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Tortilleria Sinaloa, Counter-Serve Taqueria with House-Made Tortillas, Eastern Avenue in Fells Point


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I do have a tendency to like the hole in the wall ethnic places in Baltimore.

I would recommend for great tacos on fresh delicious corn tortillas going to Tortilleria Sinaloa in Fells Point.

The place has this large corn tortilla machine churning out corn tortillas that is packages in paper and sold to locals as well as some local restaurants.

In terms of tacos, yeah, they have chicken and beef, but I would recommend the carnitas(pork), lengua (tongue), and chorizo tacos. On occasion, they have even had chicharron (pork skin) and cabeza (brain) tacos. The tacos are served authentically with a guacamole sauce, onion, cilantro, & side of lime. They have 2 types of salsa- both pull no punches- a verde and another orange-red salsa.

I would also heartily recommend their menudo soup which has great flavor. They also have pretty delicious tamales. Everything is reasonably priced and made to order. You can also get some jarritos- mandarin, sangria, or tamarind flavored sodas.

1716 Eastern Ave, Baltimore, MD 21231

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New to the 'hood and anxious to find a good taqueria close to home base, I took your rec and popped by twice this week, 1000yregg.

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(Photos are of the click to enlarge variety)

Right on, these are some really nice tortillas -- fresh, moist and light. It's a tiny little joint with a counter that can seat about eight, provided they get pretty cozy. The tortilla machine (quite the beast) is in plain view just behind the counter. I haven't been in while it was churning, but I imagine it isn't very quiet. They were apparently done for the day by my lunchtime at 11:30, however, so unless you're doing breakfast it's a pleasant little place to stop in for a bite.

Though I dug the tortillas, I was a little less enthused by the tacos, but please don't take that to mean that I thought ill of them. Over the two visits I sampled the res, pollo and carnitas and thought they were nicely seasoned, but missing something. From what I can tell glancing over the counter, the precooked fillings are chopped and added to the warm tortillas without any further prep. I don't mean to suggest that holding taco fillings isn't perfectly kosher, but Sinaloa doesn't appear to do anything to refresh them. Perhaps I'm becoming a little too accustomed to late-night greasy taquerias, but I'd enjoy the tacos a lot more if both tortillas and fillings were kissed by the griddle before serving.

I didn't sample the soups, but I did give the ceviche a try. It left a lot to be desired. I identified octopus and shrimp, though there were other seafoody bits of indeterminate origin, along with the requisite onion, tomato and cilantro. But it was mostly watery and underseasoned. It did, however, give me a chance to sample the chips, which are really wonderful. They're thick and strong, but still very light, crisp and layered, almost like a fine pastry. Great chips.

I assume some of the other taquerias nearby use the Sinaloa tortillas, so I'll keep searching for now. But this is a great little spot, and undoubtedly where I'll be going for tortillas and chips. You can't buy less than the stack of tortillas pictured above, but at $1.70/kilo you could wipe your counters with the leftovers and they'd still probably be cheaper than paper towels :-)

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I highly recommend trying the lengua tacos - succulent, enormously beefy. I know what you mean about the res and pollo, they can be a bit dry, but I've always found them pretty well seasoned. Also the guac is thinner and blander than I like, but this place still makes the best tacos in Baltimore imo. Sunday mornings, around 11, seems to be the best time to go both for fresh tortillas and meat.

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On 4/6/2008 at 9:52 PM, Henry said:

I highly recommend trying the lengua tacos - succulent, enormously beefy. I know what you mean about the res and pollo, they can be a bit dry, but I've always found them pretty well seasoned. Also the guac is thinner and blander than I like, but this place still makes the best tacos in Baltimore imo. Sunday mornings, around 11, seems to be the best time to go both for fresh tortillas and meat.

10 years later, and this assessment of the lengua still stands. I got carryout this past Friday of the lengua, al pastor, pollo, and barbacoa. The latter 3 tacos were tasty, but ultimately didn't stand out. The lengua, however, was a knockout.

These tacos are pretty much carried on the strength of the tortillas, especially where the fillings don't shine. I realize that my assessment should come with the heavy caveat that tacos don't always travel well and they are best eaten in-house, but I think the lengua should stand tall as an exception to this rule.

I'm really looking forward to taking a seat at the shop and eating, so I can provide a full assessment. Nevertheless, this place should be a candidate for italizication. I'm still thinking about those tortillas today...

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The kids wanted tacos (over sandwich/hot dog at Attmans) so we went to Sinaloa.  With the tortilla machine working, the room was hot.  Nevertheless I had some menudo and I got the kids lengua, res, and al pastor.  They loved the tongue (I didn't get to try any as I didn't want to deprive the starving waifs their protein).  The beef and al pastor were not very good.  The al pastor seemed to have been doused with pineapple juice that was not cooked off.  The taco portions were huge.  The menudo was okay - nicely cleaned tripe but the soup itself didn't have much flavor.

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