Taqueria Y Rostiseria El Rey — Restaurant in Riverdale Park

It is impossible to find proper Mexican in Hawaii, but I am thankfully in DC on business, and I am eternally thankful that my co-workers have introduced me to this place. Fue exactamente lo que un chico de Tejas muriendo de hambre necesitaba por el almuerzo. This is a hole-in-the-wall establishment feeding local people a taste of home.

The tacos are great, with handmade tortillas. La comida típica de mi niñez. Fairly hearty, too. Two or three at lunch will fill me up. Other items on the menu are fine (try un huarache!), but the tacos are the best. Salsa is okay. Not too spicy, but still a hint of bite. A decent selection from tomatillo to other peppers and some pickled jalapenos. Their juices and horchata are okay, if a little on the sweet side.

A little cognitive dissonance to realize that their plates were probably hilariously intended for a Chinese restaurant, but the pattern on the plate does not change the quality of the food. The staff is all bilingual to one degree or another, but they will show un poco de paciencia for those not so fluent. Once you've placed your order, wait for staff to call you and bring it to your table.

I am told that the restroom is not always...

The downfall of this restaurant it's lack of customer service. My family came for mother's day lunch and we waited for 30 minutes for 1 of our meals. I get that restaurants get busy and everything but after we ordered all of the other food came out promptly and there was a long line for take out and they were given their food promptly. So after the 30 minutes we didn't want the fajitas anymore so we went up to ask for a refund and they got mad at us for asking for the refund. That wasn't the only issue. We had asked for napkins, salt and more salsa but we didn't get anything. There were also other customers who were having issues.

It's sad because the food there is decent but honestly I will not be returning or anybody else...

Was in DC and had a craving for tacos. Ordered a carne asada taco, chorizo taco and a carne asada torta. The tacos are just average and the sauces are spicy but nothing special as far as flavor. The torta was an absolute mess. The carne asada was extremely tasteless and had a rubber consistency. The beans in the torta were way too watery and lacking in flavor as well. The worst ofender was the cheese, which was an ungodly amount. Part of it was melted yet a big slab of it was still cold. I think that the bread they use is very low quality so it can’t stand heat very much or for a long enough time to fully melt all the cheese. Not sure whether today was indicative of the food quality here but will not be going back...