JULY 28, 2016 // 15
Coast Weekend’s local
restaurant review
Robust, reasonably priced Mexican food truck off ers few surprises
Review and photos by
MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA
EL AZADERO
MOUTH@COASTWEEKEND.COM
I
I’ve passed the El Azadero
truck more times than I can count,
and yet I never realized that the
food truck offers indoor dining.
And, you know, that’s kind of a big
deal. There are very few months
— nay, weeks, the way this rotten,
unrelentingly tepid, gray “summer”
has been going — where eating
outdoors on the North Coast can be
reliably comfortable. All the wind,
the wetness ... you know.
So, when I pulled into the lot of
the former gas station where Aza-
dero’s truck is parked (just west
of the Astoria-Megler Bridge) I
was surprised and delighted to fi nd
the former convenience store full
of tables (as well as a makeshift
storage). I guess I just assumed it
was empty or boarded up. Besides
Azadero’s big burritos, that refuge
from the weather probably explains
the truck’s year-round persistence.
Nonetheless, you still order out-
side. Azadero offers the expected
array of tacos and burritos as well
a handful of plates accompanied
by refried beans and Spanish
rice. I asked the counterperson
for some direction. “What do you
like best?” I wondered. “What’s
most popular?” He returned with
the non-answer: “Everything.” I
pushed. “Come on, you must have
a favorite?” “I like the chicken,
the beef, the pork. Everything is
good.” OK. Yeah. Thanks.
For reasons I can’t wholly ex-
plain, I went with the Ya Vaz ($12).
Indeed, the fi ve different plates
are all pretty similar — a mix of
meats and a few veggies cooked
on a fl at-top, bound together with
melted cheese. I suppose it was the
bell peppers that drew me to the
Ya Vaz, though meats — including
asada, bacon and thin-sliced de-
li-style ham — greatly outweighed
the small cut veggies. It was gooey,
salty and piping hot, topped with
several slices of avocado. Crisp
crumbles of bacon were the most
El Azadero, a food truck located just west of the Astoria-Megler Bridge at the site of a former gas station, off ers
indoor seating inside an adjacent former convenience store.
Rating:
490 W. Marine Drive, Asto-
ria
503-791-2866
HOURS: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Monday through Saturday.
PRICE: $ – Easy to fi ll up
under $10.
SERVICE: Quick
VEGETARIAN / VEGAN OP-
TIONS: Vegetarians will do
alright, vegans less so
DRINKS: Mexican soda, bot-
tled water, canned soda
KEY TO STAR RATING SYSTEM
Poor
Below average
Good
Excellent
Best in region
The Lengua (beef tongue) taco, left, was supple and juicy
compared to the Asada (beef ) taco, center. The Pastor (pork)
taco, right, has a mild, peppery red sauce.
prominent fl avor. The Spanish rice
was dry and nondescript, the beans
slurpy, and neither was half as hot
as the main course. An accompany-
ing stack of corn tortillas pumped
up the starches, making the Ya Vaz
a reasonable but not overwhelming
amount of food.
After a few bites of the creamy,
salty, greasy, egg-less scramble, I
set out to balance the meats with
Azadero’s jalapeño-heavy pico de
gallo and the food truck’s mix of
pickled onions, whose shards of
The Veggie Burrito was packed with lettuce, toma-
toes, cilantro, rice, beans and sour cream.
orange habanero peppers quickly
had me welling up. The red and
green sauces didn’t pack nearly
the same punch. The red was dark
and smoky, the green thin, dull and
almost milky — it almost seemed
to evaporate with time. Both were
rather mild.
I tried a number of the tacos
($1.50 to $1.75 each), served
street-style on small corn tortillas,
topped with loads of leafy cilantro,
diced onions and begging to be
dressed further. I most enjoyed the
Lengua. Its supple, juicy texture
far outshone the tougher asada.
The pastor and chicken were sim-
mered in similar, mild, peppery red
sauces, and I’d prefer them all over
the fi sh, which was dry, chalky and
crying out for sour cream.
The Veggie Burrito ($5) was,
thankfully, more than just beans
and cheese. It was properly
portioned with crisp lettuce, a
few tomatoes, cilantro, rice and
sour cream. It was a good size, in
the neighborhood of a 22-ounce
can. The otherwise comforting,
bacon-forward, eggy Breakfast
Burrito ($5) also featured lettuce,
tomato and sour cream, which
it would’ve done better without.
And, while we’re making sugges-
tions, I’ll add another: I’d love
to see some of the plate mixtures
make it into burritos — kind of
like premium editions. I know
from what I had with the Ya Vaz
that it would’ve been terrifi c in
burrito form.
As for the rest of the plates, I
couldn’t fi nd a good enough reason
to try another — they all seemed
so similar. Instead I tried the que-
sadilla, with chicken. It was just as
you might expect.
Indeed, there were few surprises
at El Azadero. It is robust and rea-
sonably priced, albeit a tad greasy.
You’ll get full, and you’ll get in
and out fast — no fuss, no muss.
You won’t, however, uncover any
newfound fl avors or dining revela-
tions. Unless, of course, you count
that indoor dining room.