105 E. Monroe StreetThere seemed to be a lot of travel for work this past week. I don’t think we stayed in Kalamazoo for more than the beginning or end of our shift any day other than Monday.
Thursday brought us over to the South Haven area. We were actually outside of the city and I didn’t feel like going in for lunch. There’s a couple of places in Bangor that I haven’t eaten at yet so I decided to give one of them a chance.
My choice was pretty much between burgers and tacos. This time, I chose tacos.
Carnitas El Tapatio is on Monroe Street near Randolph Street on the east side of Bangor. The building really doesn’t look like a restaurant but it has been for quite a while. It’s just a metal building without very many windows. Without the banners outside, it would be hard to know there was an active business inside. The last time we were there, it was called The Hot Dog Shack.
I guess I could have called ahead but I figured it was tacos, so I just went in to order.
The restaurant is set up with an order counter on one side of the dining room.
The menu with mostly Mexican fare is on a TV monitor next to the order counter. I say “mostly” Mexican food because they offer some “Maxwell Street” options which should sound familiar if you’re from Chicago. They offer a polish sausage, a hot dog, and a hamburger in addition to the tacos I was there for.
I put in an order for five steak tacos then took a seat in the dining room to wait. There’s quite a bit of room in the dining room which is painted in bright red and yellow. There is some Mexican artwork on the wall to add a little bit of ambiance to the room.
It took about five minutes to get my tacos. I grabbed them off the counter then headed back to Kalamazoo to eat. We still had some work today and my co-worker was in the car. I told him I was stopping for tacos and he still wanted to stop at McDonalds for his lunch.
The tacos were what I was expecting from this kind of restaurant. The double corn tortillas were filled with a tender, cubed steak and topped with a lot of onion and cilantro. There were two cups of green hot sauce in the bag which I used all of on the five tacos. I typically like red hot sauce but they didn’t give me any and I forgot to ask before I grabbed the tacos off the shelf.
The cost of the five tacos was right around $15.
I love taco places that do simple street tacos. My daughter was making fun of me last week when I made tacos like this at home…she called them “fancy restaurant” tacos. I was like….no..this is street food. This is the best street food. Tacos are so simple yet so delicious. Carnitas El Tapitio hit the mark with these delicious tacos.