Chuy's has been on my list for a minute and I had business near the Arts District today so I took advantage to stop by. They're located in the massive One Sante Fe multi-use complex on the eastern edge of the Arts District. There is a lot there and Chuy's does validate but you'll need to orient yourself around their app-based parking system. It's a bit annoying compared to an old school coin meter system.
Personally, when I see "dorados" I think flautas, similar to what Los Dorados serves. Chuy's use the term to refer to hard shell tacos, and their style is very much in the tradition of Mitla Cafe's (aka the style that Glen Bell stole to create Taco Bell) and L.A.'s favorite taco spot (to diss), Tito's. Hard shell tortillas with hot ingredients spread down the middle, topped with shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, and "lime-pickled" onion slices.
Their house style uses shredded beef so I got one of those ($4.35) + a potato one ($3.75) + one with shredded beef and chorizo beans refried beans with chorizo) ($4). All prices before tax/tip.
Size-wise (since there's nothing in my photos for scale): these are bigger than your Taco Bell/Del Taco hard shell taco and smaller than what you'd get at Tito's.
So look: I realize there's a contingent of folks who love this style of hard shell tacos and if it's about the crunch, ok, I get it. But personally, I've never found these that enjoyable as a form. Soft tacos at least make it easier to get everything you want in a single bite but as we all have experienced: hard shell tacos…you have to angle your head to get a decent bite where half the ingredients don't fall out the shell. In this case, that clump of sliced onions felt like an afterthought in terms of how they were just slapped on top. On 2 of my 3 tacos, that clump fell off in the act of my simply picking up the taco. I just think it's an inferior form. If you want the crunch, get flautas or a queso-taco but otherwise, soft > hard, every day, all day. it's a bad form and everything else needs to be incredible to make up the difference. (Spoiler: everything else wasn't incredible enough).
I also really don't love cold shredded cheese. Hot melted cheese in a burrito or on an enchilada? Yes please. Cold cheese along with cold lettuce and cold onions but with the hot ingredients? The "cold/hot" balance doesn't work here as it might with fresh lettuce and tomatoes on a burger. With these tacos, I kept feeling like the cold half took away from my enjoyment of the hot half.
The hot ingredients, at least, were decent here. The birria was soft and well-seasoned, same with the mashed potato in that taco. The chorizo and beans were interesting in terms of what they added both flavor and texture-wise. I didn't think they were a massive improvement over the plain birria but I enjoyed it. (Price-wise, ~$4 felt slightly overpriced to me but not "rant-worthy overpriced.")
Rating-wise: these were all 7-7.5/10 at best . The food was basically mid, the location isn't near anything, and parking is annoying. I won't be back but I don't regret going to try.
by soulsides