Salsa Limón

Salsa Limón’s rig.

With locations at La Gran Plaza mall and on Berry Street (across from the original Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, for which they get major props), a roving truck and a new restaurant (AKA Salsa Limón Museo), across from the Modern Art Museum, Salsa Limón has built itself a mini empire in Fort Worth. Dallas is next.

During a Salsa Limón stop in the Harwood District for last Saturday, Ramiro Ramirez, co-owner along with sister, Rosalia, confirmed to Taco Trail that Salsa Limón will have a presence at Jason Boso’s Truck Yard on Lower Greenville, a something Teresa Gubbins vaguely mentioned in a Culture Map story. “We’ll be there as often as possible,” he said of the food truck park whose concept includes rotating vendors. Ramirez also mentioned a desire to have a rig station at Southern Methodist University, his alma mater.

How would Salsa Limón’s offerings—tacos, tortas, quesadillas—especially the signature El Capitan, hold up against Torchy’s Tacos’ edible melees and Rusty Taco’s reliable fare?

One chicken and one al pastor El Capitan taco.

The small but sturdy El Capitan fuses the Ramirezes’ Oaxaca (pickled cabbage, cheese), Mexico City (al pastor) and Tamaulipas (flour tortillas) roots. It’s a pan-Mexican treat worthy of the first order. Of the two I had, the tangy pastor was my favorite. That’s not to say the chicken wasn’t bad. Its subtly didn’t stand a chance against the classic adobo. The cabbaged added crunchy to the small, spongy flour tortillas. While they weren’t handmade, Ramirez said Salsa Limón will soon offer the almost translucent, tricycle-wheel-sized discs typical of northern Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley.

I look forward to that day, especially with Salsa Limón’s mellow, slurp-happy barbacoa. In corn tortillas and with shot of pickled cabbage from the Berry Street trailer, it made for a respectable taco, leagues above anything the potential SMU competitors are serving. Tucked into made-to-order flour tortilla, buttery with a delicate interior and snappy edge, it would give North Texans a taste of a Valley treasure.