Taqueria Los Dos Laredos #4, 1264 Austin Highway

At times, being inside Taqueria Los Dos Laredos on Austin Highway was like those awkward visits to a friend’s house when you were a kid and your friend’s parents were fighting. The staff was making much commotion as they moved from task to task around the cash register and into the kitchen and back out. The commotion could be characterized as fighting, yes, but there was more to it than that, more complex.

And my waiter seemed to be in the center.

He saw my DSRL camera and it’s like the floodgates opened and he proceeded to talk my ear off for almost the whole sitting about photography and camera equipment. Super friendly guy. But, dude, these tacos aren’t eating themselves. Turns out he is an amateur photographer trying to get his own business off the ground. Everyone could hear our conversation. This Taqueria Los Dos Laredos — there are four of them — is a tight space with Magic 105.3, Today’s Best Music, playing from on high.

The menu itself doesn’t list its tacos. You have to go up to a framed taco listing next to the cash register, and all of the usual suspects are there. So I ordered, and they came, and I wasn’t impressed. These aren’t terrible tacos, but they disappointed me greatly.

Papa ranchera

Bean and cheese

Chicharron guisada

The papa ranchera had a great sauce in that the roasted tomatoes, onions and peppers were fresh and they balanced out one another. But the potatoes lacked seasoning and so the entire taco came off as bland.

The chorizo and egg was slightly burnt, dry and greasy with way too strong of a paprika flavor. It was like: Let me have a paprika taco with egg.

The bean and cheese overpowered by hard, shredded cheddar cheese. Hard in the grade of the cheddar, but also hard in the way cheddar stiffens when left out in the open. This kind of cheesiness actually can be quite tasty, but it negated the beans in this taco like the beans didn’t matter and that’s never a good thing.

The chicharron guisada was slightly crunchy, but there was absolutely no stew. Dried out, and so it seemed silly eating chicharrones in a tortilla without some kind of accessory or accompaniment.

So all of the tacos were off in some way. Even the hot sauces were unusual. The green not the typical watery sauce, but thick and garlicky. The red could have been chile de arbol or guajillo but was oily and bitter in a bad way. But then it had what looked like chopped cilantro in there. And too hot. Coming from me, that’s saying something.