Taqueria Montenegro

I really love it here especially when I’m in a hurry and want something quick to take with me! They should open their own restaurant the only thing is I wish there hours were longer!

I’ve been going here since 03 when they were in a truck still. The chicken quesadilla will blow your freakin mind! The beef, pork, and chicken have the same marinade flavor and it’s like no flavor I’ve ever tasted anywhere, so good. It actually varies too from time to time, but It’s literally one of the only foods I crave. The Verde (green) sauce is also on point as well, again like nothing I’ve tasted anywhere else. The dude in the convenience store next door is a cool cat as well, he’s got it all in there.

You were a small taco truck that coworkers around metric in 2005 would buy from. Youre now a small shop next to a Mideast run convenient store. Breakfast tacos and some lunch plates at a good price. The barbacoa torta is one of the best around. And the chicharon quesadilla is haunting me at this moment. That convenient store must make good money on soft drinks in the early part of day when you’re open.

I love their barbacoa tacos, with some lime (which by the way Im not sure they give them out with your order) and salsa verde. This review is just for the barbacoa tacos since thats the only thing I really order :). Back when they still had their food truck in the parking lot I used to buy their chicken tortas which I loved, but haven’t had that in years. Also bough a breakfast taco which was good, no great but okay. I live close by, so beware of morning and lunch when its really busy. But the nice thing is you can call ahead and order.

Wow… this is as good as it gets for a taco stand. Their barbacoa and al pastor is as good as it gets. Prices are great and food quality is unmatched. Only reason it gets 4 stars is for cash only (no surprise) and absolutely zero seating. This also not a big surprise but even a few picnic tables around the parking lot would be a good idea. These are small issues though. If you want good inexpensive tacos, you’ll find none better than Taqueria Montenegro.

Super good tortas al pastor and barbacoa tacos! Order for pick up because its a hole in the wall with no sitting. Their food is our saturday or Sunday breakfast or sometimes both days… yes they’re that good and cheap!

In my continuous search for the best breakfast tacos in Austin, I saw this place had decent enough Unilocal reviews to give it a shot. First, its a taqueria so I couldn’t give a shit about the ambiance. It being cash only and clearly busy with Hispanics on their way to a blue collar job were positive signs.
I got a bean & cheese, potato & egg, and a potato, egg & cheese for $ 4.00
As I’ve mentioned in my other breakfast taco reviews it comes down to 4 things:
1. Tortilla = ³⁄₅: For breakfast tacos, flour is only considered. The tortilla was standard San Antonio size, which is good (bigger than standard Austin size), but def nothing special in the taste department.
2. Filling = ⁴⁄₅: They didn’t skimp out on filling just becuase the tortilla was larger than your avg Austin tortilla, which is appreciated. The most imprtant ingredient of a breakfast taco is the egg. Their eggs weren’t «watery» nor overcooked, scrambled well, and mixed with the 2^nd ingredient nicely. The potatoes were average, didn’t stand out at all. The cheese was somewhat disappointing, average quality but not mixed in with the filler… just a melted layer on top of the filling, like on a chili dog.
3. House Salsa, 3.5÷5: They don’t use «tub» salsa and offer a spicier verde/​tomatillo option which I’ll pick every time. That being said, their green salsa isn’t anything special when compared to other salsa verdes around town. Meh heat and meh flavor. I’d say avg for both. The amount of salsa they give you in their to-​go container is well above avg which is nice.
4. Price = ⁴⁄₅: Meets my requirement for being under $ 2 per (not even Austin’s beloved Tacodeli is worth more than $ 2 per breakfast taco). Any 2 items for $ 1.25 plus 25¢ per addiitonal item. This is a good price for Austin (more expensive than avg for San Antonio tho, man I miss those 89¢ tacos at Ruthie’s in the morning).
In this area, I’d def go here over something like Vazquez’s, Pablito’s, TCs, Torchy’s, or an avg taco truck but would rather get mine from Taquito Anaya (2 exits South — way better quality & salsa tho 25¢ per more expensive), Cheko’s (2 exits South, same price but better quality), Maria’s (1 exit North, better quality and cheaper by 50¢ for 3… tho only till 10am), or Ken’s (1 exit South, same quality but better bang for your buck since each taco is enormous with filling).
Again this is just about their breakfast tacos, their non-​breakfast tacos were priced cheap enough to where I’ll come back sometime for lunch to give them a try. Looks like my search continues for Austin’s best breakfast taco.

