There are a few gas station taquerias between Dallas and Austin. Having taken a few trips back and forth this past year, I kept passing by a highway billboard for a Mobil Quix mart station advertising an “Authentic Mexican Taqueria.”
After a great time at SxSW this year, I was heading back to Dallas early and passed through Temple, TX right around lunch time and decided to stop.
Inside Pio’s is a full kitchen and a couple large heated displays one full of foil wrapped tacos and the other with deep-fried choices. I walked up and order a couple beef and chicken tacos asking for corn tortillas.
“We don’t have that.”
“The beef and chicken tacos?,” I ask.
“No. Corn tortillas. Still want it?” asks the unpleasant woman behind the register.
“That’s fine, flour is good. Can I have it with onions and cilantro?”
“No. No onions or cilantro,” she says walking away and coming back with two wrapped up in foil tacos. “They have meat and peppers.”
“Okay. I’ll take them. Thanks.”
Once in the car, I unwrapped the tacos to find fairly traditional fajita tacos both quite fatty with a few slices of bell peppers. The flour tortillas were great while the meat was flavorless and the salsa was a store bought red sauce that was okay, nothing special.
It’s too bad Pio’s only makes a great homemade flour tortilla, but that’s it. Everything else is a disappointment. I wish I had kept going a little while longer to Troy Taqueria where service is great and the food far superior.
Gas Station: Mobil
Address: 2303 S. 57th St (Scott Blvd), Temple, TX
Rating (1 out of 5 oil drops):
Gas Station Tacos 
That taco looks pathetic 😦
Pathetic describes it well.
Sounds like the Tex Mex version of “no Coke, Pepsi.”