El Real Taco Shop

I've been to this place about 7 times - it has ALWAYS been good. Maria, the owner, is the sweetest lady and makes everything fresh. She makes her own tortillas too. I usually get whatever is on special or what she recommends and has always been great. I've had the Chicken Mole - excellent. Tacos - great. Burritos - HUGE and delicious. I don't think anything here tastes bad! Their horchata is really good too.  

Maria makes cakes too. We ordered a large pinacolada cake for my daughter's birthday - it was SO good! Everyone just loved it. You should really ask for a slice of one of her cakes - delicious!

Just went there for lunch today for the first time.  This place is absolutely fantastic!!   Real Mexican food.  Homemade tortillas.  Homemade horchata and pineapple water.  Whaaaa???

The location used to be a drive in food place (you can see the old root beer mug sign thingy).  Then it was an El Salvadorian restaurant.  Now it is a Mexican taco shop.   The obvious culinary evolution.  

It doesn't look like much from the outside.  Can't really tell it is a restaurant, actually.  The inside is modestly decorated.  A telenovela was playing on a flatscreen near the back.  LOVE the ambiance Mexican soap operas provide.  You can order take out from the cash register or eat in, as I and the fam did.  I would suggest eating in...complimentary chips and salsa (the standard pre-meal) and...soup!!  Granted it is a very simple tomato based noodle soup, but it was savory and my finicky two year old loved it.

There is only one page to the menu.   I hate seeing six pages of crappy food.  I love seeing one page of great food.  We got one of each of these:
Chicken taco fajita
Pastor taco
Shrimp Enchilado (yes, with an "o"...not to be confused with enchilada)
Pastor Mulita (it's a bunch of meat, either asada or pastor, and cheese between two tortillas.)  

Just four items, but it filled us up like eight itmes.  I thought, for the price, they were going to be normal sized taqueria tacos...I was so wrong. They were huge.  You've been warned.  

Everything was super flavorful.  And I can't emphasize this enough... the tortillas are made in house...so good.  

If you are expecting the Hacienda caliber food with random crap hanging from the walls to detract you from the shitty ass food, this ain't it.  El Real Taco Shop serves up authentic, delicious Mexican food in a modest atmosphere.

The owner, Maria, chatted with us at our table.  She makes the food and is great with children (she held my one month old daughter with such care and excitement...probably the way she handles the tortillas).  She said that if she doesn't get more business in the next few months, she's closing up shop.  That would be a damn shame.

Fellow Yelpers, make the trip, eat the food, then spread the word.  Hell, if I had to drive a bit to get to the taco shop, I hit up the brewery, Iechyd Da, in downtown Elkhart, too.  

These gems that provide a real culinary delight need our Yelpy foodie support...horrible chains do not.