Tacos El Bronquito

MEXICO 🇲🇽

[UPDATE: Now making handmade tortillas for their tacos upon request.]

For months the awning has been up for the latest expansion of taco empire Tacos El Bronco, just a block away from their main restaurant location. The corner of 45th Street and 4th Avenue in Sunset Park is now home to smaller offshoot Tacos El Bronquito, which seems to have been set up as a quick stop for people getting off the R train at the corner. This subway stop is active 24 hours a day with people coming home from work, but unfortunately the hours of the new shop only extend to 11am during the week and 1am on weekends.

It seemed that paperwork was holding the place back, as I asked a couple times when I saw the gate up when the opening would be, only to get shoulder shrugs and frustration. But last night, a mariachi band played for hours in the extreme heat while the shop offered free food for all those that passed.

I hung out a bit and mingled, but thought it better to judge the food on a real business day. Fast forward to Saturday lunch and two plates of tacos al pastor ($7.50 for 3, below) were presented in front of us.

Like the famous fleet of Tacos El Bronco trucks, this little shop has a good looking trompo in front, the spinning wheel of meat. The menu has a lot more length in it than I expected for such a small place, but for this first visit we stuck to the what they are best at.

Put either red or green salsa on your tacos, squirt some lime, and bite into some of the finest tacos in Brooklyn. For a quick bite, this little expansion seems more proper than sitting down at the full service restaurant, but still not quite the atmosphere of the truck, especially late at night.

What we found odd was that they would not let us order tacos in any denomination other than three, and these three all had to contain the same meat. This may have just been a weird oddity of opening day error, but they stuck to their guns despite us wanting a couple other tacos individually. The menu shows the price for one, but it's not possible to order just one. The price also seems spiked, as these same small taquitos are $1.50-$1.75 at the truck. $2.75 gets you their massive version at the restaurant, so I am not sure if they are planning to tweak this as it is easy to predict business going in either direction to their other locations.

At any rate, updates will show up as needed. Welcome to the neighborhood!

[UPDATE APRIL 2018: At some point since these initial visits, Tacos El Bronquito has started offering the option of handmade tortillas for their larger sized tacos.]

For 25 cents more, swap out those packaged tortillas and put all your tacos on their new hecha a mano beauties. These cost $3 for the tacos grandes instead of $2.75, and are well worth it. Even better, try the tacos de camaron ($4.50, below) with the same tortillas for one of the best in the city.

They use a homemade chipotle sauce for this and the taco de pescado ($4.50, not shown) that is outrageously good. Also available with thicker handmade tortillas are the quesadillas (below), a complete overhaul and upgrade from when they originally opened.

I still never see the trompo spinning here, but anything ordered with the pastor meat is a good bet. They do a nice job marinating with pineapple and don't get skimpy with chunks of the fruit when serving.

 

Enchiladas suizas from another visit.

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SUNSET PARK Brooklyn

407 45th Street