Santo Taco: "Disrupting the Taco-Quo" in Salt Lake City
A restaurant review.
When it comes to street tacos, Salt Lake City seems limitless in its quantity and scope. You've got traditional taco trucks, like El Jaripeo Tacos, or the chic modern fusion of ROCTACO—and yes, their food is as bold as their uppercase branding—but today, we're not here to "taco 'bout" these lovely eateries; today belongs to Santo Taco—a restaurant bent on "disrupting the taco-quo." From what I can tell, they're shaking things up in all the right ways.
Menu
As someone who has a hard time choosing one entrée out of many good options, I love Santo Taco's a la carte menu, allowing you to build your own meal out of their wide range of tacos, burritos, and even nacho fries—customizable with your choice of meat or nopales (grilled cactus) for a vegetarian option.
Speaking of vegetarian and other alternative diets (vegan, gluten-free, etc.) they do have several menu items available, especially if you ask for slight alterations. For example, the calabacitas (zucchini) and nopales (grilled cactus) tacos become vegan if you order them without dairy. According to their website, the meatless options were inspired by two of the owners' children who are vegetarian.
All the same, there is plenty of meat on the menu as well. Carne asada, chorizo, grilled chicken, and marinated pork are just some of the options available.
As for gluten, their corn tortillas, fries, and posole should be gluten-free by default, but nothing is actually labeled as such on their menu, so there is a chance of gluten contamination. I would recommend you reach out to their Facebook page with any concerns. With that being said, I have friends with gluten sensitivities who have ordered the nacho fries and corn tortilla tacos with no problems.
Santo's Story
The owners, Claudia and Alfonso, are evidence of hard work at its best. Having moved to the Salt Lake valley many years ago, they both began their restaurant careers from the bottom up. Learning English, washing dishes, preparing food, these became the foundation of their mastery—all while raising their family.
"As our careers progressed in the food industry our family also grew. It was a lot of work building skills and a family at the same time... It is our hope that you taste every effort and experience we had in our careers and in our home."
As if the taste wasn't enough, when you enter the restaurant you are welcomed by three things:
The smell of warm tacos (and sometimes warm churros)
A small backdrop of iconic Salt Lake architecture (perfect for selfies)
The loveliest paper banners and lights, some of which depict scenes from Pixar's film, Coco
So, can you tell what matters to them? I think so.
Utah and the Taco-Quo
Finally, I want to point out that even though Utah will forever be associated with fry sauce and green JELL-O, local restaurants such as Santo Taco are adding to our food culture in beautiful ways. Do you embrace changes to food culture, or back away? Are new foods exciting, or disconcerting? I believe our answers to these questions reflect more than our opinions on taste. What do you think?
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