Taqueria Los Pinos No. 2: Fresh Gorditas and the Full Spread

Inhale all this home-cooked Mexican food at Taqueria Los Pinos #2. And try really hard not to steal the plates. Aaren Prody

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Taqueria Los Pinos No. 2 is a family-owned and operated joint for home-cooked Mexican food in Irving.

We had heard a lot of rave reviews about this spot. It's only a tenth of a point away from a perfect 5-star rating on Google, so you can't help but become a little nosy. It's leaving most of Dallas in the dust with any combination of tortilla, meat of choice and cheese.

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Cozy booths, moody lighting and steamy fajitas all under one roof. Can you believe it? You should.

Aaren Prody

Location No. 1, in Lake Dallas (305 W. Hundley Drive), has a near-perfect rating for friendly service and authenticity. We decided to stop by the Irving location (#2).

Gorditas, chata plates, tacos, burritos, soups, menudo (daily specials) — they're all on the menu, as is breakfast, from 8 to 11 a.m. daily.

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Taqueria Los Pinos' full spread for only $13.99 *wipes away tear*.

Aaren Prody

We grabbed a full spread of chorizo tacos, a chata plate, which is two tacos with your choice of meat, two cheese gorditas and a side of rice and beans. Drinks were the classic choices, Jarritos and Topo Chico, but only because they were out of horchata.

The restaurant's motto, actually a tagline more than a motto, reads: "The taqueria where we make everything on the spot, come and enjoy our flavor." The fresh char marks on the gorditas and fluffy tortillas won't let you believe otherwise.

The only unfortunate thing about the food is that you need to wait a few minutes for everything to cool down before you start shoveling rice and beans down the hatch. With a plate like that, though, how can you follow that advice? Impossible.

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All glory to the tacos, but would ya just look at those lime wedges? You can cover a lot of square footage with those.

Aaren Prody

This is the place to go when you want to enjoy something that tastes authentic and homemade. All the ingredients are super fresh, including the tortillas, which are prepared traditionally and have a rich corn flavor. The meats are high-quality and seasoned well, and the onion, cilantro and limes are generous and freshly cut. When you get a sample of the homemade sauces on the table, it's a wrap.

The gorditas are a crowd favorite, a bandwagon we were happy to jump on. You can see the masa dough was pressed by hand around the cheese. We didn't know you could customize the gorditas on the chata plate, but next time we would have thrown in a few more toppings like chicharron, nopales (cactus) or desebrada (shredded beef).

Our visit didn't coincide with breakfast, so we missed out on green migas, huevos rancheros, chilaquiles and more (all served with rice, beans and tortillas on the side). Then there's Taco Tuesdays, when from 4 to 8 p.m. you can grab 10 tacos for $18 or 20 for $30. Don't be shocked if you see us there.

Taqueria Los Pinos #2, 837 E. Irving Blvd. Monday, 9 a.m. – 8 p.m.; Tuesday – Saturday, 8 a.m. – 8 p.m.; Sunday, 8:30 a.m. – 3 p.m.