Review: Abierto

You know a gas station takes its taqueria seriously when it invests in a lighted sign and custom awning. That’s what Abierto did when it became part of a Texaco station on Inwood in Dallas, Texas. The day I stopped by for lunch there were four people waiting for their orders and inside sat an empty Subway sandwich stand inside the gas station.  It was great to see the taco stand beating the franchised sandwich shop.

I ordered 2 beef fajita, 1 pastor and 1 barbacoa tacos with my typical build of corn tortillas, chopped onions, cilantro, limes and hot sauces.  Fortunately, Abierto includes some grilled onions and a grilled jalapeno too.

Abierto means a few things in Spanish including open, not closed; outspoken, frank; generous, giving; on, turned on; exposed, vulnerable; unrestricted. I’m guessing it means “Not Closed” since the taco stand is open 24 hours.  So if you need a taco and some fuel at 4am, this place is for you.

I opened my lunch when I returned to work and started with the barbacoa. There was the usual fatty chunks of meat and I pulled them out. The barbacoa isn’t as greasy (or worse slimy) as some gas station stands, but like many it really didn’t have a lot of flavor and I’m beginning to wonder if I’m just a poor judge of barbacoa or if gas station taco places simply are not the right place to satisfy one’s barbacoa fix.

The pastor taco here was really surprising and surprising in a good way.  There were tiny chunks of canned pineapple in the pastor taco.  I assume this was on purpose. The meat was lean and had plenty of flavor that was complemented by the pineapple. I really enjoyed the combination and this might challenge the pastor taco at Fuel City for best pastor gas station taco. It’s close and I’m sure some purist will find the pineapple unacceptable; I however enjoyed it immensely.

With some swigs of Mexican Coca-Cola in a glass bottle, I was ready for the beef fajita tacos. They looked amazing and I was ready to be as impressed as I was with the pastor; though, the beef fajita tacos had no pineapple, not that I’m recommending pineapple now in every taco.

I had to remove a few fatty pieces of meat, but not a lot and once removed the beef fajita tacos were good, though, not great. I did enjoy them with plenty of cilantro and hot sauce. In fact, Abierto included quiet a bit of chopped cilantro for me which was unusual as most places are more frugal with the cilantro.

On the negative side, I was disappointed in the corn tortillas. They were simply removed from the package and not placed on a grill or livened up with some oil.  It’s unfortunate because Abierto has a lot of promise and their pastor and beef fajita tacos are worth going back for and I’m sure I’ll stop by again. I just wish they would do more with the tortilla to give that extra bit of flavor that is missing. It’s this issue that made me give Abierto 3 oil drops instead of the 4 it could deserve.

For another perspective checkout the Dallas Observer’s Review from2009.

Gas Station: Texaco

Address: 1525 Inwood, Dallas, TX

Rating (3 out of 5 oil drops):