Editor's Note: As Louis Fowler continues to recover and rehabilitate from a stroke, we're going to republish – per his request – some of his classic TLO Restaurant Reviews and other articles from over the years.
Today, we're going with his 2019 review of Mid-Del Taco – a Del City Tex-Mex institution at the corner of Sunnylane and 15th. If you'd like to support Louis and donate to his stroke recovery fund, please do so here.
TLO Restaurant Review: Mid-Del Taco
Out among the dusty lots and vacant fields of Del City sits the visibly cost-efficient Mid-Del Taco, 4320 S.E. 15th, a run-down down-home Tex-Mex joint that’s been sitting there, doing mucho business with their tacos and burritos, since the early 60s. Obviously, they’ve got to be doing something right, comprende?
As Del City’s urban cowboys and other assorted shit-kickers filled the small spot for lunch, I stepped aside and let them order first; they knew exactly what they wanted, not even bothering to look at the menu. The young woman in the kitchen was getting the orders out as expediently as possible, her official Mid-Del Taco t-shirt getting covered with melted cheese splatters and ground beef spurts, the true dangers of this job.
I needed the menu though; with a mostly impressive list that puts many taco huts to shame, I had finally decided on the Super Burrito, a Spanish Pizza and a Taco Dog, all somewhat unique and apparently popular at this spot. I also noticed an Indian Taco on the board and, remembering glancing at a bunch of tribal license plates in the parking lot, figured why the Hell not and added it to the order as well.
A Star Trek pinball machine was parked by the door, practically begging me to break the Prime Directive as I waited patiently for my food. Loaded with a couple of quarters from my pocket, I began banging the flippers without any logic, executing an Klingon-like tilt here and there; my rustiness reminded me I hadn’t played pinball since that old Terminator 2 game that sat at the washeteria on N. Western many years ago.
My timeless reminiscing, however, was gently broken by the clatter of trays hitting the table. I made my way to the booth that was situated next to the picturesque window facing 15th street. The Tex-Mex delights were strewn about on different paper sheets and paper plates, obviously overloaded with plenty of meat and cheese on each generous portion.
I started with the Super Burrito ($3.29), which lived up to its heroic moniker. Every high-powered bite was filled with diabolical ground meat and angelic-enough cheese, as well as a thick dowsing of beans to prove its point. That was followed up with the astoundingly ribald Taco Dog ($2.29), a thick red hot wiener topped cruelly with, again, shredded cheese and crumbles of meat to make one of the sexiest franks to ever touch these hard and heavy lips, at least in Del City.
The Spanish Pizza ($2.89) was a true earmark of culinary architecture, the steaming mound of ground beef set on a tostada shell with enough sprinkled cheese and slammed jalapenos to, at least in this vicinity, classify it as a pizza, from Spain or otherwise. I ate what I could hurriedly, excited for my final digestive bout…
Normally I give most Indian Tacos made outside of an Indigenous fundraiser quite a bad rap, but if I’m being honest—and I always am trying to be—Mid-Del’s Indian Taco ($6.49) wasn’t half-bad; sure, the frybread was a little too compact for my tastes, but, once again, the ground beef and pinto beans that were spilling over the top definitely made it, at least to me, the best choice for immediate Indian Tacos in Del City.
Packing up my leftovers and bidding a “live long and prosper” to Captain Kirk, I silently wondered how anyone in the surrounding areas could even, with a full heart and empty stomach, dine at a Taco Bell or some other bullshit faux-Mex eatery; but, you know, judging from just how full Mid-Del Taco was as I was walking out the door, I’m kind of guessing they probably don’t. Cómpralo ya!
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Follow Louis on Twitter at @LouisFowler and Instagram at @louisfowler78.
