Thankfully tamales aren’t solely a Christmas treat (why would anyone limit their tamale consumption to the holiday season anyway)? At Taco Shel, they’re a ubiquitous offering. Very few restaurants in New Mexico prepare anything more than a passable Spanish rice. Both my Kim and I believe hard shells belong on turtles, not on tacos, but we genuinely enjoy the hard-shelled tacos at Taco Shel which are engorged with ground beef, lettuce and tomatoes with a ramekin of salsa on the side. Arguably there are none better than the #4, a pulchritudinous plate featuring an enchilada, a tamale and a taco with beans and Spanish rice. Taco Shel warmed us up with its hot food and delicious chile.Ĭombination plates are a popular draw at Taco Shel. Several years ago, my colleagues and I attended a seminar in a nearby hotel conference room where the air conditioning would have given a polar bear the chills. Unlike at some New Mexican restaurants where the plate is hot, but not the food on the plate, all dishes at Taco Shel are out of the oven hot–definitely prepared to order. #4 Combination Plate: Enchilada, Taco, Tamale The beef is seasoned for optimum flavor and is fairly low in salt (trusting diners to salt their food to taste–what a novel concept). It’s also humongous–two beef burritos smothered in red and green chile (Christmas style) and served with some of the best refried beans in town. Few stuffed sopaipilla plates in the Duke City can compare to this one.īrian’s beloved number eleven plate (pictured above) is as wonderful as he remembers. Accompanied by pinto beans, Taco Shel’s stuffed sopaipilla platter lives up to its name it will indeed leave you stuffed. What the chile lacks in piquancy, it more than makes up for with flavor. Seasoned ground beef is stuffed generously into the pockets of perfectly accommodating sopaipillas which are then slathered with a rich red chile and topped with a generous garnish of lettuce and tomatoes. It’s a good salsa with a pleasant piquancy. The salsa is a bit watery and may run off your chips and onto your clothes so caution should be exercised. They’re also low in salt, a high positive for many of us. The chips are indeed large triangles of corn imbued goodness. You’ll swear some of the chips are larger than the bowl in which the salsa is served. It’s delivered to your table shortly after you’re seated. Salsa is still complimentary at Taco Shel. You won’t find carne adovada and you won’t find any nouveau or fusion New Mexican entrees, but you will find the standards: burritos, tacos, enchiladas, stuffed sopaipillas and combination plates brimming with deliciousness. Befitting the Lilliputian space, the menu is rather small. The menu is posted on the east wall’s and includes all the old Taco Sal’s favorites including the aforementioned stuffed sopaipillas which are as good as my mind’s eye remembered them. You just might make friends with other patrons thanks to the close proximity of seating at the diminutive dining area. Her wait staff is equally effusive, greeting all patrons like old friends. Like her sister, Theresa is as genuinely warm and friendly as can be. Taco Shel is owned by Gary Maestas and his vivacious mother Theresa whose sister owned Taco Sal until the early 1980s. Taco Shel (the second “l” was dropped as a mnemonic) has been around for more than two decades, tucked into a nondescript Northeast Heights shopping center. Fortunately Brian responds to his hunger with occasional visits to New Mexico and uncovered the next best thing to the Taco Sal’s of old–Taco Shel.

That was before the restaurant (but not the recipes) was sold and went from a restaurant whose name you’d swear was short for “salivating” (because that’s the effect it had on most diners) to a restaurant that has changed hands several times and lost the consistency which made it a favorite for so many. With more than half a century under the same roof, Taco Sal has pleased a lot of palates during its run.

For me, the stuffed sopaipillas were the prototype New Mexican entree. For Brian, it was the #11, beef burrito plate, that captured his heart to the tune of nearly a visit per week. We both recall fondly when Taco Sal served some of the best New Mexican cuisine in the city. After discovering this Web site, Brian e-Mailed me to share his musings on and memories of the Duke City dining scene, many of which we shared in common. I can certainly commiserate, having spent much of 18 years away from the “Land of Enchilement,” (an appropriate sobriquet courtesy of the erstwhile Albuquerque Journal restaurant critic Andrea Lin. Having left New Mexico in the mid 1980s, the pangs of pining for New Mexico’s incomparable, capsaicin-rich cuisine have left Brian Riordan sleepless in Seattle. Despite the signage, Taco Shel is all about New Mexican food

Sleepless in seattle dim sum scene