Tacos, Tacos: All of the Time
23 Jan
Tacos tend to dominate my food-related thoughts. Until recently, these taco fantasies would trigger an intense urge to visit one Minneapolis restaurant: Sea Salt Eatery. I love their fish tacos so much I would consider camping out for a full weekend on the grass in Minnehaha Park, savoring meal after meal of scallop, calamari and grilled marlin tacos in the sun.
Until a couple of months ago, I was dreading the winter months that Sea Salt is closed (November-March!), shifting my food focus to soup. But then I met Craig, who introduced me to Pineda Tacos. It was exactly what I needed to get over my sadness about the end of Sea Salt season.
When Sea Salt reopens in April, I will write a post about my first fish tacos of the season. Until then, we have Pineda. Now I am trying to make up for all of the lost time that I have lived in Minneapolis, completely unaware of their unbelievable tacos.
Pineda Tacos has four Twin Cities locations, all of which care little about appearances, but I couldn’t care less. It’s all about the tacos.
- 1304 Robert Street S., West St Paul. Check out a review of this location by Twin Cities Restaurant Blog.
- 311 Lake Street, Minneapolis. Inferior to the Plymouth location in my opinion. See the Heavy Table’s review.
- 2150 E Lake St, Minneapolis. Great reviews on Yelp.
- 60 Nathan Lane, Plymouth. See Google for a map and customer reviews.
For this post, I am focusing on the Plymouth location. This Pineda Tacos has it all: cheap ($1.95 each), consistently amazing, customizable tacos and a salsa bar. This is all I really need or want and they do it up right.
Pineda’s menu features many items beyond the taco, but I see little reason to get anything else. People rave about the burritos, but honestly, I have never tried them because I cannot bring myself to eat anything other than their tacos–they are that fantastic.
I typically add a little fresh lime and hot salsa as soon as my tacos are delivered to the table.
I also like to get a tostada with pinto beans, steak or pork, onion, lettuce, cheese, tomato, avocado and a bit of sour cream.
Pineda serves Mexican Coke which tastes so much better because they make it with real sugar (no high fructose corn syrup). Pineapple Jarritos is my other favorite.
I’m always a little sad to leave this place, but I always know I’ll be back within a week and it’s open year round!