Authentic, hole-​in-​the-​wall ethnic food totally rocks. Except when it doesn’t.
Based on great reviews I hoped Taqueria Montenegro would offer all kinds of mojo. Unfortunately it didn’t pan out that way. The place consists solely of a tiny lobby and order window, so the ambiance has all the charm of standing in line to buy a bus pass in a second-​world country. The guy at the counter was friendly but it’s all about speed and efficiency here so that brief pleasantry can’t count for much. Prices are certainly cheap, even for the category. There’s something. Now if only the food would redeem… but it doesn’t quite manage…
Barbacoa Taco: Best of the three — actually above average for an über-​cheap taco.
Carne Guisada Taco: Carne guisada isn’t the most exciting taco filling, but if it doesn’t inspire it should at least comfort. Shrug.
Al Pastor Taco: I really hope they screwed up and gave me the wrong item here. The meat tasted like I was eating chili powder straight from the jar. Grab some chili powder from your pantry. Daub it on your tongue. Yep, that’s exactly what it tasted like. For any taco type that’s just inexcusably lazy preparation. If it’s supposed to be Al Pastor, all the worse.
Salsa Verde: Just standard-​issue, immediately-​forgettable hot tomatillo stuff.
Meh. Really wanted to like you, Tacqueria Montenegro. Sorry things didn’t work out.

God I miss living next to this place… I would eat lunch here about 3 times a week. I haven’t had better Mexican food in town. $ 4.50 Al Pastor plate with corn tortillas until I die. Order your food, go to gas station next door and pick up tasty beverage, come back to pickup food, go home and enjoy that shit while watching Battlestar Galactica on Netflix.
Verily, not a place you would want to bring a date… actually, no fuck that… your date will thank you through mouthfuls of food from behind their styrofoam container and you will probably fall in love forever, their food is that good.

Great tacos! The verde sauce is the better of the two choices but the red is still awesome. The best price for tacos in town!

WTH?! Am I in Mexico? Why am I standing at the counter in this tiny hole in the wall ordering tacos?
Dude, how much of that acid did you give me? There is no way their tacos are this cheap, HFS!
I should be thinking about how im going to get home from Mexico but this taco is so damn good Im not even stressing!
Wait… Im not in Mexico? Im on Braker and 35 next to a haji store?
AWESOME

I love this place. I’ve been coming here since 2002 (when they were only a taco truck) because I just love their breakfast tacos. The green salsa is the best I’ve ever had (hot hot hot!) and the red is also quite tasty. Yum!

Best authentic taco place in town in my opinion. You cannot beat their Al Pastor Tacos. The place looks like a hole in the wall, but believe me… give it a shot.

This is a tiny little place wedged in between a Money Box and a Citgo Texan Mart. The breakfast tacos are cheap and tasty. I think it used to be a taco cart that upgraded to actual building space, but it’s still order at the counter and take it to go. No seating, limited standing room, and cash only. Did I mention cheap and tasty tacos?

Yooowzers!!! This taco stand makes a mean and hot (like your mouth burns for an hour!) salsa verde. Good thing for me I like my salsa spicy. My coworker treated us to the tacos so I’m not sure about the prices, but the potato and egg taco was tasty. I hope she goes back, because it’s nowhere near my regular routine– she said it’s located at the corner of 35 and Braker.

OH yeah! This is my Friday morning stop. This is on my way to work at Braker Ln near 35 on the NW corner next to the Citgo and Money Box. I always buy the office breakfast tacos from here on Fridays. Great salsas either red or green, I like the green myself. They are so good and cheap $ 1.00 +.25 if you want something extra like cheese. I love that they bought the space where the old Money Box was because some mornings it is hella cold and windy because of the interstate, I sure don’t miss that old taco truck they had.

Best breakfast tacos in town. They are fast and very cheap, most breakfast tacos are only a buck, although its well worth the extra .25 cents to get some cheese or potatoes added. Their red sauce is amazing, the green sauce is really good too but a bit hot for my taste.
The quesadilla tacos with chicken are a personal favorite. This is a great place to grab breakfast on your way to work or a quick and cheap lunch if you’re in North Austin.

Taqueria Montenegro is a tiny little hole-​in-​the-​wall taco place next to the Citgo gas station on the north side of Braker Lane, just west of I-​35. I don’t have the exact address because I’m unable to find it online or in the phone book, but I know it exists because I ate there today. They must not have a phone (which doesn’t really surprise me).
Good tacos, and super, super cheap. I had an al pastor plate ($ 4.50). It was supposed to come with two tacos, beans, and rice, but if you order the corn tortillas, they give you four tortillas — and there is plenty of meat to fill all four. The al pastor was wonderful — very flavorful, if not a little bit oily (but I like my meat moist!), and it comes with aforementioned beans and rice, along with some fried onions, cilantro, and your choice of red or green salsa to round out the mix. The beans (refried) were also chock full of flavor. I suspect they aren’t vegetarian. Rice was only so-​so — more or less your average Spanish rice — but I was plenty full from eating the other stuff and didn’t need it, anyway.
Besides the taco plates, Taqueria Montenegro serves breakfast tacos and some other things that, frankly, are so «authentic» that I couldn’t even tell what they were. I did notice tripe on the menu, so yeah. Definitely not your typical, Americanized, Tex-​Mexian fare (and hooray for that).
No seating. Just you, a counter, and an amazingly speedy, darn cheap, authentic Mexican meal to go served in a styrofoam container with plasticware. What’s not to love?