So for my first PlayaEats post I don’t even know the name of the restaurant. Cute eh? I stopped by this place the other morning because I was running around and I was a little hungry and I noticed that there were a lot of taxis stopped in front of this little tent. I have been in Playa long enough to know that places where the taxi drivers congregate have great food, almost as a rule. I didn’t see a name anywhere on the building and I didn’t think to ask, since it doesn’t matter so much. I will refer to it as the place on the highway by the Pemex until I hear different. Now, as for directions, you probably figured out by now that it is on the highway by the Pemex. Turning off of Constituyentes onto the highway you will see a road that parallels the actual Carretera Federal, I think it is either 50th or the old Carretera, turn right there. Drive down that road until you see a large vinyl tent with yellow and red stripes on your right hand side. This is the restaurant, find a place to park.

As you walk in you will see a cart full of different taco fixings and a girl serving tacos, but walk past that until you get to the counter because you have to pay for your tacos before you order. The tacos are cheap, 8 pesos each, and a drink was another 15 pesos. They give you a little ticket with the number of tacos and the number of drinks you paid for, grab the drink out of the cooler and make your way to the taco cart.

Clockwise from the top: Chicharrón en Salsa Roja, Lomo de Puerco, Huevo Duro, Relleno Negro

I had four tacos, I was very full when I left, three would have probably done it but sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the sake of good journalism. I tried one taco with “Relleno Negro”, a very traditional mayan dish made of burnt chili peppers, chicken and egg yolks. It is sort of salty and a little spicy but very tolerable. I would recommend that anyone who has never tried Relleno Negro try it here because it can be a little ashy in other places I have tried it. Pronounced: Ray-ay-no

For my next taco I tried hard-boiled egg in red salsa, another winner. You cannot really say too much about boiled egg, but the salsa was very good. Salsas that they use for this type of taco are not spicy, they are mostly tomato and onion, they don’t use any chili. In spanish: Huevo Duro en Salsa Roja

Number three was Chicharrón in red salsa, again with a really good red salsa. The Chicharrón was good, but it didn’t have enough meat. Chicharrón is pork rind and skin, usually a mix of fried skin and fatty pieces of meat, but the mix has to be right or it is all soggy pieces of pig skin. Now, I am not saying that they did it wrong, because I saw the pieces of meat in the mix in the serving dish, I just wasn’t paying enough attention to ask for them in my taco. In spanish: Chicharrón en salsa roja

Last, but not least, was Lomo de Puerco, or pork loin. This was very good, though I don’t know exactly what they do to it to make it so good. It is cooked with some brown sauce that is a little spicy but has a very good flavor, I didn’t ask what it was. It might have been tamarindo, because it was a little bit sweet.

All of the tacos were topped with a little bit of spanish rice, then I was directed to the salsa cart. I found a large variety of salsas, I picked a spicy red sauce for the Relleno and the lomo, a nice mild green tomatillo salsa for the chicharrón and the egg. I topped everything off with a little bit of runny guacamole, which is also mixed with tomatillo (little green tomatoes) to give it the watery consistency. I grabbed a couple of spoonfuls of the escabeche, a spicy salad made of jalapeños, carrots, garlic and onions.

I made my way to the table, which was very clean, though a little bit cramped. I have a problem often in restaurants here because the tables are too close together and therefore the chairs are too close to the chairs behind them, therefore I have a hard time sitting down because of height. I scooted the table out a little bit and it solved the problem.

Overall, I would give this restaurant very high marks and will definitely eat there again. Next time I would like to try the beef picadillo, which is a ground beef, green pea, and potato hash.