A Taco Search in Playa del Carmen

Courtney and I went down to Mexico for my best friend’s wedding. They got married in a beautiful ceremony on the beach down in Puerto Aventuras at the Omni Hotel, an hour south of Cancun and 20 minutes south of Playa del Carmen. While most of my meals were centered around the resort, on my last night there I was determined to seek out an authentic taco.

We ended up going to dinner with the remaining guests in Playa del Carmen at a semi-fancy restaurant on the main drag. My friends Mike and Christina and I had decided early on to have a light meal and get tacos for dessert. After a very long dinner, we escaped from the group and headed out in search of a taco. We had heard of one place called El Pastorcito or something like that and asked a taxi driver if they had heard of this place and if it was still open, since it was around 11:30 at the time. It turns out he was aware of it, so on we went. While on our way we asked him if he had any recommendations, though his place was already closed.

We were eagerly awaiting our arrival but was thwarted by construction on the road where the taqueria is located. The taxi driver asked if we saw any police around and then proceeded to enter the construction zone anyways. After a few yards, we couldn’t go down the chopped up road any farther, but far enough to see that our destination was also closed. We did, however, see an open taqueria and asked if that place was any good. Our driver said that it was, but that there was a sister location that was even better, so onward we went.

So after our drive around the town we finally arrived at our destination, El Fogon.

This is what I was waiting for. It was packed with locals and the menu was the first menu that I had seen that didn’t have english translation. They specialized in al pastor so Mike got that and a chorizo taco, while Christina got a torta con pollo. The waiter mentioned that the house specialty is the taco loco. We saw that the tacos also were $6 pesos or about $0.60 in dollars.

I had a bite of Mike’s al pastor and I wish that I had ordered one. The pastor was cooked right outside and the guy would slice up some for the taco, then take his knife and flick it up at the pineapple on top in such a way that the slice would fly down perfectly into the plate. We were watching a pro at work.

What I thought was a variety of tacos on a plate turned out to be one giant taco. It had beef, al pastor, and bacon inside a flour tortilla dressed with 2 additional strips of bacon. It was probably one of the best tacos I’ve ever had. The beef was not at all fatty and had a great beefy flavor and the bacon was crisp with just enough bacon flavor that wasn’t overpowering. My one complaint is that the al pastor wasn’t that present and fell behind the other flavors. Mike ended up ordering the steak quesadillas due to the steak in my taco.

If you are in Playa and need a great taco away from the tourist areas, seek out El Fogon. There are two locations, one on avenida 30 at calle 28th? and one on Avenida 30 at calle 6th We ended up going to 30th and 6th location. Even our hotel receptionist, after hearing about our quest approved of this place.