Taco Task Force: Los Angeles Potato Tacos

Potatoes provide a canvas for enterprising chefs to prepare flavorful foods like French fries, latkes, and in this case, tacos.

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STOP #3: EL ATACOR #11 [CLOSED]
2622 North Figueroa Avenue, Cypress Park, 323 832 9263

Atacor #1 is right down the street, but more people eat at the eleventh installment of “The Attacker” due to Jonathan Gold’s review. The highlight of Jose Amador’s 12-year-old restaurant is undoubtedly the murals, one featuring an Aztec pyramid, another depicting an ocean swimming with a mermaid, shark, octopus and dolphin. As if that wasn’t fun enough, you’ll also find a jukebox and a “Lethal Weapon 3” pinball machine.

Atacor #11 slathered our greasy cluster of overlapping gut bombs ($1 apiece) in thin crema, thinner guac, shredded Cheddar and Jack. Our tacos appeared on bed of shredded lettuce and diced tomatoes, with a side of chile-flecked tomatillo salsa. Admittedly, the potato was probably the best seasoned all day, but the surrounding glop did the potato no favors.

Grade of Key Ingredient: Jo 1.5, B 2, Ja 2, M 3 AVERAGE 2.125/5
Condiment/Tortilla: Jo 1.5, B 1.5, Ja 3, M 2 AVERAGE 2/5
Overall Flavor: Jo 2, B 2.5, Ja 4, M 3 AVERAGE 2.875/5
Cooking: Jo 1.5, B 2, Ja 3.5, M 2.5 AVERAGE 2.375/5

OVERALL EL ATACOR #11 TACO SCORE: 2.34375/5

STOP #4: La Parrilla
2126 Cesar Chavez Boulevard, Boyle Heights, 323 262 3434

Mary Carmen has owned this Boyle Heights institution since 1978. When we arrived, decorations were out of control for Easter, looking like a party store exploded.

Potato Tacos ($8.95) were only available as part of a two-taco plate, including rice, beans, creamy guac and sour cream. The tacos were clean tasting but bland, with diced potatoes fried in vegetable oil and layered with bell pepper, diced tomato, shaved carrot andshredded lettuce and diced tomato. The rich cheese-laden beans had a lot more flavor than the potato tacos. Unfortunately for La Parrilla, this wasn’t the Bean Task Force.

Grade of Key Ingredient: Jo 2, B 1.5, Ja 2.5, M 2 AVERAGE 2/5
Condiment/Tortilla: Jo 1.5, B 1.5, Ja 2.5, M 2.5 AVERAGE 2/5
Overall Flavor: Jo 1.5, B 1, Ja 2.5, M 1.5 AVERAGE 1.625/5
Cooking: Jo 1.5, B 1.5, Ja 2.5, M 1 AVERAGE 1.625/5

OVERALL LA PARRILLA TACO SCORE: 1.8125/5

STOP #5: La Casita Mexicana
4030 East Gage Avenue, Bell, 323 773 1898

I couldn’t help but devour the complimentary tortilla chips drizzled with moles Poblano, pepian and verde. Somehow, I managed to down a lime agua fresca with a sinker of chia seeds. Was I stalling? Probably, since only one of the day’s tacos was (possibly) worth repeating up to this point. We somehow rallied to try LCM’s potato tacos.

Jaime Martin del Campo clearly produced one of the best potato tacos of the day, but they couldn’t compare to the other dishes that La Casita Mexicana was featuring for Cuaresma (Lent), which didn’t factor into potato taco scoring.

Jaime Martin del Campo fried tortillas to order in soybean oil, filling them with small Dutch potatoes. The toppings consisted of brothy tomato salsa, romaine strips, salty cotija-dusted tomato slices and strips of red onion. The ingredients were clearly first rate.

My favorite dish was probably tangy pollock ceviche with Serrano chilies, onions and lime juice.

Tortitas – spongy egg white and salted shrimp fritters – were topped with mole Poblano and romeritos, a pungent herb.

We also devoured salty-sweet Queso de Hierbas presented on a in banana leaf-lined dish.

Since La Casita Mexicana was our last stop, we indulged in textbook flan.

Grade of Key Ingredient: Jo 2.5, B 3, Ja 4, M 3 AVERAGE 3.125/5
Condiment/Tortilla: Jo 3.5, B 3, Ja 3.5, M 3.5 AVERAGE 3.375/5
Overall Flavor: Jo 3, B 2.5, Ja 3.5, M 3 AVERAGE 3/5
Cooking: Jo 3, B 3, Ja 4, M 4 AVERAGE 3.5/5

OVERALL LA CASITA MEXICANA TACO SCORE: 3.28125/5

Overall, it was little surprise that La Casita Mexicana won, since Jaime Martin del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu run the best restaurant on our crawl. Still, saying that a restaurant produces the best potato taco in Los Angeles still isn’t saying all that much. By the end of our mission, we were all ready to move on to barbacoa, a more substantial and no doubt more satisfying option.