Eat This Blog

El Indio Mexicano Restaurant

Location: 17019 Roscoe Blvd., Northridge, 91325

I owe a lot to Del Taco at the moment for bringing me to a fantastic moment I'll never forget, but I must admit that anytime I eat at a fast-food establishment that claims to be "Mexican," I feel guilty because I know that whatever I order at a Del Taco or Taco Bell will never satisfy me as much as anything I order at El Indio. 

I've been going to El Indio since high school. My brother, a.k.a. the king of finding cheap and "good" eats, had always spoke highly of it, probably because it was always open when he'd be out with his hooligan friends. It wasn't until I had their nachos that made me a believer of this place. With living in the San Fernando Valley, there's so many choices to go to for hole-in-the-wall Mexican places. I've avoided many on looks alone of the area, and El Indio look exactly like something I'd usually ignore. It's near a seedy-looking club, it's bench seating, and it doesn't look all that clean from the outside. But you have to toss all pre-conceived notions once you order food there. 

Today's order was two tacos, one with carnitas (first picture) and one with carne asada (second picture):

(I would usually minimize the size of these photos, but I'm so proud of how it all looks.)

Tacos are $1.75 and you have a choice of meat you can put in your taco: carnitas, lengua (tongue), carne asada, chorizo,  machaca, cabeza, and I know there's more but I've forgotten as I don't usually stray from carnitas and carne asada. I love the tacos here because they always hook you up with tons of meat on there and the salsa they pour on is spicy. I needed about two glasses of milk with that carne asada taco. 

And what keeps me coming back here:

Essential order: Nachos #4- carne asada, guacamole, refried beans, and nacho cheese all topped over a crunchy bed of tortilla chips.

Since I started going here, I've seen the price go from $3.75, to $4, to $5, and now it's $6.10. If they raised it up to $10, I know I'd still buy them. Nobody does nachos better than El Indio- NOBODY. I've had nachos at so many places and I'm never impressed- I don't care for using shredded cheese or tender steak slices- I want (most likely canned) nacho cheese and carne asada, damnit.

Service: 7 out of 10. I wouldn't say they're bad or exceptionally great- but they are fast and when you have a craving for this type of food, they definitely get it out quickly.

Price: This order cost me exactly $10.39. They offer a lot of other food there too- burritos, tortas, tamales, chile rellenos, breakfast food, etc. And all of it is reasonably priced. I would say you'd need at the very least $5 with you to order maybe a taco or two and/or some horchata (rice drink) or an Orange Bang!

Things to know:

• It's open till very late at night. It's not 24 hours, but very close to it.
• They always give lots of their salsa in small containers when you order your food to go- don't go buckwild on putting salsa on your food if you can't handle the heat. It's very, very spicy.
• They also offer an atkins style burrito, so there's no tortilla, but again, they really hook you up with the meat.
• Cash only!