Cocina Los Jarritos - Revisited!

Cocina Los Jarritos is a new addition to Northwest Mall's food court that I recently posted about. On my previous visit, I ordered three tacos al pastor and a side of rice and beans. I was disappointed with the tacos, which had an off-putting bitter taste, yet I was very impressed with the rice and beans, especially the beans.

I've known since then that I was going to have to go back, both to give some of their other taco varieties a try and to make sure the awesome refried beans I had on my first trip weren't a fluke. I also knew that I wanted to get a second opinion on the beans so, being the classy guy that I am, I invited my parents to meet me for lunch in a mall food court.

I mean, how awesome is that?

The shop itself is clean, bright, and dominated by a colorful menu festooned with pictures of their various plate specials that I didn't bother looking at in any great detail, since I prefer ordering a la carte.


For my second visit, I decided go with something a little more main-stream that than al pastor tacos and went with a chicken fajita taco and two beef fajita tacos, as well as a side of rice and beans. The tacos are garnished with your choice of lettuce and tomato or cilantro and onion.

I went with cilantro and onion, of course:


These were some pretty good tacos. To compare them to other available examples in the area, the fajita tacos certainly stand head and shoulders above the execrable excuses for tacos that I was served on my last visit to Perico's on 290 at Mangum, there's no doubt about it.

If I had to nitpick, I'd say that the chicken was a little dry, but since I go to lunch so late in the day I've pretty much become accustomed to eating food that would have been just that much better if I'd shown up an hour earlier. In any event, dry chicken is a perfect excuse to drench your taco one or both of the complimentary salsas available at Cocina Los Jarritos.

The green salsa is very smooth, bright green and too picante for my folk's tastes. The red salsa seems to be made with roasted tomatoes and was definitely the favorite among the three of us. Personally, I like to mix it up and put both kinds on my tacos but, if I had to choose only one, it would be the red salsa.

Against my advice, my folks both ordered chicken fajita taco salads.


These were served on foam plates with iceberg lettuce, onion, tomato, cheddar cheese, avocado, sour cream, and chicken along with made-to-order fried flour tortilla chips. They came with a packet of what I think was ranch dressing on the side, but my folks opted, wisely, to use the roasted red salsa as a salad dressing. Personally I thought these were a little skimpy and would have preferred to see them presented in a deeper container that would have held more lettuce, such as one made out of a gigantic deep fried tortilla like practically every other taco salad in the universe comes in.

After I'd finished my tacos and my folks had pretty much finished up their salads, I insisted that they try a taste of my rice and beans. Both agreed that the beans were notably tastier than average. In fact, Dad liked them so much that he walked over and ordered some for himself.

I'm not 100% sure what it is about their beans that makes them so good. Perhaps I'm not used to eating real, authentic, lard-laced refried beans since when I'm cooking at home, I always get fat-free canned refried beans. I think there's something else to it, though, since it's more of a flavor thing than a texture thing. If I had to guess, I'd say that the beans are prepared using beef broth or beef bouillon or something. They have a complex sort of meaty flavor that I'm just wild about. I think I'm going to have to sample them at least twenty or thirty more times in my quest to determine what makes them so delicious.

What a bummer.

If you're looking for excellent tacos al pastor, Cocina Los Jarritos probably isn't the place for you. As far as chicken and beef fajita tacos, well, the ones served here are perfectly acceptable examples of the type, but I don't think I'd say they're worth making a special trip for (unless you're at Perico's, since Perico's tacos suck), and you can get a better taco salad practically anywhere. However, if you ever find yourself in the neighborhood and have a hankering for rice and beans slathered in a delicious red salsa, you might want to consider dropping by Cocina Los Jarritos.


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Cocina los Jarritos!

I'm planning on doing some cabrito tacos next week and decided I'd have some for lunch today to serve as a jumping off point, since I haven't had them in a long time I wanted to see what other people were doing when it came to putting goat meat on tortillas, so I swung by Perico's 290 at Mangum, only to find that the promised I was told about the menu not changing when they changed their name from Arandas were actually vicious lies, so no cabrito was to be had.

With a heavy heart I ventured out into the wilds, indecisive about where to eat. I considered having some pupusas at La Playita at 3406 Mangum, but decided to wait on going back there until I could take some company with me. In the end, I decided to try Cocina los Jarritos, which had recently opened in the NW Mall's food court.

Frankly, I did not have much hope for any food coming out of a food court that wasn't prepared by the good folks at Chik fil'A, but I figured it was worth trying out if only for the sake of the coworker who had first mentioned this new source for tacos and had solicited my opinion.

I decided to try their al pastor tacos to see if they lived up to or exceeded my own version, as well as some rice and beans. The tacos were very reasonably priced at $ 1.35 per, and the rice and beans were each $ 1.00 for a 4 oz. serving. I was offered the option of having my tacos dressed with either lettuce and tomato or cilantro and onion, and of course I went with the cilantro and onion because that is how I roll.

I was really impressed with the rice and beans. I think it's safe to say that the beans were some of the most flavorful refried beans I've ever gotten from a taco joint. They had a rich, deep flavor that was quite remarkable. The rice was just fine stirred up into my beans, just as I've eaten them since I was about four years old.

The tacos were not a complete disappointment, I suppose; unlike so many other "al pastor" tacos I've been served over the years, these actually had pineapple in them! (I'm of the opinion that al pastor tacos served without pineapple are not al pastor tacos at all.) Unfortunately, practically everything else about them was a let-down. As you can see in the picture below, the meat was cooked in a very bright red chili sauce, but unfortunately that chili sauce had strong, distracting bitter notes and was overly greasy.

The sample of fajita meat the man at the counter handed me as I walked up to order was quite good. In retrospect, I probably should have ordered fajita tacos instead. I don't understand why it's so hard to get good tacos al pastor around here, but I suppose that I should be thankful. It was eating another al pastor taco just like like these that finally prompted me to learn to make my own and to make them properly.

The available red sauce had a good, smoky flavor but also had quite a bit of unexpected sweetness. I guess they must have put sugar in it. It would have been excellent if not for that. Their green sauce was a smooth, creamy green variety that I am not a huge fan of.

I guess, in the end, I really can't recommend Cocina los Jarrito's tacos al pastor, but their fajita tacos might be worth a try, especially with another side of those rice and beans.

Does anyone know who else is offering up cabrito near the 610/290 interchange?