Taqueria El Padrino Bar & grill — Restaurant in Ruston

Located at Exit 85 South in the pre-tornado Pizza Hut building, just right off I-20, and I mean RIGHT THERE if you were heading East. Ate at 1:30pm on a Monday. Only 3 people in the place. Service was fast. I ordered 2 of the Street Tacos Padrino and the Burrito Hidalgo plate dinner. The cook was fast. I am on a low salt diet, so was pleased that I had to add a dash of salt to each taco. They were quite good. But the chili con carne on the burrito was a little salty for me, but OK for most folks. Chips were no salt as well which paired nicely with the salsa. Salsa had a unique flavor, similar to what I have had in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Las Vegas, New Mexico. I think they use poblano peppers in it, plus a dash of cumin. It tasted very good, also very fresh. Refried beans and rice were standard issue, nothing great but nothing bad. Monster sized...

Service was good. Salsa lacked flavor but was ok. Can't complain since it was complimentary. I tried the mexican guacamole and it came with tons of onions! Tons! And the avocado was just cut into chunks/cubes. It wasn't your normal guacamole so I had to mash the avocado myself to make it into guacamole. It was too onion-y though. We also had queso dip which was good. For the entree, I ordered the shrimp chimichanga, which comes with rice, beans, and fixings. The rice was delicious (ordered double rice, no beans).

My biggest complaint is: the shrimp in the chimichange were not properly cleaned/deveined. Still had the poop lines which was 🤢. My mom had shrimp nachos and her shrimp weren't properly deviened either.

Please de-vein the shrimp prior...

The queso, salsa, & chips were good. The margaritas were 2 for 1, which is always a huge plus. Husband got house margarita & I got a mango one. Both good. I got the Birria tacos which were very good. Husband got carne asada - it was maybe 1/8” thick, and well done. He said it tasted like liver, and it looked like a thin slab of ham. Definitely would not order it again. We had heard the owners used to be affiliated with the old El Toro, and it had excellent carne asada so he had really been looking forward to that but it was definitely not like that one used to be. Worth going, but don’t get...