Mexican Pollo Grill

8599 W. Bellfort @ S. Gessner, next to a Citgo

Update 11/20/11: This unit has disappeared from it's long time post. In it's place is a similar vehicle dubbed Tacos El Valle with a typical taco truck menu and no mention of pollo asado.


This is one of several new street food vendors I've been happy to see appear in my neighborhood recently and I was eager to check it out. For a couple of years I've been regularly making a trek up to one of the El Norteno units on Longpoint or a yellow and red La Silla bus on Telephone, just off 610, when I've had the craving for some good pollo asado. In addition to the aggravation of the drive there's the aggravation of being driven crazy by the aroma of the food filling the car on the trip home. I've checked out numerous pollo asado providers on the southwest side, perhaps as many as a dozen, both mobile and brick and mortar, without finding any as good but this new unit is very promising.


Pollo Asado is the specialty, of course, though there's a pretty full menu, unlike the El Norteno buses. Mesquite is used, like La Silla, and you get the standard sides - rice, beans, salsa, onions, pepper, tortillas - but there are some pluses besides it being so close by. A problem with pollo asado is holding it until someone orders it and I've had orders from both El Norteno and La Silla (and other places) that had dried out from being held too long on the grill; so far, that fate has not befallen the birds from the Mexican Pollo Grill. Maybe I've just been lucky. The beans,as you may detect from the picture, include chopped up wiener (there are hot dogs on the menu here, too) and are very good, the fiery salsa is chipotle based, and, most importantly, the onions are caramelized rather than just baked or steamed, adding another dimension of flavor.

A very friendly lady presides over the very large kitchen on this former moving van, very fluent in both English and Spanish. I almost expect her to call me 'honey' when I order, like the waitresses at BBQ Inn. Besides pollo asado and hot dogs, there are huaraches, tortas, breakfast tacos, burritos, quesadillas and fajita tacos, plus nachos and nachos grande (for $5, with fajita meat), chocolate cake, lemonade, and .. tada...jello salads!

The sign in the window says they're open 9 to 7, 6 days a week, but they've been missing a couple of times over the last couple of months when I've sought them out.

Prior to the arrival of this unit, the best Pollo Asado I've found on the SW side is the Argueta Pollo Asado wagon reliably parked on S. Fondren at W. Airport which turns out dependably juicy (not dried out) chicken but has mediocre sides (canned beans, I think, maybe instant Mexican rice, if such a product exists).

This unit is unconventional in a number of ways, from the vehicle to the name to the menu and recipes. I'm happy to have it in the neighborhood.

Taqueria Vallejo

on Bissonnet, directly across from the entrance to Sharpstown Hi

Vallejo or Vallarta - what's the difference? When I first spotted this truck I was confused. One of my favorite taco trucks on the southwest side has been Taqueria Vallarta which used to be situated much further out on Bissonnet near Dairy Ashford. A unit of Taqueria Vallejo replaced that one and, now, there's a Vallejo very close to my house.

Tacos estilo Tlaquepaque are specialties of both, as are gringas. I had my first samples of both at Vallarta a couple of years ago and that's still the best gringa I've had. So besides similar names they have very similar menus.

Tlaquepaque is an arts and crafts district in Guadalajara. Tacos estilo Tlaquepaque means the tacos (barbacoa) are served topped with a salsa that includes the broth the meats were cooked in, like a savory, spicy gravy. When I had them at Vallarta I didn't understand this and when I got home discovered there were no onions and cilantro, nor had I been offered any. It turns out that's the way they're served; they'll put some on if you request, but it's not the typical presentation. Vallarta sold me just two of these but at Vallejo they're offered as a plate with five tacos for $5. That's 10 corn tortillas and probably about 10 oz. of barbacoa, topped with the sauce (they'll serve that on the side to add later if you prefer) and limes. I didn't get a picture of the Tlaquepaque plate but I did get a picture of the menu on the truck which shows it.


Judging by the picture of the tacos swimming in sauce you might need a fork or even a spoon to eat these. These sound and look like what's known in El Paso as 'drunken tacos,' although I think those involve a tomato sauce topping.

Five tacos seemed like a bit much to me so I went for a gringa and a fajita gordita.


A gringa is al pastor meat, avocado and queso in a folded flour tortilla, grilled. The meat was a little tough but vividly seasoned; the tortilla was store-bought and not very fresh so this was not as good as the best I've had but not bad. The gordita was good.

It's been difficult to find really good taco trucks around my neighborhood but there have been several new units show up recently and I'm eager to check them all out. I'm happy to find this one and I'll be trying it again. But sorry, senor, I gotta have my cebolla y cilantro fix or I get irritable.

Revisit: Ziggy Smogdust reported visiting this truck and trying the Tacos Tlaquepaque and said they were really good so I made another stop.


I got some to go with salsa on the side and added it at home. The tortillas are the smaller, 4" size, and there is no where near 10 ozs. of barbacoa, probably no more than 3 or 4 so it's not as huge a meal as I thought. The salsa was thick like a gravy and very good. This is really a very good choice on this truck and much better than what I had at Taqueria Vallarta a couple of years ago. The salsa there was very thin and runny and I didn't know they were supposed to be smothered in the salsa and used just a little of it. I used all the salsa I got here and even though mine were not swimming in it like the picture on the truck, they were quite messy to deal with. I loved this dish and I love the concept. I wonder if there are other, similar presentations?

