First Look: At El Taco, Ex-Tradies Grill Hard-to-Find Mexican Street Snacks
Words by Howard Chen · Updated on 12 May 2025 · Published on 05 May 2025
Crossing Marrickville Metro’s concourse, you’ll hear a cleaver thwacking on a chopping board. Then you’ll smell the intoxicating aroma of meats grilling over embers. It’s intriguing enough to divert any grocery plans to investigate what’s going on. It’s El Taco, a Mexican food truck from cousins Edson Dominguez Tapia and Miguel Seynos.
“We’ve been working in construction for a while, but we didn’t like it at all,” Tapia tells Broadsheet. Like, even if it’s good money, we were not happy.”
The pair hail from Puebla, a town south-east of Mexico City. While they were holidaying there late last year, they decided to go all-in on their long-held idea to open a taqueria. “We were like, ‘bro, we have to bring something from here to Sydney’,” says Seynos.
In January, they hit the ground running. “I grew up with a family that likes cooking every day,” says Seynos. “Handmade, super-Mexican culture. So, thanks to family, we have good recipes, a good knowledge of everything.”
They tweaked their recipes, sourced ingredients and trialled their menu with friends and old co-workers for three months. The result? An incredibly tight and flavour-packed menu.
You’ll be happy with a taco or tostada, but the star is the volcano. The antojito ’s not often seen outside of Mexico – though Toby Wilson just added it to the Ricos mix – and it’s difficult not to shovel the entire thing into your mouth.
Think of it as the lovechild of a taco, quesadilla and tostada. You’ll pick between a Spanish Mexican chorizo that’s “even better” than that in Mexico or Black Forest Smokehouse’s skirt steak. The meat’s charcoal-grilled to order, cleavered, then laid onto a handmade corn tortilla that crisps on the grill with a gooey crown of lacy, melted cheese. It’s finished with guacamole, onion and coriander, then served with lime on taqueria plates sent from Mexico.
“We realised that charcoal grilling [gives] the real Mexican flavour to the meat,” says Seynos. “It also gets to the people through the smell, with the smoke it creates.”
The mighty little menu’s rounded out with gringas and quesadillas made with flour tortillas. Both are packed with meat and have beautiful cheese skirts – but the gringa is supersized. The quesadilla variety sees two flour tortillas sandwich cheese, your choice of meat and guac, then hit the griddle till golden.
It’s all ramped up with ripper house-made salsas. A salsa verde of winter squash, serrano peppers and jalapenos is great for those with low heat tolerance; the Aztec fire, a molcajete salsa, is spicier, smokier and tangier thanks to grilled green tomatoes. Nut Fury is the duo’s take on salsa de cacahuate, a fiery fried peanut salsa with a slightly sweet finish.
The boys are both studying part-time, working the truck six days a week and prepping on Mondays. Their dishes are simple and traditional – they think it’s like taking a “small trip to Mexico”.
“The secret ingredient of this is it’s mostly made with passion and love,” says Seynos. “We really didn’t want to do anything modified. We come from Mexico – if we know how to do it, how [to make] the original recipe, why not just bring it to you guys and make you feel the whole experience?”
El Taco
Marrickville Metro, 20 Smidmore Street, Marrickville
Hours:
Tue to Sun 1.30pm–8.30pm
Additional reporting by Grace MacKenzie.
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