We took every seat in the place.

I’m writing this up really quickly before dashing to Penn to catch my beloved Acela, but I wanted to make note of the most successful (in terms of attendance) $20/D dinner yet before shoving off to the Cape for nine days.

I and nine others (would have been eleven others, if not for a sudden rainstorm-induced bout of laziness) barreled into De Guerreros Taqueria last night. Along with one visiting Welshman, whose introduction to Mexican food could not have been more authentic, my friends were as enthusiastic as possible about the array of food.

This enthusiasm translated initially into my ordering two batches of chilaquiles while everyone else perused the menu. Of the two, the red, which I hadn’t previously sampled, was the less spicy – but, of course, I liked the green better. One friend whose mother is Mexican said that he was surprised, considering the ubiquity of the dish south of the border as both leftover catch-all and breakfast(!) food, that it hadn’t caught on up here. I agreed, and so did everyone who tasted it.

Most folks ordered tacos, me included, and we managed to sample three-quarters of the offered varieties: bistec/steak, cesina/salted beef, chorizo/sausage, al pastor/marinated pork, barbacoa/goat, carnitas/pork, suadero/steamed pork, and pollo/chicken. I promise we’ll get to the tongue, ear, and stomach next time. Of them, the cesina was the most surprising to me – definitely really salty, but delicious. It’d make a fine sandwich – a possibility for subsequent visits.

Others’ favorites were the chorizo, which bests Pio Maya’s on flavor, if not freshness, the suadero, which everyone oohed and ahhed over just as I did upon first tasting it, and the al pastor, which was quickly devoured by everyone who ordered it. The bravest among us tried my goat taco and admired the way it simply melted in our mouths – “tastes like the earth,” someone affirmed.

Of the non-taco-orderers, the chicharron (fried pork rind) and quesillo (cheese) gorditas were popular, if heavy, options. Similar corn meal was used to shape the huarache (which looked like a dugout canoe or a long incense burner) and the quesadilla (which bore no cheese, to the great surprise of the person who ordered it). Personally, I liked the tacos better, but you really can’t go wrong either way.

No margaritas are served (though we kidded about taking up a collection for a slushee machine for the place), but grab a beer across the street (one quart of Tecate is $2.75), or at the Polish market on 4th Avenue by the train (where I was charged $1.29 each for several 17 ounce beers with names I couldn’t pronounce). You won’t even miss the tequila.

Thanks to the lovely couple who cook at De Guerreros – they’re damn good at what they do. Go see for yourself.