El Caporal - Grand Rapids

I love eeeeeeeeeeeeee this place they have best food ib michigan by far, I just wish they people who speak a little better. Engishi i ununderstan . There are second Languag. ....wich mmake. It is understandable, the food make up for it

Yup. My twitter buddy, @swmichdining, has been RAVING about a place on Division called Taqueria San Jose. So, we used our latest family outing to Grand Rapids to check it out. Unfortunately, he forgot to mention (and, to be fair, I forgot to ask), Taqueria San Jose is, pretty much, a take out only joint (a small handful of tables, but not enough to accommodate my family of 5). So, we were off to find another suitable destination for tacos. Lo and behold, Urbanspoon points us here Tacos El Caporal. Perfect. A sit down/takeout restaurant which, as it turned out, served up some truly outstanding Mexican food. There are the complimentary chips (although, no salsa, only hot sauce) which were decent, although nothing to write home about. But the rest of it was PHENOMENAL. I got a lot of food here, so I'll just take it in order. The al pastor tostada was very good; if I had it to do over again (which I will next time I'm in GR), I'd get the al pastor on the tacos instead of the tostada, but the tostada shell, beans, and related accouterments complimented the very, very good al pastor. Except for the al pastor served at the now closed La Mexicana in Kalamazoo, this was, without question, the best al pastor I've had in Michigan meaty, flavorful, well seasoned and slightly sweet without being buried under an avalanche of pineapple. Really terrific. The tamale was also reasonably good; although the pork needed a little more something. The cornmeal was great. Throw some hot sauce on it and muy bueno. The tacos diablo four shredded beef tacos on homemade, lightly fried corn toritillas were really the star here. Although they too benefited from the addition of a little hot sauce, it's hard to find tacos prepared this way in the midwest, and I was ecstatic to find them here. Next time, I might try it with a little carne asada instead to see how that is, but as is, they were great. All told, this was one of the best Mexican meals we've had in GR and we highly recommend it.

Good food, sketchy service and atmosphere. This place has all the charm of a dirty Mexican bus station. Walk in and you can either sit down and wait for a waitress, or order at the counter for takeout. This distinction is not exactly immediately clear upon entering. I ordered takeout at the counter, and waited so long to get my food, I ended up just taking a booth and eating it there, which felt a little weird, as there was a waitress/counter girl waiting on other customers at their tables around me. It was a bit of a madhouse, with people hanging around waiting for orders, some impatiently as the wait time was very long, and I witnessed at least two incorrect orders that had to be corrected, and some takeout orders that sat on a shelf for a LONG time with no-one claiming them. In that situation, the staff did seem very apologetic and attempted to satisfy the somewhat irate lady who was really disappointed that they were out of tamales. The food was great. I ordered a carne asada taco, and a pork gordita- both very tasty, though I could have used more cilantro. I was unsure if the takeout would come with the plate of radishes, limes, jalapenos and onions that I saw the dine-in customers getting, so I was happily surprised when I got a foil packet full. The roasted jalapenos were VERY hot, and they kind of overdid it with too much of these tasty garnishes for just two items. One review stated there are only 10 tables here, but there is a second room that has more tables. Overall, great food, I would definitely put up with the lousy, albeit slightly entertaining atmosphere to eat here again.

Awesome...authentic...taco bus sit down style..the REAL thing ...

Good food steak taco's at 2bucks apeace nachos burritos 5-6 bucks .big bag of torritilla for 2$ all around good food.