After a string of write-ups of meals at more expensive/fancy restaurants (Tenant, Hyacinth, Bucheron), let’s close out the month in restaurant reviews with a report from the opposite end of the spectrum.

I’ve been thinking for a while that I need to spend more time exploring casual Mexican restaurants in the southern suburbs of the Twin Cities. We’ve been seeing more and more of these on the occasions when we take the scenic route from Burnsville or Apple Valley down to Northfield where we live but we haven’t really tried any of them (beyond Homshuk). Which brings us, in a roundabout manner, to El Super Taco. They have two locations: the original in Burnsville and another in Apple Valley.

I’m not sure how long the original El Super Taco has been in business in Burnsville. They’re located in the same large strip mall by the intersection of Highway 13 and Cliff Rd. that houses Saigon Market (and Pho Tempo) and Thai Curry House. We noticed them for the first time a year or so ago when we happened to depart from a different direction than usual after shopping at Saigon Market. And a couple of weeks ago when we were in the market for a quick lunch between errand in the general vicinity we decided to finally give them a try. And we were very glad we did as we really enjoyed the food.

The Burnsville location is compact. When you enter through the front, the counter at which you order is right there. And if you arrive at lunchtime on a weekday, as we did, you’re liable to find a line. There were lots of people waiting to order and pick up their food, some to eat in, some to take out. We were there to eat in and grabbed one of the many four-tops and perused the menu on the wall behind the counter at leisure. As you’ll see from the slideshow below, the menu is not vast. This is usually a good sign. The main action here is tacos. You can get them Mexican or American-style (the latter involves flour tortillas, sour cream and pico de gallo) and with a choice of a few meat options. There’s also the inevitable quesabirria option with three crisped up tacos and a bowl of consome to dip them in. Beyond that you can get tortas or gorditas or quesadillas or enchiladas or tostadas (all with the same protein options). You can also get something called the Super Espada, which is basically a 20″ long taco. This seemed like a very popular choice among the Mexican construction workers eating at the restaurant.

What did we get? The older boy got a quesadilla with al pastor—you can get quesadillas here with corn or flour tortillas and he opted for the corn. The younger boy got the quesabirria. The missus got three street tacos (lengua, carnitas, and barbacoa). And I got the gorditas. This comes two to the order and the cashier readily agreed to give me separate meats on each (tinga de pollo and tripa). I can tell you we were all very happy with our food. The missus and I thought the lengua and the tripa were particularly outstanding but all the toppings/stuffings were good. Also very good were the salsas from their self-service condiment station. And the price wasn’t bad either: before tip the total for all of the above plus three soft drinks was just north of $60.

Flash forward to a week later and I was driving through Apple Valley, feeling pangs of hunger and made a beeline for their second location. This is also located in a strip mall, albeit a considerably larger one (one of the 75 strip malls along Cedar Avenue that are anchored by a Cub Foods. I arrived at pretty much the same time for a weekday lunch as we had the previous week at the other location but found far fewer people there. While I was there a total of three other tables were occupied and not very much food was being ordered to go either. Did I catch then on an off day or is this location not as busy? Hard to say.  It is a more attractive space, brighter with a lot of tables as well as counter seating overlooking the open kitchen but with so few people there it didn’t quite sport the vibe of the other place. The food, however, was still quite good. This time I got a torta and I got it with al pastor and I enjoyed it very much (and it filled me up nicely).

For a look at both locations and what we/I ate there, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see what’s coming next.

On the whole, a very good find—I’m sure others have known about them for a while but you didn’t tell me, did you, you bastards? Odds are good that the Burnsville location will put a dent into our default choice of Pho Tempo lunch after Saigon Market food shopping; the Apple Valley location we’ll probably hit up more when stuck in the area. For people who live within reach of good Mexican food elsewhere in the metro, I wouldn’t say there’s a strong reason to make a drive to El Super—though if you do, get the gorditas with lengua and tripa.

There will be no Twin Cities meal reports in July. There will, however, be a number of brief reports from Japan and South Korea—probably more than once a week—so come back if you’re interested in those. Otherwise, I will see you in August. If you have any intel on other good Mexican restaurants in the South Metro to check out on my return, please let me know.