During our visit to the Detroit area, I was craving some Mexican food. Normally this would involve a trip down to Detroit’s Mexicantown neighborhood, but for most of the trip we were up in the northwestern Detroit suburb of Livonia. But Carol’s extended family had a favorite Mexican place nearby that they really liked, so we headed off to a strip mall on 6 mile road to visit The Taco Factory.
Located in a small storefront nestled between a jeweler and a AAA office, The Taco Factory is a fairly cozy establishment with a few tables up front in the window, and a long row of booths against the wall. Quickly getting seated in one of the front window booths, we were quickly supplied with the requisite tortilla chips and salsa, the latter being a nicely-spicy house-made red salsa served up in little carafes (I love it when places do this, since I can pour some salsa onto my chips or entrée, and not have to chase around chunks of salsa with a chip). While they had a good selection of margaritas that looked good, I was thirsty for something non-alcoholic, so I went for one of my other Mexican favorites: an aqua jamaica, which was an above-average beverage and not one of the low-grade Kool-aid-like versions.
For my main course, since the place was named “The Taco Factory”, I decided I needed some tacos, settling on the Tacos Campechanos. With grilled ground steak and chorizo, and topped with onion and cilantro, I rather enjoyed these. The tortillas were good, they were serving them up double-stacked (which I always appreciate to avoid “taco blow-out”), and the ground steak and chorizo had a very good flavor, spicing level, and sear. And particularly enjoyable to me was the inclusion of some grilled serrano peppers to give it a bit of kick. Overall, some great tacos.
Most of the rest of the table got the Burrito Leon, which was a flour tortilla burrito with with grilled onion and steak, topped with red sauce and melted cheese, and served up with rice and beans. The steak was nicely seasoned and grilled, and the red sauce a good, rich enchilada sauce, so this was a bit of a combination of burrito, enchilada, and fajitas, but quite flavorful and enjoyable. I didn’t try the rice, but did have some of the beans, which were the flavorful variety of refried beans that makes me not want to know how much lard was used in making them.
So, despite the fairly generic name, I rather enjoyed The Taco Factory. Both my tacos and the burrito were quite tasty and well prepared, the salsa good and bold, and I had a rather good agua jamaica to enjoy as well. It’s a great little spot if you are looking for Mexican food in the general Livonia area.
