Jo Ellen’s Tacos

Love their veggie breakfast tacos and they are cheap! Enjoy!

Awesome everything! Our new neighborhood favorite. Burger and fries are both fresh and hand made. If you like sweet potato fries; these are possibly the best in town. Breakfast tacos are all great — migas taco and veggie taco are favorites of ours. And it’s very affordable; $ 1.50 for a 2 topping taco and .50 for any additional topping. WAY better than taco shack and, dare I say, torchys. Only thing I can think to recommend — offer grilled poblanos as a taco topping. Good value — easy acces folks; good stuff.

Went for lunch and enjoyed the Al pastor taco and a Carnitas taco, very tasty with the hotter of the three sauces offered (orange).
previous visit for breakfast…
plain jane breakfast tacos and decent coffee… brought to you by the Bert’s BBQ peeps. Fortunately the animal trophy décor is absent from this place… The very good about this place is it’s cleanliness, no crap music, an absence of television screens…
Place is open for special events and catering after 4pm… BYOB then as well
Not sure what the plan is here, Bert’s peeps have owned the property since 2008 and may be keeping something going while they wait for another tenant. Current biz model doesn’t seem like it will reap much gold. Needs something to reel customers in… pie, gelato, good beer, whatever

The stars say just what they need to:
«I’ve experienced better.»
The tacos were generous in portion size and served piping hot. Add that to the extremely sweet staff and kind owners and we thought we were in business.
Unfortunately, for I was pretty damned excited to see tacos pop up so close to home, the flavors and stylings just weren’t there. The tortillas had a packaged tortilla after taste and there just wasn’t anything special going on. Even as a bland breakfast taco (which I love on occasion as a carrier for delicious salsas) these fell short. The mild was a straight forward decent salsa fresca, the tomatillo was a gummy, lime-​ridden and underseasoned ‘canned-​tomatillo-​esque’ concoction (no spice to speak of) and their hottest salsa was fruity and more flavorful than the rest. The final ‘orange salsa’ as others are naming it had promise, but just really didn’t fit flavor-​wise with their breakfast tacos. There was a disconnect.
I’ve lready vowed to head back to Jo-​Ellen to see what lunch has to offer. Until then, I’ll continue to seek out my ‘white man breakfast tacos’ at Taco-​Deli or from the comfort of my own home.

I cried so hard when I saw that it closed. I cried almost as hard as when I had engulfed myself on the «cult classic» Chubacabra burger. This sucker was honestly the hottest thing I had ever laid taste buds on. And it was awesome. How can JE’s Tacos possibly replace Le Montagne Gato Grille? Is that French or Spanish?
I don’t know what happened to the beloved Cat Mountain Grill, but it is gone. Indeed, it is a sad day for all those who loved this 2222 neighborhood burger joint. In its place is a humble taco eatery that has not done much in the way of changing up the décor… it looks exactly as it did a year ago.
Aside from the fact that Miss Jo Ellen has recently displaced quite possibly my favorite ground beef-​and-​bread institution in Austin, I actually found the taco to be acceptable. Don’t worry; no bitterness in having lost the Cat Mountain, but I was a little disappointed in the lack of originality at JE’s.
Being less grungy than your typical Mexican eatery – see La Mexicana Tacos, Primo Tacos, Taco Taco (I just made all of those up) – this tucked away spot keeps you with the basics: beef, chicken, pork tacos. Personally, I found their veggie taco to be pretty dang filling – they put a huge honkin’ piece of avocado in it. Unfortunately, the tough potatoes detracted from the whole experience.
On the whole, there isn’t anything too terribly off. I just prefer two things in the way of Austin’s favorite breakfast staple: outrageously unique tacos – maybe like fried avocado or pork belly – OR $ 1 nitty gritty grub that comes straight off of a truck, greasy and sloppy as can be. JE’s was neither of those, unfortunately.

