Taqueria Don Fer Family Restaurant
9678 East D AvenueThe Richland culinary tour continues.
I’m continuing to make my way through the restaurants in Richland one Thursday night at a time.
I got off work early enough to pick L up from Wings Event Center and take her to Richland for her class at Athletic Mentors. We got there at about 6:25 for her 6:30. Once she went inside, I headed towards the east side of town to grab something for dinner.
I headed towards Taqueria Don Fer Family Restaurant on East D Avenue across the street from Gull Lake Middle school. The restaurant actually sits on a piece of land between D Avenue and M-89. This restaurant has been here for quite a while. For a long time it was Kare’s Village Diner. It briefly became Scotts Cafe in 2023 after Scotts Corner Cafe in Scotts closed and moved to this spot. That lasted about a year then Taqueria Don Fer opened a few months later.
The thing I always kind of hate about Mexican restaurants is that I never know if they are counter service or full service restaurants. I like counter service better because I always know I’m just going to get tacos. Most Mexican restaurants are full service though including Taqueria Don Fer.
There is an order counter at the back and I actually went straight back there hoping I could just put in a carry-out order. They do online ordering through the popular service but I noticed the prices were at least $.50 higher doing it that way. The counter is in the back of the restaurant near the kitchen and if you’re dining in, this is where you pay the bill. I saw a menu on the counter, told the lady working I just wanted to do a carry-out order (although I would have rather dined in) and put in an order for four steak Mexican tacos and an order of fries. She seemed surprised when I ordered fries and I get it. Why would you order fries at a Mexican restaurant. But they were on the menu and I prefer fries over rice and beans. The cost was a little under $20.
I took a seat in the small dining room in one of the booths along the wall. The space is nothing fancy with old red floor tiles and wood laminate booths that were popular in the 80’s/90’s diners.
The rest of the space only has a couple of actual tables and those are for larger groups. The booths wrap all the way around the outside of the dining room space. The walls are pretty bare with the exception of some LED string lights in the windows that make the building stand out a little bit more from the road.
It didn’t take long for the cashier to come out with a bag with two to-go containers in it. I wasn’t going to be a jerk an open them in the restaurant so I headed back to Athletic Mentors, put on a podcast, and just sat there for 45 minutes waiting for my daughter to finish up.
I started with the fries on the drive over. I have zero expectations for fries from a Mexican restaurant. Like I said, the cashier was surprised to learn they were even on the menu. These fries are the frozen skin-on type of fries. My favorite of the from a bag food service fries. There was quite a bit of them in the order too so I have nothing to complain about.
The four steak tacos were packed neatly in the box with cucumber slices and lime wedges. As I was walking out, the cashier asked if I wanted hot sauce. For some reason, the first thing out of my mouth was “no, thanks” which is not the right answer. I walked that back immediately and said I was wrong and I would like some. She gave me the choice of both red and green but I typically just use the red.
The four tacos were double tortillas filled as much as they could be with chopped steak, onions and cilantro. I poured a bit of the hot sauce on each of the tacos and that just upped the flavor by like a thousand percent. These were already really delicious tacos with super tender and flavorful chunks of meat but the hot sauce just enhances all of that. Tacos are such a simple meal but it’s a meal I could do every night and never get tired of it.
I was a little surprised by Taqueria Don Fer Family Restaurant. I knew that it was there but it was never really on my radar. Tacos and fries doesn’t sound like a traditional Mexican meal but it’s one of my favorites. This place delivered on both.
SW Michigan Dining 