El Farolito

Restaurant Review

Maya Martínez Coronado 3o Secundaria

I first arrived at El Farolito Hipódromo Condesa, a popular taco and Mexican food chain restaurant, at about 3:00 p.m. on a Saturday. This particular branch was a twenty minute-walk from my house, which made it incredibly convenient to get there. It is open from 2:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., which adds to its convenience. Since there are branches all over Mexico City, you will never have a hard time finding one to eat at. I was afraid it would be busy, especially at this hour, but I had no trouble finding a nice spot to sit at.

The restaurant was incredibly loud, not because of people chatting, but because of the two huge televisions at full volume outside. One was playing inappropriate music videos and the other a football match which made it difficult to have a conversation.

Ordering the food also proved to be a hassle since the waiter service was incredibly poor. The three waiters assigned to the outside area didn’t seem to be busy, since they would stand around talking to each other instead of paying attention to the customers. When you would try to get the attention of any of them, they would look straight at you and blatantly ignore you.

After about ten minutes of trying, I was finally able to get my order taken. My order consisted of one jar of lime juice, one taco al pastor, one carnitas taco, one steak taco, and one ribeye taco. I was surprised at the price of these tacos, since they were cheap for a restaurant. The price of a taco ranged between $40 and $70. Of course, street food is a lot cheaper, but for a restaurant it was very affordable.

Thankfully, the food only took about five minutes to arrive at the table. I started drinking my lime juice, which was freshly squeezed from its very natural, fruity taste. I was pleasantly surprised as to the low quantity of sugar the juice had, since it can be detrimental to the body and to the taste of the drink. You could taste the small pieces of pulp in the juice, and it was a fine light green color.

I then started on my meal. The first taco was definitely my favorite one. I added a few drops of the fresh green spicy sauce that the waiter had placed in the center of my table when I had arrived. This taco al pastor was cooked to perfection and the meat was incredibly fresh too. This was supported by the fact that you could see the huge “trompo” where the meat was cooking from the outside through a window into the kitchen.

The second taco was a carnitas taco. The meat tasted less fresh, as though it had been frozen for a few days before being cooked. It was also overcooked, yet unpleasantly squishy and gelatinous. Nonetheless, it was still a good taco, although underwhelming.

The next taco was a steak taco, which was overcooked as well and it was hard to bite. The meat was cut in long strips which were hard to bite into since the meat was dry. This was my least favorite, but I had gotten a different experience with this taco when I had gone to this particular restaurant another time before.

Finally, I moved onto my last taco, the ribeye taco. The meat was medium-well, which is my favorite way of cooking meat but it could be unpleasant for other customers. The center of every slice was red and juicy, which made for a great combination with the coriander and onion I added onto the taco.

In conclusion, this restaurant is definitely worth going for since it has great accessibility and even greater food. Despite that, the service and environment are poor, although you could get a different experience with another branch. Even if getting my order taken was difficult, I will definitely be going back and I will recommend it to my friends looking for a tasty taco restaurant to go to.