Jenny L’s review pretty much nails this place, and the main reason I’m mentioning Jenny L’s review is I really can’t think of anything clever or original to say for my own opening paragraph. That happens sometimes.
Yeah, Jo Ellen’s Tacos is pretty cool, but what bothered me a little was seeing bits and pieces of the former Cat Mountain Grill scattered here and there, which I had just reviewed in February. It kind of struck me as seeing an abandoned dog along the road you know will never find its way home again. I know that has little to do with tacos, but it’s what I was thinking, and that happens sometimes too.
Nevertheless, they do make a good breakfast taco here. The «Veggie» was exactly how Jenny L described it, and the orange sauce does have a bite. For some inexplicable reason, I also ordered a Migas taco, which I wound up giving away to a surprised recipient back at the office because I couldn’t handle the egg. The out-​of-​towner pronounced the taco and green sauce «amazingly delicious» and wanted us to return the following morning, but I think they’re closed on Sundays. Incidentally, the two tacos totaled $ 5.95.
I’m sure they’re working out little tweaks, like how to speed up the line with one register up front and maybe using a name on the order to announce when it’s ready — «VEGGIE? VEGGIE?» Uh, yeah, I guess I’ll go ahead and take that one and thank you very much. I’m mildly curious what happens if several people order the same thing. The one thing you do need to be careful about is getting back on 2222 from that scary intersection without a light — it’s okay turning West, but if you’re cutting across traffic to head East back into town, look both ways, and seriously, good luck to you. If nothing else, Jo Ellen’s Tacos will teach you not to eat, text, and drive simultaneously.

I apparently just missed seeing Errol here today!
I stopped by here around noon today, before I had to go into work. Found the building easy enough — the large «Tacos, tacos, tacos» sign helped… imagine that.
It was kind of quiet when I walked in — just a few other people in there. The menu was at the register. I looked it over and decided on the al pastor and the chicken adobo tacos. They seemed a little high priced, so i just got the 2 tacos and an RC.
My food came out within minutes — when offered a choice of salsas/​hot sauce, I went with the hottest one — the burnt orange salsa. (I’m 99.9% confident there’s crack in the burnt orange sauce. I might have to try it another 100+ times to confirm/​deny that.) My tacos were huge and delicious! So glad I went with only 2 tacos and a drink. I can now justify spending the money that I did… it was the equivalent of having 3 – 4 tacos. I was stuffed!
Great tacos, Jo Ellen’s!
(Oh, forgot to mention — the breakfast tacos/​items are served from 7am until 10:30am. The lunch stuff is served from 10:30am — 3pm.)
Also, like Errol said, good luck getting back *out* of Jo Ellen’s. Turning left onto the main street there will likely be a game of «dogde ‘em.»

Tried the breakfast tacos at Jo Ellen’s today, egg and chorizo, migas. Both were excellent. Their salsas were pretty good too. Especially like the orange one. Service was quick and efficient.
So glad there is a good taco place right on my way to work now!!!
Next up I have to try the lunch menu.

So, Cat Mountain Grill is long gone. But Jo Ellen has taken over with her tasty, tasty tacos.
I head over early this morning for a to-​go order for three vegans and a meat eater. The place was empty, but it just opened yesterday. I’m warmly greeted, and look over the menu. Everyone was super nice, and knew their ingredients. Burrito, fancy taco, four regular tacos, and chips & salsa, $ 17.
The veggie taco (black beans, potato, avocado & cheese), which I just ordered with no cheese, was simple and very good. I hate when I have avocado on a taco, and it’s all mushy and sad. This was the opposite, with bright green, buttery avocado. I threw on some of the orange sauce, which has a nice kick and flavor to it. Yum.
Meat Eater got the JP Taco, and it was giant. And five bucks. It has picadillo, poblano, beans, egg and cheese. He said it was really great, although he didn’t know what picadillo was. He’s from Brooklyn, so I will excuse that.
This time.
He thinks it’s funny that he lives in «Taco Town» now, but I’ve lived in said Taco Town my whole life, and love tacos and the idea of tacos and creative tacos and fun tacos and like tacos in my mouth. Put them in my mouth!
All three salsas (red, green, orange) are very good, and my favorite being the orange, because it was the hottest. There are a few kinks to work out, since Jo Ellen’s Tacos are brand new, like the cash registers, and there is not really a sign out front yet. But go eat some of these tacos. Today. And bring me some, too. Thanks.