El Pollo Palenque

4117 Hemphill St, FW. 817-921-1489.
Sun-Thu 9am-12pm, Fri-Sat 9am-4am.
All major credit cards are accepted

Consumed Tacos: Shredded Beef
Preference: Shredded Beef

In my first adventure within Fort Worth’s Great Taco Hunt, I decided to venture out to “Tacoville” in South Fort Worth. The outside of this building, with its vibrant colors caught my eye.

As I got out of my pick-up, I became a little tentative as I was unsure what “El Pollo Palenque” meant. I knew chicken was involved---but what kind of chicken? To be specific, would I walk in and see chicken heads on the menu? Remember, this is hard-core Tacoville, so all is fair game.

The inside is very bland. It looks like a place where you walk up and order. Two TVs hang from the wall (playing Mexican soap operas), and the menu is hand-painted above the kitchen.

I was one of three customers. Two Mexican families and me.
My waitress brought chips and salsa. The chips were slightly above par. I was appreciative of the fact I could freely poor salt on my chips. The salsa was incredibly good. Salsa. Many people like to say salsa. I like to type salsa. Salsa.

The waitress was somewhat cute. She had dyed dark pink hair. Have you ever seen a Mexican girl with dark-pink hair? She looked to be a hard 22-25 year old. Her attitude was “I wish I were anywhere but here.”

Upon reading the menu I almost panicked as it appeared in 100% Spanish. I’m thinking of calling KLIF and asking them to protest this restaurant as English is the official language of Texas. However, I realized they had a description of each item in English (in small print).

Seeing as this it a “Taco Hunt”, I decided to order tacos. Three tacos, that came with beans and rice. The choices were Beef, Pork, or Shredded Beef. I found it odd they did not have chicken tacos (due to their name) but I did not want chicken tacos anyway (still had the chicken head image in my mind). I elected for the Shredded Beef.

Let’s just say that tacos might have been the best I’ve ever had. They came with cilantro, onions, and a lime on the side (which I’m learning is staple for authentic Taquerias). They were wrapped in two freshly grilled white corn tortillas.

What I liked best about the tacos was how greasy they were. What I liked least about the tacos was how greasy they were. The beans were VERY good, and had a zesty tang to them. The rice was good; however it had green peas in it, which I dislike. Nonetheless, the tacos were simply out of this world and it will be a challenge to find anything to rival them going forward!