It was almost three years ago that I first wrote up El Triunfo, a small family-run Mexican eatery and market in Northfield, MN. We’ve been eating there at a regular clip since and the time seems right to post a quick update on the blog. It’s not that there have been major changes to the menu. In fact, not only are there are no new things on the menu since I last reviewed them but a few things have dropped off the menu. Tragically, they no longer have goat barbacoa on the weekends (I was told a while ago that not enough people were ordering it) and some of the things on the regular menu have also dropped off. Business on the whole, however, I am happy to say, seems to be going really well.

They’ve become more established and have been receiving greater attention from the town’s mainstream. The seating area has expanded. In fact, the main seating now is in the front of the restaurant where five or six tables are available (the tables in the back are still there too). The ordering process is also now much more streamlined: you pay as you order, which means you don’t have to stand in line twice.The only other major change is that their kids are much grown up and not around as much as they used to be. The food is still cooked to order and is still not going to arrive very quickly at your table but it will still be very good when it does. The highlight on the menu is still the daily special chicken tinga—which you can still get in a burrito, on a taco or sope, in a torta or, best of all, as an entree with beans, rice and tortillas; oh, and Chef Alicia Hernandez is still making her green salsa (popularly known as crack salsa).

As I said, we eat there quite regularly but I’ve not bothered to include pictures below of most of the things that I already covered in that first writeup. So if you’re looking for details on more of their food you may want to click through to that previous review.

Here’s something I don’t get very often but like every time I do: a whole tilapia, lightly seasoned and deep fried to a crisp. Served with rice, beans and tortillas. Plus crack salsa.

Unnecessary close-up.

Thinly sliced and seared beef steak with onions, over rice and beans etc.

Ditto for the cecina.

Here’s another dish we’ve been eating more of recently: thinly sliced and marinated pork with onions over rice etc.

Here’s an excellent quesadilla with their signature tinga de pollo inside.

Here’s a torta with the same chicken inside.

Here’s a torta with the same chicken inside.

And a plate of their carnitas. On this occasion the carnitas was a little tired but it’s usually very good.

Well, looking at these pictures again reminds me that quality Mexican food is going to be in short supply in London and that I should really eat at El Triunfo again before I leave. If you’re a Northfield resident reading this who for some reason still hasn’t been, you really should go. If you’re visiting our town or environs you should stop in. And if you live elsewhere in the US where Mexican and other Hispanic populations are small, please consider supporting similar family-run establishments in your area. In the current political and rhetorical climate in the US this support will be appreciated in more ways than one.