Ta Canijo Taco Truck (Bourbonnais)
5916 N. Convent StreetLong drives are always fun with an 8 year old who doesn’t know how to drink slowly.
We always joke it’s going to take us at least two stops between my parents house just south of Kankakee, IL and our house in Kalamazoo. I pretty much just prepare for it. I usually need something to drink or we need gas or someone needs snacks so it’s really not that big of a deal.
We hung out with my parents and my brother’s family for a while on Saturday afternoon before we had to head back to Kalamazoo. We don’t get there very often and since we had to go home for a funeral, I wanted to spend as much time as we could there. Our Saturday was wide open but Sunday, it was back to skating and back to work for me.
We left a little later than I thought we would. It was around 4:00 when I finally looked at my phone and realized what time it was. Losing the hour on the drive home always sucks so I knew it would be after 8:00 before we got back.
We made everyone use the bathroom before we got in the car…..but that didn’t really matter. We only got about a half hour up the road before B had to pee and needed a snack.
There are a lot of new trucks stops between Kankakee and I-80…like a lot. It seems like almost every exit has a new mega gas station now.
We pulled off the highway at Bourbonnais Parkway just north of what I consider “Kankakee.” We always lumped the towns of Bradly, Bourbonnais, and Kankakee together as Kankakee. The exit we got off on actually didn’t exist until a few years ago. There was never an exit between Route 50 (the mall exit) and Manteno when I lived there….but that has been about 25 years.
There’s a huge Road Ranger right off the exit that has a Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, Church’s Chicken, and a Subway. But we drove past that.
Just down the road at the corner of Bourbonnais Parkway and Convent Street is a Gas ‘N Wash gas station with a Dunkin’ and a semi local taco joint. The kids love their Dunkin’….and I love tacos.
TaCanijo Taco Truck is a small chains of taco truck themed restaurants around the area. The original location is actually in my old stomping grounds of Joliet. That restaurants on the corner of Route 6 and McDonough looks to be the only one (other than an actual taco truck) that isn’t located inside of a Gas ‘N Wash station.
While the restaurants aren’t actually taco trucks, they all have their storefronts inside the gas station look like taco trucks. The red taco truck facade will grab your attention as soon as you walk in the door.
The menu is pretty simple being mostly tacos, tortas, burritos, and tamales..all things you would expect to find on a taco truck. The menu is hanging next to the order the order area. They have a mobile app and online ordering so you can order ahead if you’re in a hurry, but…hey, it’s tacos. It doesn’t take that long to put together.
I put in an order for three steak tacos on corn tortillas with cilantro and onions. I also added on an order of fries. I love Mexican restaurants that do fries as a side. The cost was right around $13.
It took less than ten minutes for my order to come up. We had to get back on the road so I grabbed the bag to go but there is actually a pretty large dine in area if you have the time to sit and eat. My family was ready to get back on the road so get back on the road we did.
I ordered the fries because I knew I could eat fries in the car. These fries are fries I expect from any good restaurant in the Chicago area. They’re fresh cut, skin on fries that come out super greasy. You could almost see through the bag there was so much grease. That makes eating them a little harder but they’re so good. They’re my guilty pleasure kind of fries. I know how bad they are for me because I can literally see the greasy soaking up in the paper bag, but this is one of those foods that I associate with Chicago. The delicious, greasy, salty, fresh cut, skin on fries. They don’t need ketchup. They don’t need mustard. They don’t need any kind of knocks off fry sauce. They’re delicious just how they are.
Tacos are hard to eat in the car. So I didn’t. Yes, it was brutal but I decided to just wait until I got home…back in Kalamazoo.
I ordered three steak tacos with corn tortillas and topped with cilantro and onion. I threw the paper plate in the microwave for 30 seconds to warm everything back up then poured on the hot sauce that came with them. Even after a little nuking, these tacos were tasty. There was so much meat on each on that there was no way to keep it all in the tortilla. I almost had enough meat for a fourth taco when I got done. The hot sauce was hot but not overpoweringly how. I could eat thousands of tacos like this and never get tired of tacos. They’re so good.
So what if you’re weird like the rest of my family and don’t like street tacos? There are other options at this Gas ‘n Wash.
My family all went to Dunkin’ cause they love Dunkin’. J and L just got drinks but B devours the Bacon Wake Up Wrap. I mean..it’s a taco..but it’s a breakfast taco…and he loves these things. The order comes with two and sometimes he asks for two more. The Dunkin’ here is nice because they have kiosk ordering. J was able to put their orders in then make everyone hit the bathroom while waiting for their drinks and food to come up.
Like many gas stations, Gas ‘n Wash also has pizza. But they have Rosati’s Pizza. I blogged about Rosati’s a couple of months ago when we had a figure skating competition in Evanston, IL. This is a pizza by the slice so it’s more of a traditional crust pizza…..not the Chicago Deep Dish or the Tavern thin. Still, Rosati’s is a solid pizza and much better than typical gas station frozen pizzas.
It’s tempting to stop at the Road Ranger because it’s big and it’s the first thing you see when you get off the highway. Ignore the urge to do what’s easy and go down the road a little ways. There’s a fantastic taco place that you’ll be missing if you settle for corporate BBQ or chicken.
SW Michigan Dining 