A few weeks back, my editor at D Magazine suggested lunch at a spot I was excited to visit. Parking was a nightmare. The restaurant was in my least favorite part of Dallas, Snider Plaza, which is right by Southern Methodist University, where foot traffic and giant Range Rovers converge into an unnavigable nightmare. Luckily, we ordered a plate of sirloin tacos that made not just lunch but the entire day better.
The restaurant is called Sueño, and I’ve previously dined at its location in the suburbs of Dallas. It’s owned by a family who want to tell the story of their ancestral roots in Mexico (they hail from Mexico City), and ended up expanding into Dallas proper (like truly as properly Dallas as it gets and frankly probably too Dallas for my taste) when they partnered with a pair of brothers who run my favorite seafood restaurant in town, Rex’s Seafood and Market.
In Richardson, the city just north of Dallas where the first Sueño opened, these guys took a former Burger King and turned it into something akin to a restaurant I’d expect to see at an all-inclusive resort on Isla Mujeres, a very cool island for adults and people who love peace and quiet, but it's just off the coast of Cancun. I say that because it looks even better than the fancy restaurant at an all-inclusive resort I did stay at on Isla Mujeres, and it was a far superior experience. Of course, Sueño makes a superior sirloin taco. That’s like challenging an NBA player to a game of horse.
It was a truly gorgeous taco. Laid flat on top of a housemade tortilla (half blue corn and half white flour) with caramelized cheese, the strips of sirloin were thinly sliced like pastrami. There were ramekins with salsa de guacamole and roasted tomatillo salsa, but the taco needed neither. Just a squeeze of lime did the trick for some acid to cut through. It is so simple and so wonderful.
I think tacos are always better on a nixtamalized tortilla because I’m convinced you can taste the love and labor. But generally, I prefer a flour tortilla with a taco de bistec because the heft of the meat demands a sturdy tortilla, and because I am a Texan raised on Tex-Mex, and that’s the default. Sueño’s half-and-half tortillas mix the sturdiness of flour with the taste of ground corn to perfection, and are more than capable of holding together the layers of melted cheese, fatty beef, and however much thick salsa you feel the need to load in there.
Go order yourself a taco de bistec, be it a rib-eye taco, carnitas, or street tacos with cubed meat. Load it up with grilled or chopped onions. Add all the salsa you want. It will make your whole day better.
If you missed anything that was published on Ravenous in the last week, this is your chance to catch up. Below are some of our most recent posts. Thanks for your support!
Ashok Selvam
Jaya Saxena
Ashok Selvam
Bird Droppings 🐦⬛
- It’s been a depressing week in food news, which has made our Bird Droppings channel in Slack a real bummer. Let’s start with the worst one. The Guardian reports that HelloFresh workers have filed a class action lawsuit against the company and some staffing agencies, alleging sexual harassment in the workplace (somehow buried in the story and not the lede or the headline), literally peeing on themselves because they aren’t allowed to take bathroom breaks, and being subjected to verbal and physical abuse. Cancel that subscription if you’re still a customer.
- Hey, remember that story I wrote about soulless private equity cookies? I guess a lot of people agreed with me for a long time, because Crumbl is closing just shy of 60 stores nationwide because of struggling sales. What’s interesting to me is that while national publications were eager to cover its rise, we’re seeing the closures covered locally — Columbus, Ohio, Savannah, Georgia, Detroit, Palm Beach, Florida, Cleveland. It’s a story told in breadcrumbs. Not business-y enough for you, CNBC?
- Your eyes aren’t deceiving you; chocolate is being enshittified. Just in time for Halloween, Grub Street dropped an investigation into what the fuck Hershey’s is doing to its chocolate products, and it is gross. (paywalled for subscribers)
- AOC went to Culver’s for the first time. Sorry, that just made me LOL. Anyway, thanks to TMZ DC for capturing this riveting moment in food history.
- In a move that most of the Ravenous staff cheered for (no dissenters, just apathy from those who didn’t comment), KFC is ditching Pepsi for Coke, the Wall Street Journal reports, for reasons of industry (paywalled). Your move, Taco Bell.
- Did we all watch Chick-fil-A’s CEO try to dodge a question on the Today show about the company’s history of discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community? If you missed it, this is epic levels of uncomfortable.
- To end on a much better note: Yesterday was pub day for The Best American Food and Travel Writing anthology, on which Jaya serves as the series editor. Get yourself a copy!
