2008 Woodie Awards
Authentic Mexican Food at a Reasonable Price
From the assortment of items offered, to the spicy salsa bar, El Camino Real fills all of it's visitors cravings.
David Stelzmuller
Issue date: 9/12/07 Section: Local
|
Located on the outskirts of Fullerton at Euclid St. and Commonwealth Ave., in the Stater Brothers shopping center, El Camino Real is an unassuming restaurant that provides little or no atmosphere, but delivers good food at reasonable prices. Anyone who thinks that a Taco Bell or Del Taco constitutes an authentic Mexican Restaurant will be in for an eye opening experience. Those of you who know differently are in for a pleasant surprise.
El Camino Real means "the royal road" and refers not only to a restaurant, but also to the California Mission Trail that connected missions in California and Mexico starting in the 17th century. Today, the historical El Camino Real no longer exists, but the El Camino Real restaurant in Fullerton is connecting Californians to authentic Mexican cuisine.
It is fairly obvious as you step inside El Camino Real that this restaurant is blue collar eating at its finest. Customers order at a counter, pay cash only, and sit at tables that are reminiscent of eating at cafeteria tables in elementary school.
Diners, be prepared for long lines if you arrive during lunch. However, this will give you time to decide what you are going to eat. With a menu nearly as wide as the restaurant itself you could eat at El Camino Real everyday for a month and not have the same entrée twice.
The menu offers a succession of "traditional" combination plates, but contains many items you won't find at any local taquerias. For examples, chiles rellenos, fajitas, flautas, tamales, and even options for vegetarian eaters, potato taquitos. The list goes on forever it seems.
El Camino Real also offers specialties including tortas and massive burritos.
As in any good Mexican restaurant, El Camino Real provides the obligatory chips and salsa for their customers, but these were anything but customary. The Mexicana salsa at the salsa bar, which resembled pico de gallo, had almost as many chunks of jalapeño as tomato in it. Combined with the dark red 'del fuego' salsa, which had a sort of soupy consistency, will have you sweating before you even put a chip into your mouth. That being said, the salsas were absolutamente delicioso!
Be the first to comment on this story