First bite review: Street tacos and $0.85 margaritas are here, Lexington
A new restaurant is kicking Lexington’s year of street tacos off with a hot bang: El Cid, a new Tex-Mex restaurant, has opened on Limestone, in the old Sav’s location.
El Cid’s owner, Christopher Bravo, said the restaurant focuses on authenticity. The street tacos are all made with corn tortillas, hand made by a special bakery in Tennessee that delivers every other day.
The sauces and salsas are made in house, including a delicious tomatillo sauce that comes with the onion and cilantro-heavy street tacos, along with lime wedges.
Taco also are available fajita style, with sauteed onions and bell peppers and sour cream or American style with lettuce and cheese on a flour tortilla.
Bravo said the menu is based on the favorites at his family’s El Camino restaurants in Radcliff and Brandenburg, but the streamlined menu lets customers get in and out faster.
Besides the tacos, there are enchiladas, sopes, chimichangas, tortas, tamales, nachos, quesadillas and burritos, which come all the way to XXL size.
At lunchtime, we sampled the freshly made chips and salsa, plus the queso dip, which you have to order separately. No freebies here.
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Both were fine but the standout was clearly the tomatilla sauce, which my companion doused on her bean sopes for extra flavor.
She also tried the pork tamale, which was delicious.
I had two cheese enchiladas, one in red sauce and one in green. Next time I’ll skip the red and head straight to green, which was delicious.
The restaurant, which had a soft opening in late January, is open for lunch and dinner and also has a full bar.
Bravo is working on opening a “taco window” for late-night foot traffic that would be open until 3 a.m.
He isn’t concerned about competing with the nearby Mexican restaurants, including Local Taco, right across the street.
El Cid isn’t the only street taco dining spot coming near the University of Kentucky campus. In March or April Bandido Taqueria will open on South Upper.
“I think we’re all very different, and people will go with what they like,” he said.
El Cid brings a fun atmosphere to the spot, with $0.85 margaritas on Wednesday evenings and Sombrero Thursdays.
The cheap margaritas are designed to get you in the door, where they can woo you with the delicious smell of the tacos.
Buy a sombrero for $5 and you will join a kind of dining club, with $5 specials on Thursdays that will vary from week to week, he said. Just remember to bring in your sombrero.
“It’s a pretty cool environment. You walk in the restaurant and see a bunch of people with the sombreros, having a good time,” Bravo said. “It’s always a surprise on Thursday night.”
El Cid, A Traditional Mexican Restaurant
Where: 304 South Limestone
Open: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
