Taco Tuesday: Doña Mary Mexican Grill

Jake had the brilliant idea of hitting up a new taco joint every Tuesday this semester before we leave Provo after graduation. Whoop, whoop! After week one, we decided maybe this should be an every other week thing.....trying to eat healthier plus stuffing our faces with tacos doesn't quite add up. BUT we won't let that stop us from finding the best tacos in Utah County.

I decided to break up my review into categories. My favorite taco is carne asada, but I feel like tacos al pastor is very telling as to whether or not a restaurant knows their stuff, so I'll try to keep those in the mix every week. I'll also do my best to throw in a review for a third taco just to keep it interesting. Next would be rice and beans (Cohen's domain), salsas, then price and atmosphere (cleanliness, friendliness, overall viiiiiibes). I didn't take a pic, but I will try to remember to do that next time!

Located at 1462 State Street in Orem, Doña Mary's is our first stop for Taco Tuesday. 

Asada: Beefy (obviously) and moist. Still tough enough to make you rip into it with your teeth, in a good way, but not so tough that your jaw gets a work out. YUM. Add cilantro, lime, and onion, and it's Anna's perfect taco. 

Pastor: I have had a couple 'womp, womp' experiences with tacos al pastor, so I wasn't too pumped about trying a bite of Jake's, But helloooo, these were amazing. So saucey, so much flavor, cooked onion in there, too. I was very pleasantly surprised. "Definitely top notch pastor," says Jake.

Meat of the week: Birria! Jake says, "The birria was juicy and very flavorful. My two favorites were the asada and pastor."

Rice and beans: We got a HUGE serving of rice and beans for about $3. All three of us shared it and we couldn't finish! Cohen ate a ton of the beans and even enjoyed the rice, which is not usually his favorite. The refried beans had no weird flavors and not a ton of whole pieces of beans (I like 'em smooth). They did, however, have a couple little pieces of some kind of green chile which I was not expecting. Cohen spit those out, but I didn't mind. The rice was not overpowering, but had some good flavor, too. 

Salsas: The light green avocado sauce was, surprisingly, the spiciest! Green chile sauce was yummy on the carne asada. I didn't try the red pepper sauce and the red salsa with cilantro was pretty good on chips, but not my favorite in the whole world. Had an interesting flavor that I couldn't get over and have no idea how to describe....not for me. 

$: Tuesdays AND Wednesdays $0.99 tacos!

Atmosphere: This place was so clean! They had soccer on TV, which totally set the mood, especially when the announcer was yelling GOOOOOOOOOOAAAALLLLLLL. That was probably the highlight of my evening. So fun! And the girl who helped us was great! She spoke very little english and was very smiley and kind. I'm pretty sure the only other guy in there was her boyfriend, who was very friendly and kept making Cohen laugh. I was shocked at the lack of a crowd because it was SO good. Although, a group of co-eds did arrive as we were finishing up. Granted, we eat dinner a little early around here, so maybe they are busier later!

Other: Free single serving of chips for each person at your table!

What's your favorite Taco Tuesday joint? We just might have to add it to our list of places to try!

Thanks for reading!