuse). It was an arbol-based salsa, and was ok and mildly spicy (it also helped the flavor of the torta), but again tasted more tomato-ey than arbol-ey (maybe they're afraid to spice away the clientele?). I dove into the carne asada first (I took off the radishes and the small grilled onion - good! but can we get the whole (green) onion please?), and felt like I was eating a good ground beef taco, but not a carne asada taco. Again, meat was so fine as if it were ground. The tortillas were store bought and a bit tough (I'm not knocking them for not hand making their own tortillas, but they need to re-think the brand they buy; La Bandita from Giant are better). The al pastor was like spiced ground pork; like the sloppy joe mixture from the torta. I think I saw miniscule pieces of pineapple in it, but couldn't taste any sweetness. The pollo actually had a nice smokiness to it, but the meat itself was slightly cool as if it had been pulled off a chicken a while ago and just now served up. The best tacos were the calabacitas (squash), with the light breading around the squash (zucchini, I think) providing a nice contrast and the veggies themselves giving a nice light flavor.
Another swing and miss for DC in terms of taquerias. Our meal came to $40 (with me still being hungry), and even with the additional cost of a Zipcar, we'll gladly be making our twice- or thrice-a-month treks to La Mexicana.
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re: cambridgeMike
agarnett100
Jul 2, 2012 04:21 PM
Its shocking the number of Mexican themed restaurants in DC Proper that fail to deliver the goods. Mexican street taco has bold flavor and great salsa and they don't use chopped pork or beef at least not in the Baja Region
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