Mercado Guadalajara #2 - Newbury Park

For today's taco excursion, I met up with Josh at Mercado Guadalajara #2 in Newbury Park. We wanted to go back in to Oxnard but because of some tough time constraints for both of us we ended up in Newbury Park. This post may officially wrap up what I think are the only taquerias with decent tasting tacos in NP. Its a small town so that wasn't to difficult to conclude. There are a few others that are here, but I'm not sure they're worth the time. I may hit up The Three Amigos at some point but I have a lot of other places that I need to get to in other towns before I go there, but I digress........

Mercado Guadalajara is nice little Mexican grocer that also happens to be next to a Mexican restaurant called Letty's (not worth the time, trust me) in a tiny strip mall off of Hillcrest Drive. I've eaten a burrito at Guadalajara once before and thought it was pretty good. But when you strip away all the goodies loaded in a burrito, and eat its bare soul (the meat) topped only with onions and cilantro..........is it any good? Hopefully, it is.

Once inside the market, Josh and I got in line and ordered our tacos. One of the things you need to know about this place is that there is no menu. They have several meat options (and other delicious looking fillings) that you can choose from. So you have to let the dude cooking up the food know exactly what it is you want. He'll ask you what you'd like none the less but be prepared to start rattling off the specifics.

One of the things that I noticed in the preparation of the tacos was that they do not put any of the meat on the plancha (griddle). All of the different verities of meat sit in warming trays then are chopped up and served. This in itself is not uncommon its just a difference in technique or theory. I'm not a fan of doing it this way but we'll see what the final verdict is.

I got four tacos: Carnitas, Carne Asada, Al Pastor and Chicharones (fried pork rinds). I love, love, love chicharones and have not had them in awile, so I was looking forward to eating a taco filled with them. Josh ordered the same four as I.

There was 3 different salsas to choose from for topping; looked like a verde a roja and something else that I couldn’t really figure out. The mystery salsa was red in color and appeared a bit watery. In any case, I went with the roja that was more distinguishable (and extremely thick, almost paste like) and was the one being dished out the most.

The only places to sit were the tables outside, but those were wet from the rain so Josh and I headed to my piece o’ crap Xterra to eat there.




Robs Tacos


Tacos: Chicharones tasted like flavorless slop; seriously, these were not crispy in any way just complete mush and no Chicharones taste. I’m not even sure what kind of sauce they were cooked in but it definitely was not the standard chili verde sauce.

Carne Asada had some decent depth of flavor as far as tasting like steak ranchero but it was totally underwhelming.

Carnitas were dry, but the super thick salsa roja almost covered up this flaw; indeed- it’s pretty much all I tasted. And that salsa had some heat to it that lasted a long time as you ate on. Inconclusive-

Al Pastor was more from what Josh calls “Texas BBQ place”. Seriously, they bathe these babies in Ancho chilies and then serve them up. The pork was tender and the taco itself wasn’t bad at all you just have to know that this is not an authentic pastor flavor. Josh has mentioned already a few times that maybe it’s the style of the Ventura county region. He may be on to something, especially at the eateries that have been around for a long time locally.

Josh's Tacos

One more thing before Josh gives his take, that salsa roja was an absolute beast! I liked it but it totally overwhelmed the tacos till it was all you could taste. The dude topping our tacos with the sauce did a horrible job in distributing it evenly along the top of the taco. So some spots had a shit load and other areas bone dry.

Here is what Josh thinks:

“whatever you told me to get (Chicharones) - tasted like mushed bread in soup, it was just mush”

“Carnitas - no flavor, dry, not that interesting”

“Asada - the red salsa overpowered this taco if it had any flavor it was lost due to the salsa roja which was super thick, I kind of actually liked it, but the taco did nothing”

“Al Pastor - this was just like the other place, very sloppy joe like, nothing like what I’m used to for pastor, no chili flavor or pineapple at all. I'm beginning to wonder if Ventura pastor is different than the spit with the pineapple and chili powder that I’ve grown used to? “

In any case, not the best. 2.5/5 stars

Mercado Guadalajara #2
2454 West Hillcrest Drive
Newbury Park, Ca 91320