El Taco, Busan

El Taco

Busan Haeundae-Gu Jung-Dong 1515-2

Kyung-Dong Meris #103

051.746.8358

Open from 12 noon - 9 p.m. (or opens at 4 p.m., not sure which!)

엘타코

부산광역시 해운대구 중동 1515-2번지 경동 메르빌상가 103호

051.746.8358

This past weekend, the husband and I went on a little adventure. I say this because anytime we try to go anywhere in our neighborhood during the weekend, it's an adventure! We seriously have way too much traffic in Haeundae, mostly because of all the summer tourists. (We have the nicest beach in all of Korea, apparently!)

So on a drizzly and thankfully cool Sunday, off we went to E-Mart and then to go have Mexican food, because I LOVE Mexican food!

The restaurant is pictured above. It's on the non-popular side of Dalmaji Road (달맞이길), which is famous for its nighttime views. I've been there at night, though, and frankly? Not that much to see. It's just a hill with tons of coffeeshops, I think is what I would call it. It's hugely popular, though, so I was a bit worried about all the people ... and was pleasantly surprised! Not that many people!

 

The menu was pretty cute, no? Except I don't think Koreans know or comprehend what "pub" means, because this place is called a pub but looks and sounds and feels like a family restaurant!

We had nachos, of course, because I love nachos! The pickled jalapenos brought a little tear to my eye. I love them so~ Koreans like really sweet pickles, and the tangy saltiness of the jalapenos brought my childhood rushing back to me! The jarred salsa was okay; better jarred than some weird concoction that some weird Korean makes, I say! The cheese was sadly lacking, of course, but what can you do, right?? These were the Nachos Grande, which are 9,000 KRW (about $7.60).

Two beef tacos! Pretty good, I have to say. Of course there wasn't enough beef (Koreans are really cheap with meat because it's much more expensive here!) but otherwise okay! The crema / sour cream on top was a little bit odd and excessive. What the heck? And no salsa inside, but I used the extra from the nachos for the taco. A messy eat, which is the best kind of taco! Two beef tacos were 7,500 KRW (about $6.33).

The quesadilla was, by far, the most Koreanized thing we had. It was a sausage potato quesadilla, which I wanted to try because it just SOUNDED so Korean! It was okay, except I'm not a huge fan of refried beans, and this had a ton of them in there. Along with the soft potato, it made for a major jaw-gluer. And crema / sour cream again! What is with Koreans and their love of garnishing foreign foods?? This was the most expensive thing, I thought, in terms of quality : quantity, at 11,000 KRW (about $9.29).

Husband perusing the menu in the tiny little hole-in-the-wall place. It had photos of America in the back of the photograph above, which I thought was cute... but slightly weird, because it had Hollywood and also New York. Where are you from, restaurant?? California or New York?? Haha!

 

The menu is above. This is all that they serve, and while I've only had the three dishes shown above, I think it's a safe bet to assume that all their food pretty much tastes the same. Kind of American-Mexican but with a strong dash of Korean and an even bigger dash of store-bought. For the money we spent at this place, we'd be better off buying the store-bought ingredients and making the dishes at home! (Which I think I need to do... right??)

Still, always fun to go on an adventure! ^_^