Casa Real
232 W. Allegan StreetWe ended up in Allegan on Friday. I wasn’t planning on going to Allegan but there we were.
I saw a taco truck as we were driving through town on our way to our job site. It was closed and I was thinking, “dang, I want tacos.” I didn’t catch the name of the truck so I couldn’t look it up to see when it/if it was going to open that day.
I spent most of the day just wanting tacos. I kept thinking about that food truck but as we got ready to leave the area, we were getting a little crunched on time. We still had to get back to Kalamazoo and still had work to do so taking a chance on a food truck seemed like a bad idea.
I had a back up plan up though.
Casa Real in Otsego is on the way home and they have online ordering. As we sat on a dusty dirt road in rural Allegan County, I had just enough data that I was able to get an order put in that would be ready when we got back to Otsego.
Casa Real is just to the west of downtown Otsego on West Allegan Street/M-89 near north street. The restaurant is hard to miss. It’s a large stand alone building with a large parking lot. There are a number of signs right on M-89 so you don’t miss it. There’s a small patio right off the building and a giant chicken greets you as you walk up to the doors.
There is no doubt when you walk in that you have just walked in to a Mexican restaurant. The dining room is pretty large and really colorful. There’s even a water fountain that you walk past right inside the door.
Most of the chairs and tables are painted with Mexican themes. There’s a lot going on in this space with statues, banners, posters and bright, welcoming colors everywhere.
I had already put in an order online and it was sitting at the counter waiting for me when I walked in. I just got myself five tacos. Three steak and two carnitas. The cost was a little over $13 and I paid online so all I had to do was grab my bag and go.
The bag felt really big and really heavy for just five tacos but I didn’t question it. I was in a hurry and I trusted they got it right. Turns out, there was a bag of chips in the bag as well. That’s what was making the bag a little awkward. The chips were an unexpected and delicious surprise. There was also a couple containers of salsa stuck in with the steak tacos that I missed at first but the chips were fine on their own.
I ate about half of the bag of chips then started in on the tacos. I got three steak tacos with corn tortillas, cilantro and onion. The thing that jumped out immediately was how much meat was on each taco. The double layered tortilla couldn’t hold it all in. The steak was tender and easy to bite through too. I used a little bit of the salsa I found in the container just to give the tacos a little bit of a spicy kick.
I went rogue and strayed from my usual five steak taco order. The other two tacos I ordered were the carnitas. Just like the steak, these tortillas were overflowing with tender, flavorful shredded pork. I probably should have just ordered three of these. I didn’t need that much food but they were so good. Again, a little bit of salsa gave the tacos a little bit of an extra kick.
Casa Real is another one of those places we’ve drove past for years but never stopped. I did try one other time to order online but they ended up being closed that day and refunded my order. I’ve been looking for an excuse to try again. Online ordering makes things so much easier and it’s really what brought me in the door. Super happy that’s an option because these tacos were fantastic and very filling.
SW Michigan Dining 