Sergio Quijano ended up in Texas by following a girl. The Mexico City native was fourteen. She was sixteen. The young lady, who is now his wife, gave him a directive. “ ‘If you really love me, you’ll come to Texas.’ And I did,” he recalls. “I was in the [best] shape of my life,” he jokes as we sit across a metal table from each other. “I was very handsome. I was a knockout. I used to practice boxing, and I had a six-pack.” Age, he claims, has gotten the better of him, but his humor remains intact. “I’ve lost my hair. I got fat,” he laughs. But from the years of working as a dishwasher through serving as wine director at Julian Barsotti’s restaurants, Quijano’s been able to put his kids through college.
While he’s contented by that accomplishment, Quijano, fifty, is most proud of his two-month-old taqueria, Tacos El Metro. The restaurant sits on the ground floor of the Walnut Plaza shopping center, near the tony neighborhoods around Dallas Love Field and the Cedar Springs area. There are few eye-catching decor features in the space. The logo is partially orange, a color typically utilized by tacos al pastor joints. A colorful map of the Mexico City metro system (a nod to the restaurant’s name) sits above the open kitchen. It’s incomplete, though, as the network of lines and stations is too large for the wall. (During my meal, I found myself counting the stops and neighborhoods I’ve visited.) Above the bar is a vinyl mural featuring two Mesoamerican warriors: One is Mexican and parallel to an eagle; the other is South American and adjacent to a condor. Quijano calls them the gods of fire and water—a reference to chef Michael Garcia’s Peruvian background.
At the plentiful bar, you can order everything to from Mexican beers and wine to a wide variety of tequila. The menu—spearheaded by 27-year-old Garcia, who was executive chef at Fachini at 22—is much tighter. Garcia uses his co-owner’s recipes. “[Quijano] is the main owner at the end of the day,” Garcia says. “This was his concept.”
While Tacos El Metro claims to be inspired by Mexico City, it doesn’t embrace all of the foods endemic to the capital. Having Mexico City associated with a taqueria seems to be code for “authentic” or “legitimate” tacos to some diners. But Quijano admits he’s taking things slow at first, and will eventually add more Mexico City-centric dishes to his menu. Right now, he’s focused on featuring “clean, not greasy dishes that three hours later won’t bloat your stomach,” he says. All that considered, what I ate during my visit shows Tacos El Metro is off to a strong, promising start.
The restaurant makes its corn tortillas in house from nixtamalized masa sourced from Artesanal Tortilleria Restaurante El Maizal, six miles away. The tortillas are light with a strong plasticity that prevents disintegration. The flavor is subtle, which allows the fillings to shine. Quijano’s distaste for greasy tortillas, whether they’re dunked in liquified fat or placed on a well-oiled flat top, is one I share. Such greasiness can suggest the use of lesser tortillas.
The trompo meat is well-seasoned with guajillo chile and chile cascabel powders, garlic, salt, and a few more spices. Garcia leaves out achiote, a popular al pastor spice, which can make the pork bitter. My taco nestled chopped crimson pork with garnishes of caramelized pineapple, cilantro, and onion served on the side. Customers would comment about the amount of pineapple, Garcia says, so now they can customize it. Although my serving of pork was chopped, he said it should have been sliced and finished on the flattop. Nevertheless, the smart presentation proves Quijano and Garcia know what they’re doing.
The carne asada is made from ribeye and served in large chunks, not the hacked pebbles too typical at other joints. The beef’s edges showed nice char and an expert hand in grilling. It’s evident that Garcia and his team know precisely when to remove the meat to retain juiciness. Still, I’d love to see the tacos served with a wide, thin slice of steak similar to that in a taco de gaonera, a Mexico City favorite.
Lechón is the specialty of the house, but Garcia wouldn’t say it’s true suckling pig. The cooks crisp the sweet pork in the type of closetlike convection ovens used to prepare Peking duck. “It was an affordable oven as opposed to what we wanted to do, a rotisserie-style thing,” Garcia explains. But it’s still lechón in spirit. “We’re going for the crispy skin, the super tender meat,” he says. Chicharrones are served atop the lechón taco to add crunch to the tender meat. You can also get the lechón in a torta, with fresh telera bread sandwiching the meat, cheese, islands of smashed avocado, brambles of pickled cabbage, and fat ribbons of pickled jalepeños. The torta is large, like many of the tortas found in Mexico City.
But lechón isn’t a classic Mexico City dish in the same way that al pastor and suadero are. Yes, lechón is popular in parts of Mexico City, such as at the Mercado de la Merced, an overstimulating, mazelike market in which Quijano says he once worked. Lechón is, however, associated more with cities such as Aguascalientes, Queretaro, and Oaxaca. In the last, I enjoyed a couple of tacos de lechón from a puesto on the outskirts of the city’s downtown.
As much as I enjoyed the tacos and the torta, I’d like to see more examples of dishes from Mexico’s capital, including suadero, guisados, and tacos campechanos in the style of El Villamelón, with cecina (salted beef) and longaniza (an aged sausage similar to chorizo) topped with chicharrones.
This is a small quibble for a taqueria that so recently opened, but I mention it because I believe in Tacos El Metro and what it could grow to be. Quijano wants to get there too. “Eventually, every Wednesday [we will serve] suadero tacos. The next week, every Tuesday lengua tacos. So little by little, we’re going to be adding more things to the menu,” he says. “But me and Mikey [Garcia], we’re talking about, ‘Let’s start with this.’ We’re not going to rush things.”
Tacos El Metro
3720 Walnut Hill Lane, Suite 117, Dallas
Hours: Sunday–Wednesday 11–10, Thursday 11–11, Friday–Saturday 11–midnight
