Taqueria La Yatekita (Decatur)
116 S. Phelps StreetMy last regularly scheduled overtime shift for the fall.
It wasn’t a Friday night though. It was a Saturday afternoon, so I don’t even have to pretend it’s pizza night even though I have pretty much made Friday night’s this fall taco nights.
I was heading to Decatur for about a four hour shift that started at 1 PM. I was only do this one assignment so I had plenty of time to get to Decatur early and grab lunch…something I made it a point to do because there’s a restaurant there that I have been meaning to find an excuse to go to Decatur for.
Taqueria La Yatekita is in downtown Decatur on Phelps Street south of M-51/Delaware Street. The name should be recognizable to food truck fan in Kalamazoo. I’ve eaten at their food truck many times when it was parked at the Sunny Mart on Cork or at the Sweet Convenience Store on Centre. They went for the brick and mortar thing last winter when they moved in to this building that used to be El Azteca Mexican Grill.
I didn’t know whether the restaurant was a sit down restaurant or a carry-out so I decided to just go and find out. I could have just called in an order but sometimes I liked to be surprised. I had time to spare so I stopped and got gas in Paw Paw then headed towards Decatur to eat before starting my day.
Turns out, it is a full service sit down restaurant but there is an order counter right as you walk in the door. One of the of waiters saw me walk in and asked if I was there for dine in or carry out. I said carry-out so he grabbed his order pad and took my order right up front. I kept it simple with four steak tacos which came out to just a little over $12.
Tacos don’t take long to make so I took a seat in the dining room while they were being put together. It’s a pretty large dining room made up mostly of booths with a few tables along the front windows. There’s not much in the way of decor. It’s a very simple design that focuses more on the food.
The restaurant also has room for a small store carrying some Mexican cooking staples. There’s a big migrant community in this area and not a lot of stores so a specialty store like this is probably the only place to get a lot of this stuff.
It took less than ten minutes before a woman came out of the kitchen with a small paper bag. She handed it to me then I headed to my job site to eat.
I have eaten so many tacos from so many different places and I’ve loved all of them. There’s just something simple and delicious about street tacos. These are no different. I got four steak tacos with cilantro an onion wrapped in a double layer of corn tortillas. I asked for just the red hot sauce and they gave me two of the little cups so I had plenty to put on each taco.
Each taco was filled with that tender steak that was bursting out of the sides of the tortilla. So good. So delicious. Such a great way to start what would turn out to be a long day of work.
I love it when food trucks find a big enough following to open up a restaurant. I was excited for Taqueria La Yatekita when I started seeing the posts but was bummed when I saw it was opening in Decatur. I don’t get that way very often but I was stoked I had a reason to go just so I could go get tacos from what is now a very delicious restaurant.
SW Michigan Dining 