15. Teresa's Next Door
Teresa's Next Door
124 N. Wayne Ave, Wayne
There are many fun reasons to head to this gem located one block off Lancaster Avenue in Wayne. There's a beer list full of rarities you won't find at other restaurants. There's a respect for the hard stuff as well – the night we were there was a tribute to peaty Scotches, with special prices for those among us who enjoy drinking smoke. And the eclectic food menu always features exotic meat dishes – rabbit, bear meat and, on this night, elk burgers. Some of the best mussels in town as well.
And, while this is miles from your standard taqueria, the tacos are outstanding. Keeping with the exotic foods theme, we opened by ordering Chivo Tacos, which are braised goat meat, with pickled jalapeno, pico de gallo, diced white onion and cilantro (two for $12). Now, you may balk at eating goat. I got over that a few years back when a friend from Jamaica prepared me barbecued goat ribs, which remain among the best BBQ I've ever had.
You should dare to try them. Goat meat tastes like lamb, but less gamy. It was tender, subtle and the jalapeno accent worked great. An absolute winner here.
My favorite, actually, was Teresa's take on Carnitas, a standard taco of braised pork, onion, salsa verde and cilantro. The pork had a terrific smoky, slow-roast flavor to it. We gobbled those babies down.
The plan was to stop there, but we enjoyed the first two tacos that we opted for a third – the Crispy Ortega Tacos (three for $12), this place's take on the old standard of beef on a hard shell corn tortilla. To be honest, this tasted close to what my Mom used to make by mixing ground beef with those packages from the supermarket shelf. Not bad at all, but not up to the brilliant standards of the first two.
Teresa's Next Door came up big, as it has in my previous visits (order the tiny fricadelles meatballs for a real treat). If you go for the tacos, be aware that from 10 p.m. to midnight, they're all half price. That's money saved to enjoy more of those peaty Scotches.
Score: 90
