Taqueria Las Mulitas

We went to Taqueria Las Mulitas in Anaheim on Friday, June 27 to have dinner before seeing George Michael at the Honda Center (see later review).  We found out about the eatery by going to the venue information section of the ticketmaster website and clicking on a link about nearby dining.  The link revealed many places, some chain eateries, fine dining, bars, and independent places.  Taqueria Las Mulitas caught our eye because it is on the way from I-5 to the Honda Center, it seemed relatively inexpensive, and it got a good review on citysearch.com.  My wife also remembered when we went to the Mexican eatery, La Taquiza, near USC three years ago and they had mulitas on the menu.  Mulitas are like quesadillas only they are made with corn tortillas and jack cheese.  She didn’t try the mulitas at La Taquiza because a salmon burrito on their menu seemed even more intriguing.  At Taqueria Las Mulitas she could now try mulitas.

I picked my wife up at work and we drove south on I-5 for an hour through Friday afternoon traffic.  We exited at Ball Road.  The exit is a bit confusing because it actually exits onto Disenyland Way or something like that.  We drove south a bit on this street and soon made a left to go east on Ball Road.  Taqueria Las Mulitas is in a large strip mall on the north side of Ball Road just past State College Blvd.  The strip mall includes some other eateries mentioned in the nearby dining link such as Willy’s Eatery, a Greek place that seems like it’s only open for breakfast lunch, and Brianna’s Fruit Salads where we would go for dessert.  The Taqueria is in the middle of the long strip mall building between a tobacco shop and a Vietnamese Pho eatery not mentioned in the nearby dining link.  We arrived at around 5 pm, much earlier than we normally eat dinner, but we had appetites.  The taqueria is very small.  There are only 6 booths and 4-5 small tables for seating.  Near one corner is a jukebox with a large selection of Rancheros, Mariachis, and other traditional Latin American music.  The décor is very bright.  Along the wall near the counter are large posters with pictures of their combination plates, seafood, and their special of $15 dollars for a bucket of beer on ice.  The tablecloths on the booths are very festive and along the upper wall are painted cartoon images of cacti, donkeys, suns, chili peppers, and Mexican characters wearing large sombreros.  In the back is a Salsa bar.

For a place so small, they have a very extensive menu.  The combinations consist of three soft tacos, one chili relleno with tortillas, chile verde with tortillas, carne asada, and mulita combo with one soft taco, all served with rice and beans.  Seafood combinations include Camarones a da Diabla (fresh shrimp topped with red chile hot sauce, Mojarra Frita (fried tilapia), and Caldo de Camarones (shimp soup).  They serve tacos and offer seven choices for meat fillings that include Al Pastor (BBQ charred pork), Cabeza (beef cheeks), carnitas (slow roasted pork), beef tongue, and tripe.  They also serve several different types of burritos, mulitas, and have a large breakfast menu.  With so much from which to choose we had to sit down and think before ordering at the counter.  There were no other customers yet, though some others would come after we had placed our orders.  They placed their orders in Spanish.

After we decided I placed the orders with the cashier.  My wife ordered the mulitas that came with a choice of meat and she chose carnitas.  I ordered the all-meat burrito that also had a choice of meat and I chose al pastor.  We sat in a booth and it didn’t take very long for them to prepare our food.  They called out the order and we picked it up from the counter.  My wife’s order came on a oval plate and mine on a paper plate.  My burrito was full of the little chunks of charred barbecued pork and also contained onion and cilantro salsa and came with some tortilla chips on the plate.  It was very good with the barbecued pork providing most of the smoky flavor.  The tortilla was large and heated.  However, the burrito wasn’t wrapped too tightly and it fell about when I was just half-finished with it.  I had to clean up the rest with the tortilla chips but it still tasted great.  My wife’s mulitas came with some lettuce and a slice of tomato.  They came with a fork and a steak knife for which my wife didn’t know the purpose. But she still enjoyed the jack cheese and carnitas grilled between two corn tortillas. 

We finished our dinner and decided we wanted some dessert so we went to Brianna’s Fruit Salads, a small ice cream and fruit dessert shop just a few doors down from the Taqueria.  Brianna’s serves many different types of fruit desserts such fruit salads, smoothies, ice cream, and fruits mixed with cream or yogurt.  They also serve meat tortas for those who want to have any entire meal.  My wife had the strawberries and cream and I had a raspado that’s shaved ice with fruit and syrup.  Raspados are not listed in the print menu and come in strawberry, pinapple, coconut, and many other flavors.  I had peach flavor and it was very good, not too sweet and a good consistency with the ice.  My wife had the strawberries and cream that along with its title ingredients also had raisins and granola at the top.  Both our desserts came in tall plastic cups and were very filling completely extinguishing any lingering hunger.

I’m glad we were able to find some decent places to have dinner and dessert before the concert.  They sure beat what was available at Honda Center.