Black Rooster Taqueria in Orlando, FL

I tried a new Mexican restaurant on Mills in Orlando called Black Rooster Taqueria. This was a quick service type place where you ordered at a counter, given a number, and had the food delivered to your table. I ordered two tacos: the Achiote Pork and the Chicken Tinga. The achiote pork taco consisted of a corn tortilla stuffed with slow roasted pork cooked in banana leaf, achiote, pickled onion, cilantro, and habanero salsa. The chicken tinga was also served on a corn tortilla filled with pulled roasted chicken, chipotle chile-tomato sauce, lettuce, and crema fresca.

Of the two tacos, I preferred the Achiote Pork. The meat was nice and tender and pickled onions were a nice touch. I wasn't a big fan of the chicken tinga. The chicken was a bit chewy and the lettuce and sour cream were spilling out of the tortilla before I even tried picking up the taco. The tacos also could have been improved if they used double layered tortillas. The single corn tortilla got soggy and was starting to rip as I was eating the tacos. A second tortilla would have helped. Another improvement for Black Rooster in general would have been to put orders on the correct plates. We had ordered multiple achiote pork tacos. They all were served together with other wrong taco combinations on other plates. Actually putting tacos together as they were ordered would have saved some messy rearranging.

Overall, Black Rooster Taqueria was okay. Not the best tacos I've had, but not the worst. I think I'd prefer a Mexican restaurant serving a little more authentic tacos for a lower price point over Back Rooster, but I still might return here eventually...


 

R&R Taqueria in Elkridge, MD

It's funny how TV changes people's opinions of restaurants. I was traveling up north along I-95 a couple of years ago and stopped to get gas in a Shell station in Elkridge, MD. Attached to the gas station's store was a Mexican restaurant. I suggested that we try the tacos there but my travel companions objected to getting food from a creepy gas station and we ended up snacking on some sad looking foods from a supermarket across the street. Fast forward a bit and I'm making the same trip along I-95 with the same people and it's lunch time once again. After looking through the various smartphone apps for a place to eat, it is decided that we try a Mexican restaurant that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives called R&R Taqueria. We follow the directions and end up pulling into the same Shell gas station. I recognized it as the place that was rejected for being gross gas station tacos, but it was now okay to eat at since it had been legitimized by the Food Network.

There was a good amount of people inside the tiny restaurant. It was separated from the gas station store by large windows, and the walls were decorated with Guy Fieri's portrait. R&R Taqueria is the second restaurant I've dined at that was featured on his show.

I tried two of their tacos at R&R. First was a taco al pastor, filled with nicely marinated pork, onions, and cilantro on a corn tortilla. Next was a pollo taco, consisting of the same fillings with the pork exchanged for chicken. While I liked the al pastor, the chicken was very dry and bland. The salsa served on the side helped it out.

I also tasted part of a chicken huarache. This was a thick tortilla topped with refried beans, meat, cheese, sour cream, and avocado. This was my first time trying a huarache, and it was definitely interesting. I'll need to try another one of these at some point.

 

I liked R&R Taqueria. It was good, simple, and cheap Mexican food all inside a cramped gas station. I'd stop there again on my next road trip up I-95!