Jump to content

Super Tacos & Bakery, In The Former Tacos Pepitos Space on Columbia Road in Adams Morgan


Recommended Posts

Breakfast at the Adams Morgan Tacos Pepitos Bakery (which is now called Super Taco, although the menu is almost exactly the same). Super-sweet lemonade, and a breakfast burrito with "sausage" (what actually seemed to be little grilled bits of hot dog). Meh. Hopefully just an abberation, I've never had breakfast here before. Need to return and see if the sandwiches have suffered.

(feel free to move this to a Super Taco thread, I couldn't find one about the AdMo Pepitos location)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lot of talk about Taqueria Distrito Federal and Taqueria Nacional, but I'm warming up to the taco spot with the gringo handle. Sitting across from the Safeway on Columbia Road, it's both a tacqueria/comida rapida place and a bakery offering up some tempting but heavy-looking stuff.

If first dropped in for the tortas, which are essentially immense Mexican cheesesteaks, which turned me off when I first tried them. They lack elegance and have a surfeit of bread. I avoided the place for months. But they are on the walk home and so I stopped in last week and was impressed by a taco with carnitas (less so by the beef) and the huarache* - a pizza-sized (well, a Comet Ping-pong pizza-sized) corn tortilla cooked crisp and flat and slathered with your choice of sauce and meat, and some good old crumbled queso fresco.

I stumbled in a little confused last night, and not just from happy hour. I was hungry for huitlacoche (my favorite corn smut since Hillbilly Honeys) which I recalled being featured on the Taco Oaxacan. Alas, they'd gotten new, professionally-produced menu boards and the Taco Oaxacan was eliminated either by the cook or the graphic designer. After a little Spanglish back-and-forth I did establish that there is now a quesadilla featuring the so-called "corn truffle" and so I got that.

Delish. I don't know if the huitlacoche was canned -- it was stored in liquid -- but it was about the consistency of what I had years ago at Atlantico and had flavor similar in intensity to a properly sauteed mushroom. Anyway, they laid out one of those pizza tacos, half-melted the crumbly queso (none of that gringo cheddar shit), slathered on the fungus and then folded the whole thing over into a good-sized crunchy, gooey, smutty delight. You should get yourselves some.

I woke up this morning with a craving for another one but alas, all I had was a tamale which I'd ordered by accident because my Spanglish is poor. It was immense, but a bit leaden and, to be honest, a tamale washed back with green habanero sauce and black coffee isn't the way my stomach likes to wake up.

There are a lot of other things on the spankin' new menu board that look like they need to be tried, and I will post back when I do so.

PS -- anybody else got any huitlacoche connections?

*Turns out that yes, indeed, the dish is so named because they resemble, vaguely, the sandal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If it makes you feel any better, the place used to have the non-gringo name Pepito's. Cafe Atlantico/Jose Andres used to have a source in Fla. for frozen huitlacoche---but I've never seen anything other than canned available retail. Oaxaca on 18th St. used to have a huitlacoche dish, but I don't remember if it had any real flavor the one time I ate there in a tequila haze. I agree that the corn smut quesadilla at Super is tops-but it used to be available only on weekends-maybe that's why it wasn't on the sign?

{Incidentally, the tortas can be pretty messy but when it comes to absorbing alcohol, cannot be beat.}

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Adams Morgan branch of Tacos Pepitos was sold to new owners who renamed it Super Tacos but changed substantively little with the annoying exception being that they seldom have lengua because the new owners were trying to find a better supplier; this was several years ago though.

Super Tacos is pretty damn good overall; I enjoy their huaraches and their huitlacoche quesadillas.  Tortas aren't as good as nearby Pica Taco, and chilaquiles not as good as Mixtec, but I've never had a truly bad thing on their menu.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I eat at Super Tacos fairly frequently and like it for the most part but find the carnitas to be very dry a lot of the time, so I get the cochnita pibil instead which is similar but juicier.

I usually get 3-4 tacos (some combo of chorizo, carnitas, pibil, al pastor) but sometimes do the huitlacoche quesadilla or gordita de chicharron. haven't tried a torta or burrito yet. and I get a horchata to wash it all down. the tacos are a little pricy by taqueria standards, but much larger than their counterparts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm going through and organizing some older threads, and wanted to make sure everyone knew that:

Tacos Pepitos I (Gaithersburg) and II (Adams Morgan) are both closed, and are marked as such in the Multiple Locations Dining Guide.

(I *think* I have those numbers right - please let me know, as I need them for Is -> Was.)

Tacos Pepitos II (Adams Morgan) was sold and became Super Tacos (this thread).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm usually a little circumspect of any place that includes "super" in its name*. Kind of like places that promote themselves or certain dishes as "World's Best XYZ." Not an absolutely reliable indicator but often holds.

* One exception to this general rule is Chinese places where English wasn't the first language for whoever chose the name or wrote the sign. Hyperbole in those cases is more common so less useful as a litmus test.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And make sure your speakers are *on* when you visit their website.

Some things are so bad, they're epic - this is one of them. (It's actually quite catchy - I've listened to it about five times.)

What is "Mex Trashes" (on the menu)?! And does she say, "And bacon!" at the end of the song?!

This place looks like it might be really good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Super Taco is great. Their tortas are fantastic...can't go wrong with either the carnitas or lengua. The Michoacana sandwich includes sausage with the carnitas. Fab.

Just a warning, they have gringo versions of some of their items (flour tortilla, yawn). I don't channel my inner-gringo when I come here...you shouldn't either. That's what Chipotle is for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...