Where can you find a guy with a craving for tacos in the wee hours of a Monday morning just past midnight? Andale Taqueria of course. Located in the first-ring Minneapolis suburb of Richfield, just north of the intersection of ring interstate highway I-494 and the thoroughfare Nicollet Avenue. Open until 3 AM Friday-Sunday, these guys party all weekend. The real estate is good for a fast-casual/takeout taqueria, many Mexican families live around this area and taco coverage is spotty! Plus being on a major thoroughfare near a major suburban highway doesn't hurt either. There is also an "y Mercado" in the name, but they wisely shut down the market earlier in the day.
The Place
Andale is an attractive looking place from the outside. It's got that mid-century modern design, with a roof peak tilting up and the corner of the half-glazed building pointing at the road. The parking lot is shared with the market, and it can get cramped in the day time. Should you need it, there's parking across the street on a frontage road or the sprawling mega hardware store parking lot. The bathroom is adequate, not too fancy but not dirty, and there's men's and women's single stall rooms. Tables are clean at night, but you might be fighting for a dirty table at busier hours. Towards the back is a big poster from Guy Fieri of Diners Drive-ins and Dives. They are proud he visited the restaurant and they feature several slides on their outdoor LED sign referring to him.
The front door brings you practically to the front counter, ready to order your food. This can be a bit awkward if you'd like to view their sprawling menu though, you need to stand amongst tables to get a good view of it, and there might be people sitting at those tables. I think they packed in too many tables for the space available, the dining area can be quite cramped. They also put the only napkin dispenser near the back, next to the order pickup counter. Also the only trash and recycling cans are near the back and you have to navigate people sitting down and eating and people waiting to pick up their order to get to it during daylight hours. At late hours there's a less traffic, but people are coming and going steadily.
David served me up
The Tacos
Pictured as served
I get the tacos al pastor here, they do it right. The marinade gives it a good hint of sweet flavor, with the rest of the taste being delicious grilled pork and chilis. The color isn't as orange as other places but it looks natural and right. They put the pastor on the grill for that perfect amount of time to give it just enough of a crispy crust on the edges, while the meat within still stays juicy and tender. Really top notch treatment, at any hour. The tacos are topped with the standard onion and cilantro, always a good combo. Alongside tacos they usually will give you the red salsa, which is a bit spicy at Andale, and a wonderful and creamy jalapeño salsa. To my dismay, they were all out of jalapeño salsa tonight. Lime wedges also come standard with your tacos. In a previous TC Taco Tour post's comments I mentioned some places will do a roasted jalapeño a la carte, and this is one of them! But I forgot to exercise this option this time, damn.
Without the salsa, I dug in to the first taco. The meat is as good as it gets here: crispy, tender, and flavorful. The chunks are mostly small but there were some larger thin chunks in my tacos tonight for some variety. The tortillas didn't seem too fresh tonight, maybe that's to be expected past midnight on a Sunday, but were put on the grill so they were warm and pliable. The onion and cilantro dutifully did their job of making the taco have a little crunch and an extra little bite. For the second and third tacos, I squeezed the lime wedges on them. The limes were really delicious and sweet, I ended up chomping down on the other two after the meal for dessert. The juice made taco number two even better. For taco three, I used some of the red salsa on it. It was smoky, and had a typical red salsa flavor that I think is kind of boring and detracts rather than adds. It was fairly spicy though, I'll give it that. I'm missing the jalapeño salsa for sure.
Conclusion
This place has grown on me since I was first introduced. I was skeptical of it way back then, but now I love every opportunity I get to go here, even if it's at a ridiculous hour on a Sunday night. Their taco meat is good, and that's the most important thing. The value is in the middle. $2.39 plus tax for most tacos but you get a moderate amount of meat. Not too big, not too small, but it tastes damn good. In the past they seemed to give you less but I haven't had an issue lately.
I also recommend getting nachos here. They serve up a pile of fried tortilla chips, with house-made nacho cheese, regular cheese, that little crumbly cheese, pickled vegetables like carrots and jalapeños, salsa, sour cream and guacamole, and your choice of meat! Guess which one I opt for. :)
For tonight's tacos, I give Andale Taqueria a solid:
4 Pineapple Piggies out of 5
With the jalapeño salsa it would be a 4.5
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