Yuma's Mad Tacos

mmm-yoso!!! is a blog about food and travel. Today, Kirk is traveling, Cathy is busy eating, and Ed (from Yuma) is blogging.

"You eaten at Mad Tacos?" It was my friend and former colleague, Dawn.

"What? Where?" She then explained that it had won some awards and was supposed to be really good, and asked if I wanted to join her and a couple other folks there for lunch on an upcoming Friday.

The answer to "Where?" was a little complicated as well, because Mad Tacos is inside a pharmacy, Sant Drugs, that has had a lunch counter ever since the days when lunch counters and soda fountains were commonplace in drugstores and five and dimes:
This is what an old-fashioned lunch counter looks like:

Here is the view in the other direction:

With such limited seating, and being open only weekdays from 8:30-6 pm, how can they stay in business? This pic is part of the answer to that question:

Every time I've eaten there, people have come in for takeout, sometimes a lot of takeout.

So why is this little place really busy? I think because the food is really good and the prices are really cheap.

Case in point – Friday is fish taco day, so this taco cost $1 on a Friday (prices as of May, 2016):

There is nothing skimpy about that taco. There are numerous chunks of breaded fish and a lot of toppings including spiced mayo. And if you like your fish tacos to have some crunch, you won't find a better one in town, crackling crunchy.

What's more, the two house salsas are excellent:

The one on the left is the guacamole sauce, smooth and creamy from the avocado, with a lime tang and a spicy zip. Really excellent on the fish tacos, but also great on some of the meats, like asada.

The sauce on the right is a complex, smoky, dried chili salsa. This is not a chip dipping salsa, it is a spicing up flavor booster, perfect for a lot of things like these tostadas (regularly 2 for $5, but Thursdays $1 apiece):

So good. Underneath the cotija cheese, pickled red onions, chopped lettuce and tomato, and spicy mayo, lurked pieces of carnitas and a nice smear of frijoles. Even the crunchy tortilla was first rate, substantial enough that I could eat most of the tostadas with my hands and get no fallout on my shirt.

And if you look carefully at the salsa, you can see numerous tiny flakes, flecks, and bits, many red, but others green, black, white, yellow, and translucent. The complexity of a pointillist painting.

Maybe the most amazing lunch special is rolled taco Monday. Potato tacos at $.50 apiece. So this is a $3 plate:

The quality is also superb. The mashed potato is copious and flavorful, and the shell is deep fried crispy.

As I was leaving that day, I mentioned to Mannie (the head cook and proprietor) that his rolled tacos were better than my previous favorites at Buen Taquito up the street.

"Yeah," he said, "they don't flavor the mashed potatoes and their salsa is real basic." A spot on evaluation, and he could’ve added that his are larger in addition to better tasting. But his answer showed that he knows the competition, pays attention, and focuses on quality.

That's also evident in this bacon wrapped hot dog ($4):

While not as overloaded as some bacon dogs, the grilled and charred onions, chopped tomatoes, spiced mayo, mustard, and ketchup are enough, and the real focus here is on the quarter pound sausage:

That's a good hot dog. It has the right texture, excellent flavors, and abundant juiciness.

The quality also shows up in the plate of 3 tacos (choice of pastor, asada, carnitas, pollo, or pescado), a good value at $6:

In the photo, I’ve got a pastor, a fish, and an asada taco. There was a lot of asada:

and I was particularly impressed with the seasonings and grilling of the pastor:

Similarly, the chicken at Mad Tacos is not just bland generic white meat, but is nicely spiced and grilled. Look at this quesadilla ($4):

About as good as a quesadilla can be. The grilling of the tortilla is perfect, the cheese melted creamy, the chicken flavorful, and the roasted green chili strips abundant.

One day I decided to try takeout, so I called in an order for a chicken burrito ($6). When I walked to the counter, everything was almost ready, so Mannie could assemble it quickly, and my burrito was perfectly fresh and nicely packaged:

That burrito was also very tasty:

I realize that a lot of folks don't like lettuce in their burritos, but here the lettuce, pico de gallo,  refritos, and abundant guac sauce complemented the warm spicy chicken chunks.

So is everything at Mad Tacos really great? Well, truth be told, the french fries ($3), are pretty ordinary:

Not bad, but not great. Otherwise most things here are real good eats and real good value. Thanks, Dawn.

Comments

[ken]

Great write up, mouth-watering descriptions even for a mainly vegan guy like myself. Loved the photo of the counter. Took me back 50 years to the counter at the pharmacy in downtown Oceanside where I used to eat with my dad. Thanks!

[Ed (from Yuma)]

As a child, I had many club sandwiches with my grandmother at the lunch counter at Newberry's or Woolworth's (they were across the street from each other in Medford OR c. 1960). So, yeh ken, this takes me back too.

[Kevin]

As a former resident of Yuma, I miss its Mexican flavours and culinary adventures as often found on the north side of town. This review leaves me with mixed feelings: happy I am that the city continues to offer such unexpected delights but sad I am not to be able to partake from up here in Canada.

On the nostalgia side of things, just like the Sant family of Sant Drug Co., I was raised in a family-run pharmacy. I know the good folks there, but, sad to say, I never ate at the counter.

Enjoyed the review. It gives me another reason to return as a winter visitor.

[nhbilly]

That's a lot of good looking eats.
Any and all fries goes down with me unless it's soggy.

[janfrederick]

Who doesn't like lettuce in burritos?! I suppose you are the same people who poo poo lettuce in gyros...no? That's what I thought. ;)

Awesome post and what a cool throwback place that lives on by providing quality Mexican food. I want one here in San Diego!

[Ed (from Yuma)]

Good hearing from you, Kevin. I had eaten at Sant Drugs previously, but most of the time, the food was nothing special (though briefly a dozen years ago, it served Puerto Rican food).

Fries are usually good, billy, it's just that I expected better considering all the other stuff I'd had.

Thanks, jan, for the nice comments. It's great that somebody can make that luch counter work here in 2016.

[Soo @ hungryones]

Wow! Awesome lunch counter! I miss the lunch counter at Woolworth's in downtown San Diego. Was a great store and lunch counter. Nice looking potato tacos. I haven't found many good ones here.

[Ed (from Yuma)]

Soo, it is nice to have it there. Most folks don't remember lunch counters anymore. Fast food has made them an endangered species.