We really need a historical survey of the Twin Cities metro’s casual Mexican restaurants. As I never tire of telling people who don’t live in Minnesota, there is a large and growing Mexican (and more broadly Hispanic) population here and a large and growing Mexican food scene to match. This is, of course, true almost everywhere in the US now, but casual Mexican is probably the most dependable category of food in the Twin Cities metro now. No matter where you go you are probably not more than a 5-10 minute drive from some excellent tacos, quesadillas and more. Someone more steeped in the scene than me should map all these places (to the extent it would be possible to map them all) and annotate them briefly with years of founding, names of proprietors and chefs and so on. I am not equipped to do that for you; but I can tell you what we thought of our lunch this past Sunday at an excellent place to grab tacos and more in South Minneapolis: Tacos El Kevin.

Now, the first thing you will reasonably wonder when hearing of Tacos El Kevin is, what’s with the name? Well, the restaurant is named for the proprietors’ son. I’m not sure how old he is now but I hope he is proud of the association. His namesake restaurant is located at the corner of Portland Ave. and 38th St. in a convenience store. My understanding is that when the restaurant first opened it was just a counter in the store. Now, while there are still shelves and refrigerators lining the walls, the restaurant seating has taken over the space and most people are coming there predominantly to eat. Ordering happens at the counter by the door; you pay and get a receipt with a number and the food is brought out to your table when it’s ready. When you’re done you clear your own table.

The menu is not over-large. You can get their namesake tacos with a variety of meats and you can also get those meats in quesadillas and tortas and burritos. There are some other dishes too on the menu and you should also not miss the board of specials by the counter. We were there with a couple of friends we dine out with often and we ordered a mix of dishes from the regular menu and the specials board.

What did we get? A mix of things, mostly to share. First up, a pair of tacos from the regular menu, one with tripa (intestines) and one with cabeza (meat from the head). From the specials board we got an order of sopes. These come four to the order and you can get a maximum of two meats: we got two with lengua (tongue) and two al pastor. The adults shared all of these. The older boy got his go-to order: a quesadilla with al pastor; the younger boy got an order of tacos dorados. Three to the order, these can be got with three different meats if you prefer. he selected asada, pollo and chicharron. The adults also shared two larger dishes from the specials board: a bowl of their pozole (they kindly gave us small takeout containers so we could split it up), which came with not the usual tostadas but with more tacos dorados; and a plate of the costillas en salsa verde. Because we’re greedy we added one more order of tacos dorados at the end (with carnitas, suadero and tinga).

How was everything? Very good. Of the meats on/in the tacos, my favourites were the cabeza, the lengua, the tripa and the suadero. The sopes and tacos dorados were both very good and the older boy reported that his quesadilla was excellent as well. But my favourite dishes at the meal may well have been the pozole (once fully dressed and with some extra salt added) and the costillas. The pork ribs were cooked to falling off the bone perfection and the salsa verde packed some serious yet subtle heat: not very apparent at first or second bite but building gradually in the background—would highly recommend you get this if available when you go. It comes with tortillas as well as rice and stewed beans.

For a look at the restaurant, the menu, and everything we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it all cost and to see what’s coming next on the food front.

The restaurant wasn’t very full when we arrived a little before 12.30, but when we left a little over an hour later, it was pretty packed with Mexican families (large bowls of pozole seemed to be on almost every table). Price? Before tip, the total for everything we ate plus two bottles of Mexican Coke was just around $105. With tip factored in that was about $21/head. Very good value for the quality and quantity of food. If I lived within a short drive I’d be here often. Would I recommend you drive further to eat there? Well, you won’t be disappointed if you do, but it’s a neighbourhood restaurant and—as I suggested up top—if you live in the Twin Cities there’s a good chance there’s a pretty good Mexican restaurant in its vein closer to your neighbourhood as well.

Okay, what’s next on the food front? I only have two reports to go from Seoul and may try to wrap them up this week. Or I might mix it up and throw a report from the missus and my recent New York jaunt in there. Let’s see how it goes.