El Compadre is not just your run of the mill taqueria. It opened late last year with Isaias Berriozabal-Martinez at the helm, the son of Philly Barbacoa’s owner and chef Cristina Martínez.

Isaias passed away unexpectedly in January, but his restaurant remains, and it is serving up some great food.

The menu is short and sweet.

Nachos al pastor – the cheese was a little funkier than your classic Mexican blend. Otherwise these were a nice take on the dish but the best was yet to come.

The salsa dish was great, with a spicy verde and the pickled jalapeños brightening up the tacos.

Tacos al pastor.

Chicken tinga taco – the consensus favorite 

Taco campechano (steak and chorizo)

The homemade tortillas are awesome, and my cucumber agua fresca was refreshing after a day on the baseball field.

Al pastor nachos – 3.35/5 pickled jalapeños – eat these with family and come back for the tortas for lunch.

I thought I had written this one up before, but when I wrote my Goldie review and tried to link to it, nothing came up.

So here’s a few-months late quick write-up on Rooster Soup Company, Cook & Solo’s venture where all profits go to charity.

The chicken soup is made from the leftover Federal Donuts chicken parts. The matzo ball soup is smoked and a nice Southern version of the best soup varietal.

Does Nachojawn enjoy patty melts? Yes. This one comes on challah with an “everything spice sauce”, which is modeled off the everything bagel. You’ll be picking poppy seeds out of your teeth. It’s amazing.

Don’t worry, I didn’t eat all of this food in one day. It’s the Yemenite Pot Pie. AND ALSO DELICIOUS.

Rooster Soup Company
1625 Sansom Street

Good: The world’s largest nachos are being built

Bad: It’s out in San Francisco

???: The chips are made from crickets.

FON El Gato worked her last day at Meltkraft, and was honored with this special.

Pretty good likeness

Good, although hot avocado is controversial

Verdict: eaten

Sometimes you need to lighten up your caloric intake. Breakfast is a great opportunity to try something fresh and easy.

I went straight to the hashes and looked for something with a Mexican slant.

And hit up the make-you-own Bloody Mary bar, with cilantro-lime infused tequila.

Man, I love onion strings and biscuits. This was a great breakfast, even if you can’t see it under all the onion. Hashed potatoes, black beans, carne asada, fried eggs, tortilla.

Good stuff!

If you live in Philly and you like food, the opening of Goldie on April Fool’s Day seemed too good to be true. It’s not a joke though, Goldie is open just above Rooster Soup Co., another Cook & Solo joint. 

Goldie works a little differently than another Nachojawn favorite, Mama’s Vegetarian. Here you pick your sauce, and the whole insides of the sandwich get tossed in a bowl before being stuffed in a Dizengoff pita.

The line was out the door on opening week. I got the next to last pita. Those behind me got salads. If you weren’t in the door at this point, you got nothing.

Super crispy fries might be a little divisive, but I liked the shwarma spiced version, with a sour cherry iced tea.

I ate it all – it’s a little bit bigger sandwich than Mama’s as well.

Goldie
1526 Sansom St.

Is Butterfield’s the best breakfast in America? It feels it. And the lines every morning are evidence that it’s not your everyday pancake joint.

This year we stopped on our first morning bright and early. We still had a little wait before we could sit.

I went with the New Mexico skillet, chorizo, avocado, peppers and onions with over medium eggs and a side of pancakes.

Mrs. Nachojawn loves the Swedish pancakes. Better than Ikea.

Someone needs to bring La Colombe to Arizona though. Weak coffee is Butterfield’s one drawback, and it’s a big one.

Ocotillo Grill is the poolside lunch spot for Nachojawn HQ during our trips out west.

Standard order is two guacamoles, one without the queso for Nachojawn Jr. Octotillo has done away with the tri-color chips since we were last there. Apparently everyone thought the red chips had artificial coloring and wouldn’t eat them. First world problems.

Little Miss Nachojawn likes hers with extra salt.

Special order for Nachojawn. These asada nachos come with a cheese sauce that chef whipped up just for us. It’s good to be Nachojawn!

4.39/5 pickled jalapenos – eat these on spring break and get back to the pool.

It must have been a quick brainstorming session coming up with the name for Cold Beer & Cheeseburgers. There’s about a half-dozen outposts of this sports bar in Arizona, and the Nachojawns took a big crew out here – enough to order both totcho variations.

These are the Buffalo Chicken Tot Chos (their spelling), with shredded buffalo chicken, green onion, bleu cheese crumbles and ranch. Maybe they were out of bleu cheese.

These are the original Tot Chos, with beef chili, roasted pepper cheese sauce, sour cream and guacamole. Both versions were pretty good but the spicy cheese sauce on the originals pushed them to the next level.

CB & CB’s hook is the build-your-own burger, but I went straight off the menu with the Open Pit burger – cheddar and pepper jack cheeses, bacon, onion ring, and BBQ sauce.

I find that one of the pitfalls of the check off the box type of ordering is the tendency to go overboard. I put my faith in the hands of the chef and was rewarded with a decent burger.

After a year hiatus the Nachojawn family is back in Arizona for spring break. After landing at PHX, picking up the sweet minivan and popping in the car seats, we took the short drive to La Santisima.

We had eaten here a couple years ago, and there was a note up that while the restaurant had doubled in size, they still had only one kitchen line.

One thing that hadn’t changed was the salsa bar. Highlighted by the 7-chile salsa, tomatillo, salsa verde and chile de arbol, we crushed four baskets of chips while waiting for our tacos.

Little Miss Nachojawn had enough after the flight and called it a day.

We were so hungry I had eaten my chicken mole taco before I remembered to take a picture.

Here’s half a cochinita pibil taco and an arrachera. The rice was interesting – almost like a broken rice style.

Mrs. Nachojawn had a barbacoa taco, an El Gaucho, and a pibil.

The waiting was a little rough but the food was amazing. Great start to Nachojawn Spring Break 2017.

La Santisima

1919 N 16th St. Phoenix AZ