Sometimes, the best taquerias are located at gas stations. That's the case with this taqueria,…read moreTaqueria Morelos, located at the Chevron on the corner of Atlanta and Austell Roads in Marietta. I'm not gonna lie -- this is a sketchy part of town, but the food inside is good. To give you a sense of the vibe, when we visited, the customers were mostly blue-collar.
Taqueria Morelos has its own space, separate of Chevron's Food Mart. For a convenience store taqueria, the dining room is fairly spacious with several tables, a salsa bar, and TV. It's not much to look at. You order at the register. Drinks aren't self-serve, but eating utensils and napkins are. Both dine-in and takeout seemed popular during our visit. If you dine in, your meal is served on real plates as opposed to disposable dishware. The single-stall men's restroom was ehh... clean enough, but there weren't any paper towels or a hand dryer, so that was annoying.
The menu is sizable. The regular menu is written completely in Spanish. The to-go menu is in English, but it doesn't have pricing. There's an extensive selection of tortas ($5-7 each), burritos ($5.25-6.00 each), gorditas ($4.50-5.00), tacos ($1.99-2.25 each), nachos ($10.00-11.50 for a full order, $7 for a half order), soups ($12 whole, $8 half), huaraches ($6.50-7.00 each), plates with a main, salad, rice, beans, and tortillas ($8.00-13.00 each for adults, $4.50 each for kids), chicken wings ($8 for a full order, $5.50 for a medium order), flautas ($8 per plate), enchiladas ($10.00-11.50 per plate), tostadas ($3.25-3.75 each), sincronizadas (similar to a quesadillas, $6.50-7.50 each), sopes ($6.50-7.25 for three or $2.75 for one), quesadillas ($3.50-4.00 each), apps and sides like guac ($4.50), cheese dip ($3.50), and fries, and desserts such as flan ($2.50-3.50 each). Beverage-wise, they offer aguas frescas (tamarindo, jamaica, horchata, and pina, $1.75 for a medium, $2.25 for a large), and sodas including Jarritos and Mexican coke ($2 each). No cerveza (beer).
The restaurant offers up to 12-15 protein or vegetable options for your taco, burrito, quesadilla, etc. It's bigger than the typical Mexican restaurant selection. A few of the more interesting examples include hongos (mushrooms), nopales (cacti), and borrego (lamb). The lady who worked at the register spoke good English, so she was able to translate several items on the menu for me.
Here's what I tried:
Tacos ($1.99 each):
* Pastor
* Asada
* Carnitas
* Chorizo
* Tinga
Sopes ($2.75 each):
* Suadero
* Chorizo
* Gordita nopales ($4.50)
* Huarache deshebrada de res ($6.50)
* Horchata (medium size, $1.75)
In general, I thought the food and drink were delicious. I can see why this place is highly rated on Yelp. All of the ingredients were fresh and good quality and our orders came out quick. Credit card was accepted.
All the tacos came on single-layer handmade (according to the menu) flour tortillas with white onion and cilantro. You have the option of corn tortillas too, but I'm not sure we specified. I'm pretty sure our tortillas were flour. I noticed the onion and cilantro on the tacos were chopped finer than the onion and cilantro I've had at most other taquerias. The taco meat fillings were generous and the meat quality was good. I was impressed. All of the meats were moist, flavorful, and appetizing. They were nicely cooked and seasoned. I can't say I preferred one over another; they were all tasty, even the tinga (chicken), and I rarely think chicken tacos are very good. The asada taco was one of the best I've had in recent memory.
The sopes were piled high with meat, white cheese, tomato, and avocado. The masa base was thick and crisp. Yum. The sopes were consistent with the tacos. The ingredients were fresh and flavorful and the portions were generous. The suadero, which is a cut of meat from between a cow's belly and leg, was grilled, tender, and savory. The chorizo was exceptionally tasty.
The gordita nopales was my least favorite item of the things we tried. It was kind of like a soft tortilla sandwich filled with thinly sliced cactus, melted cheese, and beans. It wasn't bad, but I would've preferred a meat filling. The cactus was cooked, soft, and sort of had the look and texture of soggy green beans. Not much flavor.
The huarache deshebrada de res was huge. It took up an entire plate. It was almost like a sope on steroids. One huarache is enough food for one meal. Again, the kitchen was generous with the meat and toppings. In this case, the toppings were cheese, beans, and lettuce. Like the sopes, the huarache had a thick and yummy masa base. Deshebrada de res is shredded braised beef, similar to ropa vieja in Cuban cuisine. It was juicy and full of flavor, almost addictive.
The horchata was excellent. It was cold and refreshing with the perfect amount of sweetness and consistency, not too chalky and not too watery.
If it wasn't for the sub-par atmosphere, I probably would've given this place five stars.
