Tacos La Bala — Restaurant in Houston

On our annual trips to Isla Mujeres (off Cancun in Mexico), we eat 60% of our meals at this food stand where Mayra sells memelas with fresh pressed masa. Another spot we frequent has literally the best beef burritos and birria tacos. You can imagine we miss them every time we leave.

So we embarked on our mission to find a comparable spot here in Houston. After all, we're the closest metropolis to Cancun.

There are quite a few taco spots in the geographical rectangle encased by Clay and West Little York, between Highway 6 and Gessner, and Tacos La Bala is one of them. There 3 other locations throughout Houston, and we tried out this spot.

The restaurant is clean, and while service isn't overly friendly, it's fine. The menu is in both English and Spanish. The hubby commented that he likes how they wash the outsides of the sauce bottles (no drips or grease). The ordering is counter service.

I was curious about the cecina plate but no one had posted a picture of it so I didn't want to risk it with a lower turnover item.

We also asked for tacos with homemade corn tortilla. The tortilla itself tasted more like a mix between masa (corn flour) and flour, and while that wasn't up to snuff, we reminded ourselves that we are not in Mexico, and it was plenty good.

Onto the tacos we got: Tripa crispy, 1/5 - got this per reviews but this was pretty much just fried fat. I couldn't finish it. Cochinita pibil, 4.5/5 - easytop choice! Best flavors and not as greasy Lengua, 3.5/5 - pretty good Barbacoa, 4/5 - good flavors but a bit too greasy for me I just realized they didn’t give us any cotija cheese on our tacos. What the.

I was surprised that the sauces and meat tasted barely seasoned. It's the first time I added table salt at a restaurant, but this is not a bad thing. I'd much rather add salt than to get over-salted food.

The clear winner was the burrito that we got with two items (fajita and chicharrones, or pork skin) - off the menu but at $7.20 before tax and tip. The picture doesn't look great because I had already taken bites out of it, and the fluorescent light doesn't do anything for it, but it was yum. That said, we asked ourselves whether we would get this burrito at $9.25 or a Chipotle burrito at $14.50; the hubby says Chipotle (which is also nearly twice the size), and for me, I think it would depend on the mood.

I can't say this place is comparable to our spot in Mexico, but we are not in Mexico, and this is a pretty affordable option for solid food. An easy 4/5, and when we’re back, we’ll ask for cheese and maybe try the sopes.

Edit: Had to downgrade because we both had stomach issues...

As close to authentic as you can get. Ordered at the counter, cashier is fluent bilingual, answered all of our questions to help us make our breakfast choices. Food was brought out very quickly, as it was ready, but not in a way that the first person was done eating by the time the last thing came out. The server was attentive but not chatty. Since I hadn't had coffee yet, that was fine by me. I felt the need to add salt to my food, but my husband thought it was perfect as is. It's definitely easier to add salt, so it's all good. The coffee is served with a big milk dispenser, but I considered the coffee good enough to drink black. Strong, but not bitter nor burnt tasting. The menudo was really good with lots of tripe. I was disappointed it didn't have hominy, but my daughter, who picks the hominy out, was thrilled. The breakfast tacos were tasty and just the right size. A dehebrada taco on corn was very flavorful. The place has an assortment of different sized tables. It wasn't packed, and we easily found a table despite there being plenty of people. I would guess the majority of the people eating there were Hispanic, but I saw a couple of other ethnicities represented, and the pick-up counter was constantly busy. I'll definitely come back and try...

As the one star reviews have mentioned I don’t know if the staff is necessarily “rude” but they are weird. Not very welcoming. Awkward at best. But that usually doesn’t bother me as long as the food is great and food was pretty good! We got a small order of 4 street tacos, 2 trompo and 2 “fajita” (probably carne asada) and they were somewhat dry but the flavor was there. They provide two types of salsas and those were super good. This isn’t in my part of town so I don’t know if or when I’ll be back but I’d recommend it. The prices are great too. Cheaper than many tacos trucks and that’s considering that they have to pay for rent, electricity, etc etc. Something I found interesting was we sat next to an older Asian couple. To me that says the food is great, when people from different cultures are trying out or like foods from other...