Carlos N.
Yelp
Growing up in California and frequenting many taquerias, I stumbled upon the law of size/quality. Briefly, the law states that the quality of food in a taqueria is inversely proportional to the size of said establishment. This being my second trip for Mexican food in Sunset Park, I found the law to be in full effect. The other place I went to was small, cramped, and dimly lit compared to this place, and as such, this brighter, cleaner, more spacious establishment offered up an inferior food product.
Don Paco's is actually a two for one deal, with the panaderia occupying a sliver of a store and the food serving portion occupying the slot next door, with the two connected by a generous hallway in the back.
The beverage cooler was well stocked with a wide variety of Jarritos, which was nice.
It turned out that when I visited, they were out of tacos and certain kinds of meat. Not sure how they were "out" of tacos but could still serve up other stuff like tortas, unless, I guess, they ran out of tortillas. But this didn't bother me, as I was looking forward to a torta anyway.
They have several kinds of tortas from which to order, each stuffed with different combinations of fillings. Alternatively, you could sort of build your own. I opted for the latter option and ordered a chorizo con huevo torta with quesillo and avocado. The basic torta cost five bucks and the quesillo and avocado were about 1.50 extra.
Although, on the whole, the torta was pretty good, my standards are pretty demanding of Mexican food (not that I wont eat/appreciate most Mexican food I come across, but if I'm going to praise it, it better be really damn good), and in this case, Don Paco's was not good enough to be held up for praise.
They prepared the chorizo y huevo so that it came as this patty-like thing. It seems they scrambled the eggs along with tiny pieces of chorizo so that in the end it seemed more like a veggie burger patty than any huevos con chorizo I've ever encountered. For me, the allure of the scrambled egg and sausage is the combination of fluffy, moist egg punctuated with flavorful chunks of chorizo goodness. So, the "chorizo'n'egg patty" was definitely not up to snuff.
Otherwise, it was a pretty standard torta. Not bad, but not particularly mind-blowing. So, on the food alone, I'd give this place a three.
But, right next door is a panaderia. So, I'm bumping this up to four stars because I was able to enjoy the wonderful Mexican bakery smell as I ate my food and was able to pick up some conchas and bolillo to take home.
All in all, four stars for satiating my hunger for a taste of home.