They are open at 7:30am, which makes it easy to stop in on your way to work. When you leave work late, you can catch a late supper at 10pm. On Fridays, they will serve you until 4am. If hours open warranted a Michelin star then La Paisanita would get three (plus an up arrow). Unfortunately, it does not. So this humble taco stand remains the secret of hungry Inwood Road commuters who scarf down a $1.00 potato (or chorizo) egg taco for breakfast alongside the Hispanic following that constitutes the backbone of its clientele. And doubtless the occasional Michelin inspector savoring his guilty pleasure.
Jump for pictures!
And it won’t dent the expense report. At $1.17 per taco, two people can eat for around six dollars.
We did: one each of Fajita (Beef), Pastor (Pork), Pollo (Chicken), Lengua (Tongue) and Barbacoa (Brisket) tacos, each showered with cilantro and onion. They look just like the picture. We didn’t rearrange the cilantro shreds into Hilton Gothic. We didn’t spray the tortillas with Jennifer Lopez. They just look that good as is. What we can’t convey is the smell. Driving back in the car, eight hours after our last meal, windows closed due to global freezing, the heaven sent heaven scent of corn, meat and onions (sautéed onions came with our order) sent us into a rampage that resembled a North Korean who had been forced to eat rat for two years arriving on the set of a Paula Dean’s Christmas Special.
I ditched the camera and picked through each protein in turn. Was it ‘type-correct’? Was it properly cooked? Was it well-seasoned?
Type correct was easy. The lengua had the requisite juiciness and a corruptibility to the touch that would have earned it a place on FIFA’s ruling panel. The fajita had the sinewiness (new word) and al dente touch in the mouth that characterizes slow-cooked beef. The barbacoa was the beef again, but braised in chile sauce. It was good. Chicken was chicken and about as good as that bird can be without serious medication. But the pork was overcooked to blandness, as is the lot of the modern Sysco pig.
Not that La Paisanita’s food is perfect. All except the barbacoa needed serious seasoning, so it was fortunate that they give us several sachets of salt as if to say: salt is a matter of taste, here is enough to cure all that meat, and herpes as well.
Tacos not for you? You can choose tortas, sincronizadas (a kind of Croque Senor), Quesadillas and Arroz y Frijoles, as well as tacos, but our focus was the latter. Drinks include the usual soft drinks plus Mexican Coke. Service is friendly and welcoming to a fault. As the picture makes clear, seated accommodation is fully air-conditioned. Bring your own padding, or order out and savor this comfort food with the TV program and beer or wine of your choice.
La Paisanita
2505 Inwood Rd
Dallas, TX 75235
(214) 351-3232
