The great thing about West Reading is the sheer number of great restaurants that the town offers.

I didn’t know how great that was until Julie and I were told there was a 45-minute wait for a table at the restaurant we had planned on for dinner.

Forty-five minutes is a long time when you’re hungry. So we went a few doors down to one of Penn Avenue’s newest offerings, Let’s Taco Bout It.

The sister restaurant to Reading’s Taqueria Jimenez  opened in February in the former Caggs Caffe Liberta and Cafe Harmony. But Let’s Taco Bout It takes the space in a whole new direction with its Lucha Libre (Mexican wrestling) theme.

Each of the 10 tables has a Pro Thumb Wrestling Arena sitting atop the salt and pepper shakers. Vintage movie posters adorn the wall, each one promoting a campy movie from the 1960s or 70s starring Santo.

In the posters, Santo is seen facing increasingly fearsome foes:  the mafia, vampire women, Martians and more. Amazingly, all of his supernatural foes are adept at hammerlocks, dropkicks and sleeper holds (but Santo knows how to counter them all!).

Julie and I had a pair of thumb wrestling matches (I let her win one so we could have a pleasant meal) before our drinks arrived. I went with my standard pineapple Jarritos, but Julie was a little more adventurous, opting for a horchata.

Horchata is cinnamon rice drink, and Let’s Taco Bout It does a homemade version. It was so different than anything either of us have tried before. It was a little bit like drinking tapioca pudding, but the cinnamon gave spice to an otherwise refreshing drink.

We couldn’t help starting our meal with an order of “Holy Guacamole and Cheeps.” The guacamole is homemade, and that makes all the difference. It had fresh cilantro, onion and red pepper. It was smooth and flavorful, but we didn’t have enough to get through the pile of chips.

Let’s Taco Bout It offers a limited menu for your entree. There are tacos (of course), as well as a burrito, a quesadilla and a torta. Then, there are the “luchadors.”

Available in six varieties, “luchadors” are basically tacos on steroids (not accusing Mexican wrestlers of using steroids, it’s just a metaphor). Each comes on an oversized, grilled homemade tortilla with cheese, cilantro, onions, avocado and your choice of featured ingredient.

If you’re going to order a luchador, why not order the greatest one?  That’s why I got the El Santo. The primary ingredient was chorizo, the mildly spicy Mexican sausage.

I could taste the difference in the homemade tortilla immediately. It was a little thicker and had more flavor depth than an average tortilla. It was also packed with more chorizo than I thought could fit. The avocado provided a nice cooling contrast to the meat in what was a delicious dinner.

Julie went with the “Dynasty,” which was filled with pork marinated in pineapple juice. The pork was tender, but she never really got that pineapple flavor. Still, it was very good, and very filling, meal.

Both of us took home a quarter of our luchador (we each could have finished our own if we had not ordered the guacamole). And we certainly did not feel cheated out of the $32 that was spent on dinner.

Let’s Taco Bout It may not have been our first choice for dinner, but it was the right choice.

It’s another standout restaurant for West Reading, and one that I look forward to visiting again.

BCE Rating
Food: Very Good
Service: Very Good
Ambiance: Good
Price: Reasonable

Let’s Taco Bout It
616 Penn Ave
West Reading, PA 19611

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