14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Coast Weekend’s local
restaurant review
Los Tacos Locos: quick
and easy, meat-and-cheesy
Review and photos by
THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA
MOUTH@COASTWEEKEND.COM
N
ow, thanks to Los Tacos
Locos, whenever I pass the
red kiosk just north of Seaside
High on Highway 101, I’ll be tempt-
ed to pull over for a quick mulita.
The cheesy, gooey, meaty little
disc is a mood elevator that’s cheap
enough to buy with loose change
($2.25). A mulita is like a tiny que-
sadilla, only better; between grilled,
white corn tortillas is creamy, mushy
avocado, diced tomato, red onion,
cilantro and a juicy, salty meat (say,
carne asada), all glued in place by
rivers of melted cheese. If you’re
lucky, some of that cheese will seep
out onto grill and burn into crispy
shards.
That swoon-inducing medley of
meat and cheese pretty well sums up
Tacos Locos. That, along with low
prices and speed, is the corner of
the crowded, mostly homogenized
ecosystem of Mexican restaurants on
the North Coast they’ve managed to
stake out since opening three months
ago.
Readers have heard this rant
before, but, as a brief reminder:
We’re still waiting for more Mexican
restaurants that either go all-in on
regional traditions or make some-
thing fresh and new and imbued with
personality. OK. Enough. Until then
I’ll keep dreaming.
Now then: Back to Tacos Locos,
which is content to mostly follow
the American-ized Mexican standard
playbook.
Most everything there can be eat-
en with your hands: tacos, burritos,
chimichangas, etc. A few segments
of the styrofoam containers came
filled with lardy refried beans and
Spanish rice, but there aren’t really
any restaurant-style entrées. No
LOS TACOS LOCOS
Rating:
2275 N. Roosevelt Drive
Seaside, Ore., 97138
503-738-8226
Hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Monday through Saturday;
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday
Price: $ – large portions, noth-
ing over $10
Service: Drive-thru quick
Vegetarian / Vegan Options:
Meager
Drinks: Bottled water, soda
KEY TO STAR RATING SYSTEM
Poor
Below average
Worth returning
Very good
Excellent, best in region
Mulita with asada and burnt cheese
Sope and gordita
Tacos
steaks, seafood, soup and so on. It’s
just big, basic stuff. Meat and pota-
toes (or, as it were, meat and cheese).
However, I found the meats
more presently cooked than one
often finds at competing Mexican
restaurants in the region. They were
generally juicy and tender — not
cooked to oblivion — and well-sea-
soned. The carne asada, pastor,
carnitas and chorizo were on near-
equal footing, with the chicken a
step behind. Then there’s the outlier,
the rarely found chicharrón, a crispy
pork skin — well, crunchy, really,
like airy, oily, flaky croutons. (Note
to self: Chicharrón in a mulita could
be divine.)
While the mulita stands out, and
the street-style tacos are ample and
affordable ($1.65), somewhere along
the way Tacos Locos’ menu melts
into a heavy, meaty melange.
The Loco Burrito ($7.25) was
football-sized and cried out for
sour cream and avocado. It shared
the almost unholy girth of the
Breakfast Burrito ($6.50). Packed
with smooth, greasy eggs, bacon,
sausage and hash browns, it ought
to be called the “Breakfast-for-Two
Burrito.” Or maybe the “Breakfast-
and-Lunch Burrito.” Or how about
the “Breakfast-and-Go-Back-to-
Sleep Burrito.”
The Chimichanga with Rice and
Beans ($7.75) was about the size of
a regular burrito. The grilled tortilla
was jam-packed with cheese and
meat (a peppery, juicy carne asada in
this case). It was a greasy, glutton-
ous, one-note temptation.
The Torta de Jamon ($6.50) was
another shameful pleasure. On a hot
dog bun and served with fries, it was
basically a ham-and-cheese-and-av-
ocado sandwich. And, come to think
of it, ham and cheese should enjoy
avocado more often.
The Sopes ($3.00) and Gorditas
($3.50) were pretty similar, with the
sope beings served open-faced and
the gordita packing the contents —
beans, sour cream, a sprinkling of
Cotija, pico and meat — within the
heavy, grainy corn tortillas. Indeed,
while the beds for sopes are often
soft and puffy, Taco Locos go the
opposite direction: denser, more
futon than pillow-top.
As a drive-thru only, with nary
a picnic table in site, Tacos Locos
is stripped of pretense. And in
our crowded, copy-cat market of
Mexican restaurants, I actually found
it relieving to not be staring at the
déjà vu decor, nor plunking chips in
the bland waters of complimentary
salsa, nor scouring menus with hun-
dred-plus items or overpaying for a
syrupy margarita.
Sometimes you just wanna get
down to business and be on your
way. Quick and easy, meat-and-
cheesy.
And just like that, I hear the muli-
ta calling my name. See you soon for
another. Or two. CW