Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Tacos of The King

I could live on salsa.
In my modified low carb lifestyle, I've given up a lot of things like pastries and white rice and pasta, but I'm not about to give up salsa. En contraire, I seek it out in this salsa deprived land.
Taco Del Rey is located at 330 SW 43rd Street in Renton, 425-251-0100, tacodelrey.com
They've got great salsa, very good food, and an amiable owner who likes to chat and is obviously a character.
Some waitstaff in other restaurants frown disapprovingly and get confused when I request extra salad instead of rice and beans. Others act shocked, as if I were nuts- "you DON'T want rice?"
But Martin Reyes, the owner of Taco Del Rey, is a character, and can't simply politely take my odd order silently. He has to comment. He believes in a healthy lifestyle, gets plenty of exercise, goes to the gym, drinks a protein powder, blueberry and yogurt shake for breakfast , loves tortillas with melted feta, and seems quite fit, but then goes on to kvetch about all his ailments. The guy is fun, and he's funny.
And the food is clearly way above average Seattle area Mexican food, with reasonable prices to boot.
The menu is extensive, and they serve beer. Martin Reyes likes beer.
Diane ordered Camarones al mojo de ajo, and the shrimp were fairly large, not overcooked and full of yummy garlic.
Fajitas were my choice, and the carne asada was nice and tender.
He does a grilled veggie burrito, huevos rancheros, along with a number of fish and shrimp dishes.
And has a salsa bar, which he charges fifty cents for after the first free refill.
It might be worth it to just pay him a few bucks extra and see if he'll let you go hog wild with the salsa, which I think is Renton's best.
So where is the place?
It's near Ikea, near the Great Wall Shopping Center, just down the road from the East Valley Cinema, just down the road from Southcenter.
If you're in that neck of the woods, it's definitely worth a stop, an independant taco place in a land of chains.

2 comments:

Freakazoid Freddy said...

You could pick the pepper now or wait a couple of weeks and they'll change color, turn reddish.
Many of my melon plants died, I had something like 18, now I've got 5 alive...Did yours also go to melon plant heaven?

Freakazoid Freddy said...

Either fungus, or perhaps they refused to grow without getting watered?