Epic tacos are coming to the center of Dallas: Chilangos Tacos, a young taqueria concept from a highly regarded team, is opening a location at 4012 Ross Ave., a former Subway at Haskell Avenue, where they'll surely continue to wow customers with authentic tacos, quesadillas, and refreshing fruity margaritas.

According to a spokesperson, the restaurant will open in early summer, possibly as soon as June.

Chilangos is from a polished team that includes SMU grad Jon Garay and highly-regarded chef Joel Mendoza. They first debuted the concept in 2019 with a location on Harry Hines by Dallas Love Field, featuring Mexico City-style tacos, made with top-quality ingredients. It earned them a spot on our Where to Eat list for July 2019.

Their signature is the La Costras Taco, like a grilled cheese version of a taco ("costra" means "crust") featuring fajita beef, bacon, and avocado on a toasted flour tortilla, in which Monterey Jack cheese is melted directly on the grill and filled with protein, then plopped into a tortilla, for crunchy, cheesy results.

They were also among the first in DFW to do the now-buzzy birria taco, a year before this galvanizing story which documented the birria taco trend.

Their salsas are fresh, with their guacamole salsa, made with mashed avocado, being a standout; and tortillas made in house with a slightly thick, pliable texture.

Both Garay and Mendoza lived in Mexico City before moving to Dallas ("chilango" is slang for a resident of Mexico City).

Mendoza had significant fine-dining experience including the Four Seasons in New York and Pujol in Mexico City, rated one of the 50 best restaurants in the world, before moving to Dallas to work at San Salvaje, Stephan Pyles' Latin restaurant in the Arts District.

They got their feet wet in 2018 with La Botana Taco Bar, a food truck based in Uptown, which helped them refine Chilangos recipes such as the birria taco, whose roots lie in a recipe from Mendoza's grandfather.

Their menu features tacos and quesadillas, with choice of protein on a corn or flour tortilla, topped with onions, cilantro, and salsa. Protein options include:

• carne asada/grilled top sirloin
• pastor/marinated pork
• chicken breast
• barbacoa/slow cooked beef
• caramelized mushrooms

The birria tacos come three to an order with consomme, and come in two options: regular or with melted cheese. Those are served on weekends only.

Sides include elotes (corn in a cup), or chips & salsa. There are also churros filled with Mexican cajeta and coated in cinnamon sugar. Beverages include horchata, Jarritos sodas, and their Chingonrita, their signature mango chamoy margarita.

Their first expansion was in 2020, when they were recruited to open a stand at Legacy Hall, the Plano food hall; it opened in November 2020.

A year later, they followed with the third Chilangos location — this time in Nashville, inside Assembly Food Hall, the Nashville spinoff of Legacy Hall, where they opened in July 2021.

"When we were looking at bringing in a Mexican street food concept to Legacy Hall, our priority was finding a partner with true respect for the tradition," said Food Hall Co. VP Kulsoom Klavon at the time. Mission accomplished.