El Rey del Taco

Dear Mary,

I thought you liked this place. I did.

Love,
Cortney

Okay, so that's not a real review. Let me try again. I would put El Rey del Taco in the running for best burrito place on Clark Street so far. It definitely makes my top two. Now in saying that, I am judging solely on how much I loved my food. Which I did. I loved all three and a half pounds of it as it sat in my stomach like a booted car all night. In fact, other than the giant avocados, I don't really remember what all came in my veggie burrito suizo because I couldn't stop eating long enough to look. And the tortilla bowl of refried beans with grated cheese on top was heavenly. Like a gift from the burrito gods, even.

That being said, El Rey del Taco lacks atmosphere. I'm not sure how much the lack of atmosphere should matter when a burrito is so good. Since Mary and I have started this journey, we have visited a lot of completely empty restaurants. (The crackhead at the roach burrito place doesn't count as a legitimate diner.) This place had several other occupied tables, where other patrons ate as voraciously as we did. And this was well past standard dinner time.

I thoroughly enjoyed the unisex bathroom with your choice of urinal or stall. It reminded me of a trashy version of the Battlestar Gallactica bathrooms. And to get to this bathroom, you have to walk by some fabulous and tempting gumball machines with things like noisemaking animal key chains. Alas, I had no quarters that day.

So, El Rey del Taco, I am craving a bean bowl right now. You are one of the only two burrito places I would revisit so far, so congratulations. If the craving doesn't go away soon, I will be back.