Come for the tacos; stay for the birria

One of the great things about tacos is that there’s nowhere to hide. When using a small maize tortilla, there’s very little room to hide slapdash sauces and miserable-quality protein. If you attempt to do so in anglocapitalist fashion by overloading with guacamole, refried beans and other frippery as if it were some of kind of burrito, then such a house of cards will buckle and disintegrate under such misguided heft.

Taca Tacos is a former street food trader that has settled down in the Deptford Yards Market with a hole-in-the-wall alongside an exclusively al fresco choice of seating. Not coincidentally, the best of Taca’s tacos were those that adhered to the aforementioned minimalist approach.

Beef birria and co at Taca Tacos

Taca’s signature dish is undoubtedly its birria – a deeply moreish bovine broth tingling with hints of spicy heat and citrus.

It’s well worth wolfing down the birria as part of the birria combo set. You get a mulita, where lightly tangy and tender sinews of beef are sandwiched between two toasted tortillas along with some sharp pickled onions. The nuttiness of the maize used in the tortillas was still palpable underneath all the crispiness.

The ‘quesatacos’ also comes as part of the birria set, taking the mulita formula and removing one tortilla while adding melted cheese. The gooey dairy wasn’t the most memorable example of its kind, but then it didn’t need to be given that the beef and carbs were the stars here. Sometimes even a light daubing of modest lactic gooeyness can go a long way.

You also get a pair of so-called ‘soft shell’ tacos which sees the beef ladled onto smaller, floppier yet still toasted tortillas.

Other tacos at Taca Tacos

All of Taca’s non-beef tacos use soft, fluffy and nutty corn tortillas.

Although not a patch on the best pork tacos from nearbyish La Chingada, Taca’s porcine effort still had its charms. The pork was relatively fatty, tender and moist, although it did lean on pickled onions, avocado and a modestly piquant salsa to pick up the slack.

Tender, moist chicken had a fruity moreishness that was helped along by a similar trio of avocado, pickled onions and salsa. It wasn’t as dependent on them as the pork though, with a more consistently strong taste throughout.

Surprisingly, it was the pescatarian and vegetarian options at Taca Tacos that had the most to say for themselves, and not the pork, even if they weren’t as colourfully vocal as the birria.

Although thin mushrooms had been used in the ‘pulled ‘shrooms quesataco’, they were nonetheless supple, earthy and meaty. Paired with gooey cheese and then lashed with a surprisingly sprightly sauce, these were by no means a second-rate consolation prize for vegetarians.

Vegetarianism at Taca Tacos wasn’t just about mushrooms. Hearty, nutty black beans meshed well with a creamy feta-like cheese. The pair were bound together by the same sprightly sauce that graced the mushroom tacos.

Battered fish worth eating is hard to find, in London at least. While the batter used in Taca’s pescatarian option was an unmemorable affair, the meaty flakes of fish underneath were satisfyingly moist. The dill-flecked tartar sauce made for a classic pairing.

The Verdict

Taca Tacos’ efforts aren’t quite as polished and well-executed as the best dishes at La Chingada. But when hits its stride – most enjoyably so in its birria and birria-adjacent dishes – it’s not too far behind. If it can only resist the urge to add extraneous chuffery to its tacos and focus on the basics, then it could be truly great rather than just very good. Even so, to have two gobbleworthy Mexican eateries in south east London (or three depending on how one defines south east as opposed to central) is nothing short of miraculous.

What to order: The birria set; any of the vegetarian tacos

What to skip: Nothing was truly bad enough to be worth avoiding entirely

Name: Taca Tacos

Branch tried: Deptford Market Yard, London SE8 4AR

Phone: none listed

Web: https://www.tacatacos.co.uk

Opening Hours: Wednesday-Thursday 18.00-21.30; Friday noon-15.00 and 18.00-22.00. Saturday noon-16.00 and 18.00-22.00. Sunday noon-17.00. Closed Monday-Tuesday. 

Reservations? not taken.

Average cost for one person including soft drinks: £20 approx. (£30-35 if you push the boat out as I did)

Rating: ★★★★☆