It’s been happening in San Miguel de Allende for a few years now. A group of guys gets together once a week and complains about the weather, food prices, sports, politics, TV reception, booze prices, traffic, grandkids, their health and the fact that their wives complain too much.

It happens on a Tuesday. The food focus is tacos. The event is called…well you can guess what it’s called.

The main event organizer is a very nice guy called Bill Heublein. Almost every week, Bill sends out the invite email announcing the usual time and place and almost every week we reply as to whether we’re in or out. For years, Hank’s had been the unofficial headquarters for Taco Tuesday but recently there’s been a change. There apparently had been “a bit of a kerfuffle” in the service at Hank’s and, with a nod to the power of advertising via a very noticeable blackboard, the get-together now happens a few doors up the street at Estoril.

The first thing I noticed when I entered the courtyard of the Hacienda de Guadalupe, home to Estoril, is that it’s black and white and beautiful. The second thing I noticed is that there was nobody there. I attributed it to tourists don’t do Tuesdays but I know the reasons go much deeper than that.

I sit down with Bill, Mark and Richard and, one of the first things Bill says to us is, “Service. You won’t believe the service here. Classy servers. Polite servers. Always there when you need them. You’re going to like it.”

I did like the menu the server brought to us. Hank’s has only one specially priced taco, the one I call the hardshell taco, the Texas taco, the Taco Bell taco.

Estoril’s menu has Mexican tacos, classic Mexican tacos, eight different Mexican tacos, a lot of my personal favorite Mexican tacos. The only problem: And it’s a big problem? Which to order.

Now at first, like me, you’ll probably be a little confused by what you’re going to get when you order on Martes de Tacos at Estoril. The blackboard says they’re two for one. The menu says you have to order three of the same kind. Does that mean you order three and get six or you order three and pay for one and a half?

The server clarifies it. We can just order one at one third of the price on the menu and we’ll get a second one free. We get it. We think.

I try to negotiate some sharing with the guys but figure I’m not going to get very far with Bill. He had told me weeks ago that Estoril had “the most amazing ribeye taco”. But wait, he might be ready to bend.

The server comes to take our order. With this very hopeful look on his face, Bill asks him if the ribeye will hold those moist, tender, pink slices of joy he fondly remembered. The waiter quickly turns Bill’s face to a frown by telling him that no, the steak will be chopped and done in teriyaki sauce. Bill orders the ribeye anyway, as does Mark. Richard orders the shrimp in a flour tortilla that the menu calls Rosarito-style and I call Ensenada-style. I go for what the menu calls Tacos de Picaña al Pastor Negro.

To wash my tacos down, I order a morning-after Mary. It comes with a little flash and dash as the waiter brings the components separately and does the mix at the table. I like a little showbiz.

I like too, when a restaurant brings you what connoisseurs call an amuse-bouche and what the Taco Tuesday guys call a freebie.

At Estoril, it was a mini croquette with melt-in-your-mouth ham and cheese inside the crispy crust. Smiles followed the first bites.

The ribeye tacos arrived. I liked the look. They were tightly rolled and sliced on the diagonal, nestled on a banana leaf, highlighted with a carrot flower and splashed with teriyaki. 

I negotiated a trade with Mark. One of my still-to-arrive picaña’s for one of his already there ribeyes. The amount of beef was generous, it had a nice fat content, and the sweet teriyaki negated the need for any added salsa.

We talked about the price of steak, how often we deserved a splurge on USDA choice or prime ribeye, where was the best place to buy them, how difficult it was to get a decent grass-fed Mexican.

The banana leaves and carrot rosettes were all that remained on Mark and Bill’s plates. But there was still no sign of Richard and I’s orders. Bill’s praise for the service was being questioned. I looked around the vast room. The waiters outnumbered the eaters.

After what seemed like a half hour but probably wasn’t even fifteen minutes, the last two plates arrived.

The blue corn tortillas went nicely with the subtle coloring of the plates. The rosy onions and glowing charred pineapple hid the treasure below. Picaña, a Brazilian cut that I think is best described as if cows had biceps, they’d be called picañas, continues to gain popularity. You do have to sacrifice a little chew for the flavor but Estoril’s version was worth it.

With the al pastor sauce, again there was no reason to add any of the red and green salsas that had been brought to the table.

Richard offered a sample of his shrimp. The tempura was light, the mayo was jacked up with a little chile and I was reminded that no matter how untrendy it is, I still like crunchy iceberg lettuce.

I was full. But I wasn’t satisfied. There was something on the menu that was still shouting at me. 

I grew up eating beef tongue about once a week. And I loved it. But I realized, long ago, that people who didn’t grow up with tongue were always going to bite their own when it was recommended.

I asked for volunteers who wanted to split a tacos de lengua order. No hands went up. I ordered it anyway.

The meat looked wonderfully moist and tender. I saw Mark eyeing it. I asked the server for another plate and passed one over.

There are not a lot of things other than corn chips that go with guacamole but tacos de lengua on a corn tortilla is one of them. I was happy to see that the kitchen knew to send out a small bowl on the side. This tongue taco ranked up with the best I’d ever had.

I mentioned earlier that one of the most complained about complaints these days with the guys who tackle tacos on Tuesday is the price of food and, particularly restaurant food. At a little over 50 pesos a taco, Estoril is very, very hard to beat. When you add in the classy ambiance of Estoril’s courtyard, it’s perhaps impossible to beat.

Estoril is located at Calle Hidalgo 4 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Start time for Taco Tuesdays is 1:00 pm.