El Paso – El Paso is a very unique city, encompassing and combining two cultures as a border town. In the center of El Paso you’ll find the Five Points neighborhood, and this section of the city now has a place for 5 star tacos called Ay Dios Mio.c
Jennifer Mendoza owns this hot spot in a hot part of our state, and she’s been in the restaurant business her whole life thanks to having a family full of eatery owners. Ever since she can remember her family has owned restaurants, and her first job, as well as those of all her cousins and siblings, were at restaurants owned by the family.
Of course the one thing you can count on in El Paso is Mexican food so Jennifer wanted to do something different. Even though the city has grown a lot recently, it still has a small-town mentality. Jennifer wanted to expand people’s horizons, and not just be any old Mexican restaurant. So she enlisted the help of Enrique Lozano, a James Beard Nominated Chef with experience on shows like Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay.
The duo has worked together marvelously, bonding both as business partners and as friends. Together they teamed to create a restaurant known for tacos, but these are far from your ordinary tacos. As a bar restaurant, they wanted to push the boundaries of what it means to have food at a bar.
Enrique got things started on a massive meal consisting of pretty much every taco on the menu with a side of bone marrow. First up was the marinated pork, followed by steak, bone marrow, octopus, hot dogs and tripas. Some fresh cod gets tempura fried as everything on the grill gets hit with a house-made seasoning salt consisting of 25 different spices.
The tripas get caramelized onion and cilantro. The discada, pico and cilantro. The pastor, grilled pineapple, red onion pickled with hibiscus, and cilantro. The asada, grilled cucumber, pico and garnish. A vegetarian taco gets black beans, mushrooms seasoned with chili oil, pickled red onions and sliced scallion. The fried cod gets togarashi seasoning, slaw, and spicy mayo. The octopus is sliced up with fried baby potatoes, chimichurri and micro greens. The lengua, which is cow tongue that’s braised, gets a glaze made from bone marrow, onion, garlic, all roasted down topped and with cilantro.
The bone marrow taco is so buttery, so salty, so delicious and so tender. It’s almost like taking the finest part of a Wagyu beef steak and cooking it in butter, intense and fantastic. The lengua, asada, tripas and even the vegetarian tacos were all incredible as well, each with their own unique flavor combinations. The carne asada taco is probably the most classic dish on the menu, but it still stands out just based on how well it’s done.
Well, for an incredible smorgasbord of fabulous fun tacos, coming to the Sun City and saying ay dios mio at Ay Dios Mio is definitely well worth a stop on The Texas bucket list.