Santa Monica doesn’t exactly have a reputation for good food. And what reputation it does have usually tends to lean on the upscale. But reputation alone does not simply make a city, and Santa Monica actually has a surprising number of little gems hidden in its nooks and crannies. One of these, I had heard, was Tacos Por Favor.
Yet, aside from actually hearing of Tacos Por Favor, I hadn’t really been told what was good on their menu, so when I arrived and found a vast menu full of nearly every Mexican dish I had ever heard of, I was in trouble.
So I did what any rational gringo lost in a sea of Mexican food would do – ordered tacos. In this case, I went for their 2 Soft Taco Combo, which came with beans and rice. The tacos were topped with meat of my choosing (one carne asada and the other al pastor), salsa, cilantro and onions. As always, I had no tolerance for onions, so I ordered without and then got a side of guacamole to make up for it.
Pretty soon, my combo was ready and I grabbed it along with a couple of additional salsas to accompany my meal. To say that I was disappointed by the portion of my $1.25 side of guacamole would be an understatement. If there was more than one ounce in there, I would have be shocked. But maybe the guac was awesome, so I forked it out onto my tacos and went to work. It was good, but nothing near awesome and nothing close making the $1.25 worth it. The tacos themselves were good and packed pretty nicely with meat, but didn’t exactly offer much more than I could get at your average taco truck. This is not to knock the tacos in any way, but to simply say that such tacos are a dime a dozen.
So maybe I ordered the wrong thing and Tacos Por Favor has some intensely amazing burrito that deliciously sat in the corner crying as I ordered the wrong thing. In any case, Tacos Por Favor is worthwhile if you happen to be nearby, but if not you can probably do better in your own part of LA.