Tasty tacos: How five local breakfast options stack up

I knew I must have been getting close to the border when I made my final gas stop on my move to McAllen - just one year and one day ago today.

Throngs of people clutched breakfast tacos as they left the gas station just north of San Antonio. The tacos were a shift of cuisine and culture from the breakfast pizza slices that dominate many roadside stop-offs in my native Midwest.

I still believe that scrambled eggs and pizza make a rocky marriage.

But the breakfast taco can be a magical - and quick - way to kick off a busy morning. Talk to a Rio Grande Valley native who has relocated from the border region and chances are you'll find someone who still secretly longs for that magical harmony of eggs, salty meat and a fresh tortilla available here at practically any corner convenience mart.

So how do the local breakfast tacos stand up against each other? This Valley greenhorn recently took an unscientific, admittedly incomplete sampling of some of the most commonly available quick breakfast mainstays to try and find out.

Establishments were rated on the price, speed and overall taste impressions of the taco, based on a scale of 1 (inedible) to 5 (exquisite).

AZIZ QUICK STOP: I usually don't swing by Aziz when I crave a breakfast taco, so I was excited to give this convenience mart a try.

The shop lived up to its ‘quick stop' name - it took only two minutes to walk out the door with my taco with huevos a la Mexicana: A combination of scrambled eggs, diced jalapeño, onion and tomato.

The taco was hot, but it seemed like the filling had been sitting under the limelight for quite some time. The tortilla was slightly chewy, but I preferred others more than this one. Overall, the flavor was slightly more bland than the others, but that could be because onion, jalapeños and tomato don't have the salty dominance of other breakfast meats usually enveloped in breakfast tacos. At $1.29, this was the most expensive convenience store taco sampled. While the taco was acceptable, other, tastier options still exist. Rating: 2.5/5

EL PATO: I'd never tried El Pato's breakfast tacos before, but a fellow Monitor staffer told me this area chain had to make the list.
The service was relatively fast - just four minutes to order a taco with egg and ham - and the taco was hot. But the tortilla was awfully chewy and the taco was smaller than all others sampled.

Every other breakfast taco I tried would have filled me up after eating just one, but El Pato's offering left me craving more. But the smaller size made for easy eating as I drove off from the restaurant. At $1.25 each, or $3.69 for three, El Pato makes a worthy breakfast taco offering, but still there are better options out there. Rating: 3/5

STRIPES: This area convenience store chain usually acts as my breakfast taco mainstay, given its widespread presence with more than 500 locations across South Texas and Oklahoma.

With that familiarity in mind, I stopped by on a recent weekday morning to order something different: A chorizo and egg taco. At 99 cents, the price seemed like a bargain, given the taco cost less and had more filling than the one purchased from the Aziz across the street. It took about seven minutes before I was able to leave the store, but that usually is a good sign, given that other people must find the food worth the wait.

The chorizo and egg combination made for a greasier taco than most, but the spicy flavor was memorable and the food was hot. The tortilla was fresh and provided a good base. Nice touch on the choice of green and red salsas, plus pico de gallo available at the bar inside the store. Rating: 3/5

RUDY'S: Ah, Rudy's. Known for its quick barbecue lunches and dinners, this restaurant chain also makes a venerable breakfast taco offering.

I cruised up to the drive-through window and ordered a beef brisket and egg breakfast taco. I never thought brisket and egg would make a great breakfast taco combination, but it surprisingly worked out well. The eggs tasted fresher than those offered at the other stores sampled, and the taco itself was bigger than most of the rest. And while the shredded brisket kind of tasted like it was left over from the day before, it still hit the spot. The red salsa was not as spicy as some of the others, but still gave off enough heat.

There have been times in the past where I've waited seemingly painstaking amounts of time for Rudy's drive-through tacos, but this visit took only five minutes to complete the order. At $1.25 each, these tacos are tough to beat. And if you give them your order at 781-8888, they'll have your breakfast ready to go. Rating: 4/5

TACO PALENQUE: I'd been here for lunch and dinner before, but this was another joint where I had never tried the breakfast tacos. After stopping by earlier this morning, I know I'll have to stop back again.

Before I made it to the drive-up window at the North 10th Street location in McAllen, I was greeted by a large sign telling of the two-for-one breakfast taco deal available between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m.

I ordered a bacon and egg breakfast taco. At $1.89, this would have been the most expensive breakfast taco purchased. But with the breakfast deal, my order came with a second breakfast taco impossibly loaded with scrambled eggs, plus two extra hot flour tortillas and two cups of pico de gallo.

The excessive egg in the free taco - which (mistakenly?) came with no bacon - easily filled one of the other tortillas, thereby creating three tacos for less than two bucks - more than I could ever hope to eat in one sitting.

The bacon had a smoky flavor and everything was piping hot. It took four minutes to complete my order, and one of my editors here at The Monitor was more than happy to enjoy the extras. Rating: 4.5/5

With that, we'd like to know which local restaurant has your favorite breakfast taco offering. This survey only sampled chain establishments, and surely, there has to be local joints that can do even better. Please leave us a comment below and let everyone know what you think.

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Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.