First Bite: Family Tacos

How do you feel about cactus? Consommé? Tamales? Horchata? “I feel awesome” should be your answer, but if it’s not, there’s a place you can go to find out.

If you live in West Nashville, you’ve seen Family Tacos. The tiny silver trailer/storefront combo on Charlotte Avenue is right next to LeQuire Gallery. It has a miniature, eye-catching patio, with lights and lanterns and a white picket fence that cause many a driver to slow down and ask, “Wait, what is that place?” The answer is: That place is good. Very good. Like Mexico City good, which tracks once you meet chef-owner Susy M. Ishizu Gomez. 

Susy — who’s not going to let you last-name her, AP Stylebook be damned — learned to cook in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Her mother had tons of recipe books, she loved to read, and at age 7, she started cooking for her siblings. In February, she took her cooking public at Family Tacos. Susy opened the spot with her husband, Toribio Javier, who is quick to clarify his role. 

“I know nothing,” he tells us, smiling. We laugh. “No really. Noth-ing. Susy does ev-er-y-thing. I just help.” He smiles bigger and hands us a cup of consommé that proves, while Javier may know nothing, Susy knows it all. 

Here’s what we ate.

Tacos

If “tacos” are in your business's name, you have to come out swinging. Susy throws haymakers. For $3.59 a pop, you can get the following tender, well-seasoned, griddle-crisped meats: 

• Pastor (marinated strips of pork)
• Carnitas (pork shoulder)
• Carne asada (marinated strips of beef)
• Barbacoa de res (braised beef)

There’s not much to say other than Susy’s tacos took me right back to Mexico City, which is a few hours from where she grew up, and which we visited a year ago (or what feels like 370 years ago, thanks to the pandemic). You want to eat them, is what I’m saying. And you want to ask for some creamy “Susy Sauce” on the side.  

If you don’t want pig or cow, opt for chicken over seafood. The shrimp and fish are perfectly fine, but this just in: We live in a landlocked state. Your $2.99 is better spent on the juicy, deeply spiced chicken. 

Burritos

Burritos aren’t for me. Beans and rice and a tortilla is far too high a starch quotient, and the carne asada burrito here is no exception. The monster breakfast burrito, however, is right on — almost as good as the one I get weekly from Oscar’s Taco Shop, which is a paragon of the form. The cheese could’ve been melted more, but still — it’s solid. And at $8.50, it’s splittable. Ask for two green hot sauces on the side so you don’t have to share. 

Tortas

My torta needs are simple: more meat and other stuff than bread, and take that meat to flavortown (the good flavortown; not the new, Fieri-sponsored Franklin hellscape). Family Tacos checks those boxes. Their $9.99 tortas are YUGE, the bread is squishy yet crisp, and they overflow with lettuce, tomato, avocado and refried beans. We tried the chicken milanese. The meat was crispy and juicy on its own, but since it was in strips rather than one big piece, it became a knife-and-fork situation. On second pass, I’d go with non-fried options.

Fried quesadillas 

Here’s where we hit the don’t-skip section. There are three fried-quesadilla options, all for less than $4: cheese, cheese with chorizo, and cheese with mushrooms. Go wherever your god leads you; I can tell you the mushroom doesn’t disappoint. Susy knows how to get the cheese melty and the outside crunchy, all before stuffing lettuce and sour cream in at the last minute.  

Other stuff

This is my favorite category. Both times we’ve gone to Family Tacos, we’ve been delighted by the non-menu items, so be sure to look at the board (though they’ll probably offer you something even if you forget). 

Tamales: Succulent, steamed masa is stuffed with savory chicken, perfectly packaged in banana leaves to go.

Horchata: This sweet rice-milk beverage has the nostalgic comfort-food quality Americans will recognize from leftover Cinnamon Toast Crunch milk. (But without all the pesky new associations from last week.) 

Consommé: If you want me to die for you on a field of battle, start my meal with complimentary consommé. Family Tacos’ salty, beefy version is laced with just enough fat to make it luxurious and a few crunchy onions to keep it bright. Simply the best. 

Follow Family Tacos on Instagram, call in an order or stop by. You can find a Yelp photo of the menu, which I promise to replace with a better one next time I go.