An Abundance of Antojitos

Our burrito looked promising enough, especially given the grill marks on the tortilla, but we ultimately found it underwhelming. The seasoned chicken just did not have enough power to overcome the bland starchiness of the rice and refried beans.

If you need to satisfy a mammoth appetite, focus your attentions instead on one of their many tortas. We flipped out when we saw pambazos on their list of tortas, as this had been one of our culinary holy grails back in New York. In fact, Tacos Pepito’s rendition of pambazos easily deserves top ranking among the D.C. area’s best sandwiches.

There’s quite a bit of preparation for this unusual sandwich. First, they take a soft torta roll and dip it in red guajillo pepper sauce until the bread is thoroughly saturated, and then they throw it on the grill, resulting in a crispy toasted bread with a deep orange bronze broken up by blackened grill marks. They then slather on crema and stuff it with lettuce, crumbles of queso fresco, and a fried scramble of ground chorizo mixed with chunks of skin-on potato and sweet potato. It’s sweet, spicy and decadent enough to couch one to two people for the rest of the afternoon.

We were also excited to try their version of tlacoyos, which are double-thick oblong-shaped tortillas stuffed with refried beans. Sadly, the tlacoyos somehow underperformed despite all of their flair: they came drenched with red mole sauce and topped with queso fresco and green strips of nopalitos, or pickled cactus. Nevertheless, we found it to be another example of bland and starchy overload. We read later that tlacoyos is often used as a soup accompaniment, so perhaps we erred by not pairing it thusly.

We admit to ordering their huitlacoche quesadilla out of a grudging sense of duty, but it surprised us by dispensing with the typically oozy quesadilla format that we’ve known all our lives. Instead, the fresh corn tortilla was folded in half and filled with tender huitlacoche mushrooms, corn, sautéed onions, and more of that tangy, crumbly queso fresco. The use of queso fresco, which has a texture similar to feta, resulted in a quesadilla that was light compared to its cheese-laden American counterparts.

The oaxacan-style tamale was also an overachiever. After undoing the steaming corn leaf, we discovered a bundle of flavorful fresh masa, covered in a rich and almost chocolatey mole sauce, and stuffed with tender and juicy shreds of chicken.

Tacos Pepito’s offers an abundance of beveraging opportunities including maracuya, an agua fresca made with passionfruit. Their horchata, however, was sweetened and spiced to the point of being cloying. Those who enjoy horchata should instead try their avena, which is similar to horchata except that they use oatmeal in place of rice powder. This milk, oatmeal, and cinnamon concoction somehow manages to be both nourishing and dessert-like at the same time. The best part is the sediment of oats and cinnamon that remains once you work your way to the bottom.

In addition to antojitos, Tacos Pepito’s is, of course, a full-on panaderia, or Mexican bakery. Aside from pumpkin empanadas (which they said they didn’t have), we’ve yet to develop a taste for most Mexican pastries, despite the appealing array of unusual shapes, patterns, and bright colors of items like yoyos and pan de huevo (pictured above).

We did have a go at their bread pudding, but it turned out to be dry and over-refrigerated. Their American-style donuts, however, are phenomenal. They are rich and eggy, and very nearly as good as the Sunday donuts at 2 Amys. If your brain can’t quite handle chasing tacos with donuts, then just grab a couple to go, so that you’ll have them on deck for the next morning.

Tacos Pepito’s one shortcoming is that it has extremely limited seating. So if you don’t want to run the risk of having to scarf a torta outside on the sidewalk along Columbia Road (yeah, we’ve done this), then be prepared to schlep everything back home.

Tacos Pepito's Bakery II
1762 Columbia Rd. NW
(202) 232-7121

Original Location:
Tacos Pepito's Bakery
107-B East Diamond Ave.
Gaithersburg, Md.
(301) 990-1541