Taqueria mi Barrio

Update August 7, 2010: A few months ago, this restaurant closed down for remodeling and reopened as Habanero’s.

Update February 24, 2008: The name of this restaurant has changed.  It used to be “Tacos Tamayo” and is now called “Taqueria mi Barrio”.  The cook and menu are still the same.

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I was in the mood for some Mexican food for lunch today, so I visited Tacos Tamayo. I’ve been there a couple times before. Tamayo is a tacqueria located in the strip mall on Highway 287 between the car dealership and Dairy Queen.

Tacos Tamayo is a counter service type place. You place your order, then pick it up a few minutes later at the counter, and then pay when you’re finished. The menu is pretty extensive, with six or seven dishes that come with four or five different types of meat.

It’s pretty authentic Mexican, and all three times I’ve visited, I have been the only person in the join speaking English. That said, the counter staff (a woman who takes the orders and works the cash register, and a man who does most of the cooking – maybe they’re the Tamayos, I’m not sure) speaks decent English and almost all the menu is in both Spanish and English.

Today I noticed they had a menu of daily specials on the wall. The specials are all $5.00, which is tough to beat! Today (Monday) the special was chilaquiles con huevo. I’d never had chilaquiles before, so I had to try it! The special includes a can of pop to drink, which makes it an even better deal.

It took a while to prepare my lunch, perhaps 15 minutes. It was a plate that had chilaquiles, two fried eggs, and some refried beans with grated cheese, plus a basket of several very hot corn tortillas. Don’t know what chilaquiles are? Essentially, they’re pieces of corn tortilla that have been “chile-fied” – sauteed in chile.

Speaking of which, if you’ll allow me to go off on a tangent for a moment, I learned just a couple weeks ago what “enchilada” means. It’s really short for “tortilla enchilada” which means, basically, “chile-fied tortilla”. In other words, when you infuse a tortilla with chile, you get a tortilla enchilada.

Anyhow, chilaquiles are often served with chicken or steak. But in this case, they were served with eggs. From what I know, the eggs are often served on top of the chile-fied tortilla pieces, but at Tamayo they’re served on the side. Regardless, it was obvious they should go together, so I ate them in the same bite.

I noticed the beans were nicely flavored. Perhaps some extra garlic or onion in addition to the salt and (probably) lard, but I’m not sure.

Anyhow, since the main part of the entree was tortilla pieces, there wasn’t much need to serve a big pile of tortillas on the side, but I got them anyhow, and ended up eating two or three of them.

All in all, it was a very tasty meal. I don’t give Tacos Tamayo high marks for ambience, but for five bucks it’s hard to beat. I walked out with a good lunch and a Coke for $5.41 including the tax.

Oh, one additional note. The menu says they have horchata, but I asked for it the first two times I went in and they said they don’t really have it. I didn’t want to explain – in either English or Spanish – that I thought they should take it off the menu board if they never have it. So I didn’t bother asking this time.

1384 US Highway 287
Broomfield, CO 80020
(303) 439-7921