And you don't really need the onions and cilantro.

The Lunch Bag

9900 S. Gessner @ S. Braeswood


This new truck popped up right in my neighborhood and I was very eager to rush right over and try it out. Not only is it convenient, it's one of the growing number of mobile vendors offering something other than or in addition to the usual tacos, quesadillas, burritos, etc.


So of course, I show you a picture of a couple of tacos...but they're a little bit different. The best thing I've had here was the Caribbean Jerk taco on the right, meaty chunks of chicken breast with jerk sauce, lettuce and tomatoes on a flour tortilla. I've also enjoyed a Buffalo taco, golden fried chicken tender chunks in a Buffalo sauce, also with lettuce and tomatoes. This wasn't as appealing to me because I don't care for hot wings or Buffalo sauce but the pieces of chicken were crisply fried making me think some of their other offerings will be good, too.

Less successful for me was the Blackened Fish taco, on the left in the picture, blackened tilapia with lettuce and tomatoes plus tartar sauce. Many people might find this just fine but tilapia is such a bland fish and I thought it needed a more assertive fish presence as well as a more assertive use of blackened spices. The whole thing was dominated by the tartar sauce for me. The tacos are served rolled.

I've also tried the jambalaya, a daily special one day (not listed among the regular daily specials) but I'm at something of a loss to assess jambalaya since I've had it only a handful of times and it's not something I usually order at a Cajun restaurant. It had a nice heat level with generous chunks of chicken breast meat and a rather salty beef sausage but the shrimp were frozen I think and the seasonings were lacking in complexity. I also would have liked more evidence of the veggies in the mirepoix.

The folks running the truck are very nice. There's a small tent at the end of the truck with some chairs to wait out of the sun but no tables. They occasionally take a day off (besides Sunday) because of catering or other commitments.

This end of town and my neighborhood in particular has not been fertile ground for mobile food vendors nor for those of us who like street food. While we have two of the very best in the Bansuri Indian Food Corner and Boogie's, the majority of the rest I've sampled do a competent but not spectacular job. I'm glad to see The Lunch Bag set up shop and I hope they make it. It sure is nice to have a change of pace on a food truck menu and one so close to me. Grits on a taco truck (on the breakfast menu)? Alright! And I'm interested to make it back over there for the fried catfish and sweet potato fries on a Friday.



The menu undergoes changes, especially the daily specials. The jambalaya I had one day is not listed, nor was the fried chicken dinner (2 wings, cabbage, toast and one other vegetable) on another day. Prices may vary too.

The Lunch Bag

Gulshan-e-Iqbal

6121 Hillcroft # T

I first saw this Pakistani grocery store when I checked out Dilpasand Mithai next door and have been meaning to get back over there but I've been avoiding Hillcroft because of all the construction. Traffic in the area is about back to normal but ironically I was stuck in a traffic jam along there recently so I decided it was time to check it out.

It's much smaller than Savoy, the Pakistani grocery on Wilcrest, about the size of a convenience store. The emphasis seems to be on ready-to-eat and convenience foods rather than staples. There is much less of the bulk rice and flour and lots of chaat. The freezer and cooler displays are much smaller and the Halal meat case is smaller, though well stocked.

I was fascinated by the vast array of products and picked up some of the same items I've seen at Savoy for slightly less, although I couldn't guarantee that advantage would hold across the whole product line.


I found the zeera cookies (cumin) that I liked so much, this brand unsalted, moister and flakier, fresher tasting, and even more addictive, tea rusks and mixes. I picked up a Bhel Puri mix that I thought was produced here in Houston but upon closer examination of the label realized it was just imported by a Houston company. The package included the puffed rice and crackers (papdi or papri?) plus peanuts, a packet of masala and a packet of sev, the small crisp noodles, plus instructions on how to add vegetables to produce the final dish.

The breads in the fresh bread rack felt warm to the touch but by the time I got home with a loaf it no longer was. I picked up some baladi from Sahara Bakery on Richmond. It turns out this is an Egyptian peasant flat bread, a little fluffier than pita, and it was quite good, better than the masala naan I picked up from the refrigerated cases at Savoy, and toasts up very nicely in a toaster.

In an alcove in the corner is a small sweets bar offering two kinds of falooda, kulfi, lassi and gola ganda, the Pakistani version of a snow cone, and a few other things.

I had seen Sahara Bakery (9542 Richmond) before and always meant to check it out. After trying the baladi, I looked it up on line. A new website is under construction; the shopping center has undergone renovation and apparently the business has been downsized and the picture on the website is not what the strip center looks like now. I went interested in trying the restaurant but it is no longer in operation. I browsed the aisles only briefly and picked up some pickled vegetables that included wild cucumbers and noted the loaves of bread were definitely still warm from the ovens so I'll be going back to pick up some bread (there are only 3 or 4 varieties I think) when I use up what I've got.