Tacos Durango, Merced
Tacos Durango
Truck Info:
1535 W 14th St, Merced, CA 95340
Near the Sinclair on the corner of 14th and V st, in the Super Shop Automotive Parking Lot
(209) 259-8138
Operating Hours: Monday-Wednesday, and Friday: 12:00pm - 7:30pm. Closed Thursday, Saturday, Sunday
Metrics:
Tortilla Type: Flour
Garnishes: Lime wedges, pickled jalapeño, pickled spicy carrots, radish slices, onions and cilantro
Salsa: Green
Meats: Asada, Al Pastor, Carnitas, Pollo, Buche, Cabeza, Tripas, Cesos
Spice Level: 2/5, a little kick
Accepts card: Cash Only
Consistency is a difficult metric for many restaurants to satisfy. Even if you have the best meal of your life at a restaurant, you may go back the next week to order the same dish and receive something fairly different in quality. This problem is exacerbated for many food trucks due to the difficulty of working in compact spaces, supply chain management issues, and the age old problem of what happens when customers aren’t coming in a steady stream and you aren’t sure just how much meat needs to go on the plancha at a given moment to prepare.
Now that I’ve laid the ground work for why it is so difficult for a taco truck to achieve true consistency in its food, I have to say Tacos Durango has some of the most efficient and consistent service that I have had the pleasure of receiving. This alone has been more than enough reason for my continued patronage of the truck.
However to say I only go because of consistency would be disrespectful to the food. The asada in particular is a favorite of mine. It has the right balance of crispy texture and juiciness when bitten into. It is well seasoned and has a truly meaty flavor that a lot of trucks may miss if they do not properly char it. Although I know it is cooked on a plancha, it feels more like the asada you get at backyard cookouts over coal grills.
The carnitas are more on the crispy side with a good portion of grease that soaks into the tortillas. The tortillas are standard flour tortillas either fried off on the plancha without too much grease. This works well because the meats have enough fat to soak into the tortillas and provide the requisite moisture.
The chicken is a moist and well cooked. It is a bit more neutral in flavor than some other trucks, but the salsa more than makes up for it, and it feels designed to be a vehicle for the salsa to shine. Speaking of the salsa, I may be a bit biased as this is the exact type of salsa I grew up having at taco trucks, so it definitely checks those mental boxes of what is “correct” as ridiculous and subjective of a category as that may be. The salsa is a tomatillo forward salsa verde. The vegetables taste rather fresh and fruity, not roasted off too harshly. It is a creamy and loose puree that ends up slathered over each taco, tying together each bite wonderfully.
Definitely go give Tacos Durango a shot. It is a location that deserves some more love and attention.
Date visited: 8/23/22