Behold The Taco Triangle 🍽
Tasting through three neighboring Mexican spots: Moctezuma Mexican Grill, Taqueria Los Gallitos and Sofia's Antojitos
There’s the idiom about being a “stone’s throw” from something, but when we’re talking about this trio of Mexican restaurants at the intersection of Galley Road and Academy Boulevard you can literally hit them if you have a decent arm. Look out the windows of any one of them and you can see the other two just across the parking lot. Given the immediate proximity, it only seemed logical to me to tackle tacos at each spot. Visit them one at a time, or undertake some sort of progressive meal if you have the stomach for it. Here’s how my visits went:
Taqueria Los Gallitos
Launched in late January, Taqueria Los Gallitos comes to the Springs via Denver, where there’s already multiple locations dating back many years. When I was recently interviewing the Galvan brothers for their opening of a second Por Favor Tacos location, they told me they used to frequent one of the Denver eateries, which they called their favorite taco spot. (That’s saying something — a lot, actually.) “But not for the service,” they joked, noting it’s all about the tacos and agua frescas.
I take their advice and get a wide selection of tacos ($2.75-$3 each) for my buddy and I to share for lunch one day. We order the asada, barbacoa, birria, pastor, tripa, lengua, suadero and cecina. Those latter two were new to me; I can’t remember seeing them offered anywhere else in town.
Cecina is salted, air-dried beef or pork, while suadero is an equally thin cut of beef flank, prized for its unctuous qualities. Everything else, including the tripe and tongue, I’m guessing you’re familiar-enough with to know what you’re in for.
The tricky part — actually the second tricky part, as the digital menu above the counter constantly refreshes with rotating screens, making ordering a bit hectic — is that our tacos are put on a tray for pickup with no verbal cues or guide on what’s what. (Hence that service the guys joked about.) We end up doing some guessing at the table. And neither of us are dummies. It’s just a few of them are difficult to tell from one another after we weed out the obvious ones. But the challenge makes the dining fun for us.
The crispy tripe rates as the best bite of the meal for me, while my friend fales for what we believe is the suadero, notably tender and juicy. The pastor’s great, too, and I really enjoy the lengua taco with the hottest salsa available from the central salsa bar — I’m not sure what it is exactly, but damn does it bring the fire.
Know that the tacos are much more street cart than restaurant style, so formed on smaller, double-wrapped tortillas. They all get cilantro and onion topping, with lime wedges and a grilled green onion bulb and stem for garnish. You’ll want to order at least four per person, and more likely five or six to really fill up. From the salsa bar grab small plastic ramekins of all four available salsas plus other fixings like fresh cucumber wheels, radish rounds, a curtido-like cabbage slaw and pickled peppers and carrots. The bright orange salsa holds a vinegary acidity and serious kick that I like paired with the beef options in particular.
For drinks we nab cups of cucumber-lime and watermelon agua fresca, which are sweet but not cloyingly so, and help cool our tongues from the spicy salsas. The flavors taste natural and they manage to lighten up the heavy elements of the food.
We finish with Gallitos’ chocolate tres leches and cajeta flan. My dining mate loves them both (taking leftovers back to his kids) and I’m happy enough with my bites. The less dense style of flan, full of air bubble pock marks, differs from my favorite versions which are rich and custardy. But the flavor’s spot on, and I appreciate the more complex taste of the goat milk cajeta versus caramel common to gringo versions. With layers of icing and cake crumb, saturated fully moist at the bottom, the tres leches holds a nice spongy texture and milk chocolate flavor. A couple bites is all I need, sweetness wise, so I recommend planning to share these or pace yourself on leftovers.
Moctezuma Mexican Grill
I was really impressed by Moctezuma’s original food truck when I visited it in 2022, shortly after it had opened. It’s located at the edge of a small shopping center at 5690 N. Union Blvd., not far from East Library. (I would link to my original coverage, but it’s part of the dead CS Indy archive, which I haven’t lamented about lately as much as I used to.)
I remember how welcoming the Colmenares family was at Moctezuma, and how exceptional their birria in particular was — and still is, I’m happy to report after a visit to the newly opened brick-and-mortar location at 1015 N. Academy Blvd.
I order a taco trio, which includes rice and beans for $14 and a couple minor up-charges depending on meat choices. I choose pastor, carne asada and birria with cheese. They arrive as large, double-wrapped tacos garnished with cilantro and red onion (versus the typical white). The birria includes a bowl of the fabulous house consommé.
All the tacos are on-point and on-style, with pineapple popping the pastor’s tender pork bits with zing and mild sweetness. I briefly regret not getting the pineapple agua fresca in order to double down on the flavor (I tried a sample and it’s lovely), but I’m quite happy with the tart sweetness of hibiscus on my agua de jamaica. I enjoy the asada with pickled onions added from the salsa bar, plus an earthy/smoky hot sauce that complements the tender beef.
