Tacos Mexico --2298 S Garey Ave, Pomona, CA 91766

My meal Cost: under $8 with tip. Health Rating B. 3 stars on Yelp

Tacos Mexico is my week 2 location. Located just north of last week's location, Tacos Mexico is in a small strip mall at the corner of Garey and Olive. This center has three other food places, so I'll be there for at least the next three weeks. I've eaten at another location of this restaurant on Holt just across from the Village Academy complex. They also have locations in North Hollywood, Hacienda Heights, Victorville, Los Angeles, Reseda, and Rialto.

Carne Asade Sope, Cabeza and Carnitas tacos.

I, once again, decided to go outside my comfort zone and started by ordering a Lengua (beef tongue) taco but was informed that they were out of Lengua--so much for that attempt. So I settled on Cabeza (from my limited Spanglish I know that cabeza means head but the translation on their menu board said it was beef cheeks). Then I decided to try a sope. I had never tried one before as I originally got the word confused with sopa which, I believe is soup. My research showed me that a sope is a flat fried disk made of masa with a filling on top. Since I like tamales, and especially the masa, I was way overdue to try one so I got the carne asada version (beef steak).

They don't have diet drinks in their fountain, and since I am a mild diabetic, I ordered a can of diet coke to go along with my meal.

The tacos, $1.29 each--Wednesdays only $.75) were both made with 2 small corn tortillas and had a green sauce and lettuce and onions. The cabeza was small chucks of beef cheek meat, very moist but with, what I considered a mild flavor. The carnitas (described as fried pork) was pulled rather than chunks and was a little dry. Adding some of the marinated veggies from the salsa bar (carrot, onion, jalapenos) gave it a little added moisture and made it a much better taco.

The sope was very good. It was topped with chucks of beef (a little over-cooked for my taste, but very tasty), lettuce, onion, and topped with crema. The masa base was fried and crispy/hard on the bottom and top, but soft in the middle. A very good first experience, I think I'll have sopes again fairly soon.

The dining room is sparse with a number of fast-food joint tables with attached seats. There is a television above a cooler that was playing a telenovela while I was there. I got there about 12:30 and spent about 20 minutes eating. During that entire period, not one other person came in. I didn't even see anyone go through the drive-thru. Hopefully this is not indicative of their normal business but a slow Monday lunch. I know I've seen cars in the drive-thru when I've gone by in the evenings.

NEXT UP: Pho Noodle & Grill.