Taqueria Los Ocampo

417 E Lake St
Minneapolis, MN
612-823-5398
Other locations: 809 E Laket St, 895 Arcade Street,
St. Paul & Midtown Global Market

Category: Mexican

Rating (Scale 1-10, with 10 being the highest):
Food: 6
Service: N/A (Counter service)
Ambience: 6

Recommendation: Good. Offering decent authentic Mexican food with several options to customize, Los Ocampo is one of many taquerias part of the East Lake Street Mexican scene.

Nick and I love authentic Mexican food and it is nice to know that we don’t have to move to the Southwest Unites States to satisfy our tastes. Here in the Twin Cities, the East Lake Street area in Minneapolis and District Del Sol in St. Paul (Robert St. and Cesar Chavez St.) offer a truly authentic Mexican experience. Some of our favorites in the area are the Mercado Central Market, Midtown Global Market, and El Burrito Mercado. We were excited to try Los Ocampo, especially after City Pages gave it the “Best Burrito” honor in 2008. Although the place is set up like a fast food restaurant, it has character. Hacienda style walls are adorned with Mexican artifacts but we were annoyed by the blaring TV showing a Jerry Springer style Mexican show when we visited. The menu has lots of options such as Quesadillas, Gorditas, Sopes, Tacos, Huaraches, Burritos that you can customize by selecting from 15+ types of meats. Meats include traditional Mexican dishes such as Chorizo, Al Pastor (roasted marinated pork), Tinga de Pollo (shredded chicken), Carnitas (shredded roasted pork), and Mexican style chicken (with onions, tomatoes, and chile) to name a few.

We ordered the Burrito Combo with Carnitas (came with a side of Chips & Guacamole) and Enchiladas in Green Sauce with Ground Beef. The Mexican Coke (made with real sugar instead of corn syrup and served in a glass bottle) helped make the experience truly authentic. The portion sizes are huge and we could only finish about half our meal (the burrito can easily be shared between 2 people). While the burrito was excellent and the Carnitas were well flavored it was too big and the proportion of rice to meat was off (we would have preferred less rice with the same amount of meat). The Guacamole was a bit bland but we were able to fix it by adding salt and lime juice. We found the chips to be on the stale side. The Enchiladas were a bit disappointing. They tasted fine but with were topped with too much cheese, onions, and other ingredients that took away from the main dish. The green sauce was too tangy, not one of our favorites and too much sauce made the tortillas very soggy.

$. Free parking in the back of the restaurant.