But the showstopper as expected is the fragrant birria, laced with more depth of spices than average renditions. I know preparations range by Mexican region and family preference for customized recipes, and I’m a huge fan of the way Moctezuma does theirs. It has big cinnamon notes and floral qualities from coriander, with cumin earthiness and something that’s hard to peg in the finish. I ask if it’s a hint of star anise, but an employee says no, she believes there’s ginger in the recipe though. Whatever it is, I love the complexity and layered unfolding of flavors, and the toasted cheese makes bites after consommé dips all the more rewarding.
Moctezuma’s space feels welcoming, with bright colors, shiny counters and glowing signs on faux foliage walls. I ask about what distinguishes it from the food truck, and staff tell me they serve french fries here, with an option for Moctezuma Fries, which have meat, salsa and toppings, kinda like nachos. There’s also a liquor license here to enjoy boozy drinks with your bites, if you wish.
Sofia’s Antojitos
Sofia’s entered the scene in early 2022, earning a favorable writeup from me in the CS Indy in July of that year — I only remember the timing of this because when I drop by this past week I spy a plaque of my writeup on a half-wall near the ordering counter. At that time we enjoyed some new-to-us snacks (antojitos) made with non-traditional ingredients like ramen noodles and Doritos. And we savored a torta sandwich and several sweet treats — Sofia’s strong suit.
The outfit has since opened a second location at 4037 Tutt Blvd. (launched in fall 2023) and third spot in Woodland Park at 727 Gold Hill Place S. (launched in fall 2025). But, as it pertains to this new taco triangle I’m writing about here, home base at 1035 N. Academy Blvd. is where I re-visit.
It’s just after 5 p.m. on a Tuesday and a line has suddenly queued at the register for the dinner rush, as I await my to-go order (that I’d thankfully put in just ahead of them).
I stay on-theme with an order of four tacos: pastor, barbacoa, pierna (pork leg) and birria with queso. All are pretty loaded with meat, threatening to overwhelm the single corn tortillas they come on with cilantro and onions plus lime and cucumber garnishes. (Each is $2.99, save for the quesobirria, which is $4.50.)
The quesobirria stands out from the pack, with a toasted shell, thick cheese melt and juicy, consommé-saturated, shredded meat. It’s not as outwardly aromatic and spice-forward as Moctezuma’s, but it’s good. The pastor, too, lands different, sans pineapple sweetness but still flavorful from the achiote influence.
Both the barbacoa and pierna meats are a little dry, the former pot roasty other than some delightful fatty bits, and not particularly expressive of its seasoning — best with bites of medium-spiced, deep red salsa. The pierna’s pork bits go beyond the tenderness of the pastor, seemingly from a lengthy marinade and braise. Texturally they’re almost granular and sandy to the teeth, dissolving effortlessly as you chew. There’s a muddy earthiness to the flavor and faint smoky quality, I think from the typical ancho-guajillo mashup in the base. They benefit from lime juice and the salsa.
To wrap all this up, I’ll return to my chat with Por Favor’s Galvan brothers, and how they were telling me that even though all these tacos and Mexican items in general are ubiquitous, each family finds ways to personalize the recipes and make them their own. So as you dine across regions of Mexico and across restaurants in C. Springs, you’ll find notable differences in common items. This may smack as somewhat obvious, but I find it nice to reflect on momentarily. Particularly because if you ever read stupid reviews online, it’s as if people think there’s ONE right way to make a certain item (the way they like it, of course), leaving little room for interpretation.
Their point is further illustrated by a visit to this taco triangle, where each spot boasts their own flavor and form. So it matters not that they’re all essentially on top of one another in the marketplace. They’re all different, so really they aren’t competitors at that level and there’s plenty of town love to go around. If anything, their co-location just creates a convenience factor for those living and/or working in the direct area. I’ve talked to three friends who all have day jobs nearby (one of whom initially suggested that I do this trio of taco reviews — thanks Chris) and appreciation of that variety is the takeaway sentiment.
I’m not sure every other — or really any other — cuisine could pull off this hat trick. Picture three Thai or sushi places each within 50 yards of one another; would they last? Could they be as uniquely expressive?
I think back to Mayor Yemi’s call for more taco spots (on our podcast a couple years ago), which I recently referenced in my Por Favor writeup. If any food or drink category could literally occupy a town block-by-block it’s probably coffee first (hence the joke in Best of Show about characters meeting at facing Starbucks across a street) and tacos second.
Why? Because tacos are universally awesome. No other day of the week has as strong a food association as Taco Tuesday by way of proof. Sorry Meatball Monday and Wing Wednesday and Sweetbreads Sundays (I just made that one up) — you just ain’t all that sticky mentally, or addictive.
Notice I did not pick a favorite spot here by way of a contest or convenient outro to this article. Because I feel like there’s a right time for all of them — Por Favor and dozens of others in the city included (Huevones, El Chapin, Dos Santos, Tommy’s Tacos … I could go on). So hit this taco triangle when you can, to knock a few off your list, or just to experience the novelty of the setting.