Tortilleria El Pastor
I’ve yet to meet an American who has never had a taco. Sure, there are those crazy Americans who may not like tacos or who don’t eat them often, but to have not experienced the culinary genius that is Mexico’s finest contribution to food culture? Seemingly impossible. And yet, I keep meeting Brits who have never eaten Mexican food and Craig’s cousin Alex was one of them.
Tortilleria El Pastor has four types of delicious salsas on the counter for guests to select and dress up their chips and tacos: Mexicana is a pico de gallo, Morita is a salsa verde, La Maya has habaneros and pineapple, and Del Vic (my fave) has habanero and lime.
When I studied abroad in Leipzig, German in 2008 I found one Mexican restaurant in the whole city and it was mediocre at best. However the quality didn’t stop me from frequenting the establishment. Thankfully, in the past 10 years, Mexican food has increased both in quantity and quality on the European continent and England is no exception.
Our flat in Bermondsey is on the Bermondsey Beer Mile, quite literally a mile of craft breweries, restaurants and businesses tucked into railway arches underneath the Overground train tracks. Tortilleria El Pastor is one in a group of six “El Pastor family” Mexican establishments in London. They serve up homemade corn tortillas made with heritage corn.
There’s limited seating in Tortilleria El Pastor, they don’t take reservations and they’re only open Thursday through Sunday. If you can’t find a seat, they do take away.
The Stats: Tortillera El Pastor
What we ordered
To Drink:
• Two Pacificos and one Corona
To Eat:
•Guacamole with totopos
•One cheese quesadilla
•One Sincronizada quesadilla with ham and cheese
•One order of Mushroom tacos
•One order of El Pastor Tacos
•One order of Carnitas tacos
•One order of Short Rib tacos
Cost £50 for 3 people
Alex cited how “messy” he thought eating tacos would be as a main reason he hadn’t tried them. As we shared everything and they didn’t offer us our own small plates, I can attest that the table was a bit messy when we left ,but I’ve never been shy about eating with my hands.
I’ve been to etiquette dinners and fancy occasions and while I know how to eat with a knife and fork, I’m just as likely to not touch my knife, cut with the side of my fork and get my fingers a bit messy. That is not the way I’ve found most Brits eat. Whether it’s at home, in a pub or anywhere else, I’ve witnesses so much proper cutting and coaxing of food onto the fork with a knife in the UK. I feel like an unrefined heathen in the church of proper table manners.
With tacos though, all bets are off and as Tortilleria El Pastor only offers bamboo forks in the cutlery department, it only seemed appropriate to dig right in. I taught Alex about the various fresh vs. cooked salsas. Craig told the story of how one time I called my mom a Gringa when she ordered flour tortillas nearly sending our Latino waiter into a conniption.
The Al Pastor tacos, for which the taqueria is named, features 24 hour marinated pork shoulder, caramelized pineapple, white onion & cilantro. The carnitas were standard, soft port, onion and cilantro but were overshadowed by everything else we tried.
The portions were small, each order came with two tacos on smallish homemade soft tortillas. I told Alex he would have to go to Taco Bell (a newly imported chain in the UK) for hard shells and orange shredded cheese. The meat was well prepared and the El Pastor was phenomenal. I can see why they named the place after it. The surprise winner though were the mushroom tacos on blue corn tortillas. They were spicy and flavorful and cooked to perfection then garnished with pickled onion.
I love it when a veggie dish steals the show. The mushroom tacos featured crisped queso Oaxaca, caramelized onion and packed a spicy punch. They were awesome. The short rib was a close second with a delicious Chipotle, coriander seed spice rub, pickled red onion, and salsa La Maya.
Late on a Thursday we were one of only two parties there but I’m sure they’re hopping on the weekend when the drinkers on the beer mile get a hankering for some fast, easy and delicious.