"Mendoza’s is the quintessential style of taqueria, the kind that’s towards the back of a tiendita. If you’re here during lunchtime, you’ll see the line when you walk in. Otherwise, just let whoever’s working the register know that you’d like some tacos. They’ll lead you past the butcher case and over to the guisados case, where you’ll make your selection from the five or six available stews. Mendoza’s is also a butcher shop, and there isn’t a printed menu — the guisados change daily, with wider variety than the usual taco truck hits. Sometimes there’s beef shank with purslane in salsa verde, sometimes there’s smoked pork chops with cactus stewed in morita chile. If the stars align, there will be goat birria. If it’s Saturday, there will definitely be barbacoa. And Mendoza’s tortillas are handmade onsite: fresh, pliable, redolent with corn aroma and flavor, the platonic ideal for tacos." - Megan Hill, Jade Yamazaki Stewart, Mark DeJoy
