A nearby hotel stay had us discovering Tacos’ El Gordo, a small chain of seven restaurants operating through the southern United States. A family run business, Tacos El Gordo offered up fresh tasting tacos with your choice of toppings. The visit was an exceptionally enjoyable experience and the perfect combination for those looking for a little authentic Mexican cuisine when visiting Las Vegas, USA.

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This post is one chapter on a weekend trip from Canada to Las Vegas Nevada, United States of America. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. For parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: Tacos El Gordo – De Tijuana Baja Californa – Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America.

While staying in uptown Las Vegas at the nearby Las Vegas Marriott, we happened upon Tacos El Gordo located at the north end of the Las Vegas strip. We came across Tacos El Gordo which was absolutely packed with visitors. We ended up trying the restaurant on a whim, and really enjoyed the experience.

About Tacos El Gordo De Tijuana BC:

Taco’s El Gordo remains a family owned and operated company. Initially opening in 1972, they have been in operation in Mexico for over 40 years. In 1998, Tacos El Gordo opened its first location in San Diego, California, and in 2010 opened its first location in Las Vegas. They are currently running seven restaurants in the United States, with three locations in Las Vegas, USA.

The Tacos El Gordo restaurant offers an authentic Tijuana taco experience with handmade corn tortillas, top grade meats and the freshest ingredients. Most notably, Tacos El Gordo make their guacamole and salsas from scratch daily.

Discovering Tacos El Gordo Las Vegas:

We happened across Taco’s El Gordo as a result of staying at the nearby Las Vegas Marriott. It you happen to be staying at the Las Vegas Marriott, I highly recommend that you visit Tacos El Gordo for some authentic food that’s reasonably priced.

While there are two other Tacos El Gordo locations in Las Vegas, we ended up visiting the South Las Vegas Boulevard (Las Vegas Strip) location. Our visit ended up being a seven minute walk from the Las Vegas Marriott hotel.

Tacos El Gordo happened to feature “regular” Las Vegas pricing. This was a welcome break from all the elevated casino resort pricing of food and beverage. Our meal of four tacos would end up costing less than twenty dollars.

Locating Tacos El Gordo:

Tacos El Gordo is located in the shadow of the Encore / Wynn resort and casino property complex toward the north end of the Las Vegas strip. Given that it’s not located inside a hotel casino property, it’s relatively easy to find from Las Vegas Boulevard.

During our visit, the Taco’s El Gordo Las Vegas strip location was open from 10 AM to 2 AM. The restaurant operates on a “walk in” basis and does not accept reservations.

Inside Tacos El Gordo:

Taco’s El Gordo is a walk up to counter experience. Visitors queue for a specific taco meat, which is freshly prepared for each visitor. Needless to say, our afternoon visit on a Saturday at 2 PM, resulted in a long amount of lines.

Tacos El Gordo offers all different kinds of meat selections. While there are the familiar and traditional taco offerings such as asada steak and adobaba pork, there was also substantial interest for the more exotic meats. I found people lining up for lenguna beef tongue, cabeza beef head and tripa beef guts.

Given we were flying out on Alaska Airlines First Class Las Vegas – Seattle in a few hours, I didn’t have the time to try a whole smorgasbord of different tacos like I had hoped. Instead, I ended up with some adobada pork tacos, which were very reasonably priced at $4.12 USD, per taco.

I ended up getting in line. The lines didn’t move all to fast. I ended up waiting for about seven minutes in line with new found friends. Given that the lines weren’t moving as quick as I would have liked, I ended up sticking with pork tacos only. I didn’t end up lining up for additional steak tacos, which I would have loved to have tried.

After getting to the front of the queue, I placed my order. I watched as the taco meat ended up getting carved pork, sliced right off the rotisserie. It certainly doesn’t get fresher than that.

After receiving four pork tacos, I ended up in line having to pay for the tacos’ before taking a seat. I had another small line to get to the cashier.

Seating at Tacos El Gordo:

The seating at Tacos El Gordo is first come first serve. Given the amount of visitors, there was quite a bit of turn over in the seating. Unlike many other faster food restaurants, there was no outside seating at this location.

I sent MrsWT73 to get a red booth and she was able to get one fairly quickly. The food and seating areas have a certain element of stickiness to the experience. While this wasn’t a comment on the restaurant’s cleanliness, it was more of a comment on the jovial and overall nature of the restaurant environment.

The Food: Adobado Pork Tacos:

We had ordered four adobado pork tacos. The adobado pork tacos were presented as piced pork on soft corn torillas with your choice of toppings. We had a full load of toppings, which included a cilantro aioli, along with a great amount of peppers and other toppings.

These pork tacos were pretty spectacular. They were definitely a memorable meal for Las Vegas. The pork had a balanced amount of savoury spice, which was well contrasted with the crispness of the toppings.

MrsWT73 gave these tacos very high ratings. Usually a finicky eater, she described them “as the best” and would be happy to return. There’s saying something for how the food was prepared.

I would love to try the steak tacos on my next visit. However, these were well assembled with the perfect harmony of flavours and tastes.

Closing Thoughts:

Our bill for four pork tacos at Taco El Gordo came to a very reasonable $17.86 USD after taxes. This was a relief from some of the Las Vegas Casino Strip resort restaurant prices that often offered this price level for a single beverage.

With a price point of under twenty dollars, this made for a terrific value oriented meal.

The Bottom Line: Tacos El Gordo Las Vegas

I was pretty impressed with this surprise discovery of Tacos El Gordo.

Located just steps from the Las Vegas Marriott, a visit to Tacos El Gordo offered a terrific value snack with ingredients that were freshly prepared and authentic to the southern United States and Mexico.

I would very happily return to thos location for some tacos anytime I was looking for a snack or lighter meal towards the north end of the Las Vegas strip.

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If you have visited Tacos El Gordo, what keeps bringing you back ?

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