Benni’s knows how to handle al pastor

Cash-only tacos tasty, but forget the hamburger

If you haven’t heard about Benni’s Tacos, there’s a good reason. The truck has only been open for a few weeks at its spot next to a barber shop and meat market on Thousand Oaks Drive on the Northeast Side.

Benni’s offers a simple menu. You select your meat — which includes steak (asada), pork (al pastor), beef tongue (lengua), or chicken fajita meat — and get it served as a taco, torta, burrito or quesadilla. It also offers hamburgers, but more on that later. Everything is $7 or less.

For now, Benni’s is a lunch and dinner option but owner Ramon Miramontes said he plans to add breakfast tacos and special items like shrimp cocktail to the menu soon. He’s been in the restaurant industry since 1976.

Miramontes’ son Xavier runs the barber shop and the businesses are open for the same hours, so you can get a haircut and a taco on the same visit, as you should.

A word of warning: Benni’s is a cash-only establishment. So unless you want to pay the

$2.75 ATM fee at the neighboring convenience store, come prepared. It has no online or social media presence.

Best dish: Without a doubt, go with the al pastor in any and all forms as the seasoning will tempt your nose well before it does your mouth. Start with the taco ($2.50) and go from there.

This is serious pork that has an infusion of pineapple sweet

ness. It’s a standout with crispy chopped onion.

The al pastor is also great as a torta ($5), but the wonderment of the pork gets a little lost amid the iceberg lettuce and mayonnaise tucked inside a very flaky bun.

Other dishes: For $5, you’d be hard pressed to find a better value than Benni’s steak burrito, which felt like a brick in the bag. It comes loaded with fluffy and well-seasoned rice and just enough beans to hold it all together. It was inside a grilled flour tortilla that had just enough char and crunch to add to the experience.

I have mixed feelings on lengua, but I’ll say Benni’s does it better than I do in taco form ($2.50). The meat was chopped into diced-potato proportions and cooked properly with the gaminess and iron flavors that can permeate the meat removed. It was as tender as a feather pillow.

Benni’s $5 flour quesadilla is another great bargain, which I opted for with chicken fajita meat cut from the thigh. With the option of cheddar or mozzarella cheese, bell peppers, a good dollop of sour cream and some diced avocado, it checked out fine on all taste measures. Combined, the size of the four wedges would be about that of a large pizza.

Whatever you choose at Benni’s, don’t go for the hamburger. The highest-priced menu item ($7) is by far the most underwhelming. There was more lettuce than beef, and it tasted and felt like manufactured meat glued together with cheap American cheese in a school cafeteria.

You’d be better off ordering from the dollar menu at any fast-food outlet.

Of course, the name of the truck is Benni’s Tacos so you shouldn’t be coming here for burgers in the first place.

Photos by Chuck Blount / Staff Benni’s Tacos, with its lengua and al pastor tacos, is new to the Thousand Oaks Drive area.

The steak burritos feature fluffy, seasoned rice.