La Taqueria by Katsuji

Pierogi told me about this place. It's a taqueria out in RTP that he loves and hits for lunch, and Pierogi is a well-traveled, worldly guy thanks to his job, so I figured I had to give it a go. We put it out on the F3 Slack to see who wanted to join, and as you can see from the pictures, we got a pretty good turnout.

This is a really cool spot in RTP where a bunch of shipping containers have been turned into little shops and restaurants. I checked out the website and menu before we went, and I loved that the owner is trying to bring authentic Mexico City tacos to the area. I was pretty excited.

And I finally did it, ladies and gentlemen. I got the tripa tacos, which is cow intestine. What we discovered while eating is that it's actually pretty similar to calamari! I also got the suadero and the chorizo tacos, and to keep it authentic I grabbed a Jarritos mango soda, which was pretty good. All the guys ordered a variety. We sat outside, and what started cloudy turned into full sun. Eating hot tacos with a little spice had me sweating!

Okay, on to the review. Wow, these were plated so nicely. The presentation looked authentic: street tacos with a good amount of cilantro and onions, and the chorizo came with pickled onions.

My first bite was the tripa. I just had to dive in. The first thing that hits is the salt. They're pretty salty, but the flavor is good, and they're not tough. The meat was really good... or I guess it's not meat, is it? I squeezed a lot of lime on those. The chorizo had a nice flavor too, and the suadero (which I believe is pork) had a good, even flavor.

Here's my criticism, and it feels contradictory to my past reviews: somehow this was too much meat. Each taco had so much meat that it had to carry itself, and if it didn't, it came off a little bland. The tripa carried, but it was so salty it dominated everything. The chorizo was good, but I wasn't itching for the next bite the way you would with a five-star taco. The suadero was a ton of meat but left the flavor behind, and I was a little disappointed by that one. I ended up using way more lime than expected, and I added some sauce to a couple of them to pull out more flavor.

I think that's the thing: it was so heavy on one flavor that it didn't fulfill everything you want out of a bite, if that makes sense. But I loved it. I loved getting out of the house for lunch with some of my F3 brothers, and that's why I love TacoMatt the most. We had a great time, and boy was I full the rest of the day with all that protein.

All said and done, I'm giving it a 4.2, with a good chance I come back to try some of their other tacos. The last unique thing about this place is the location. I always talk about sticking to Wake County, but this is RTP, which lands in Durham. Should it be added to the rankings? We're going to say yes, because I'm me and I get full say, haha. It's within driving distance for lunch, and that's good enough for me. On to the next taco spot. See you in the gloom.