Taco ’bout a delicious local restaurant! Bull River Taco Co. is your next stop for some of the best Mexican food in the Burgh. This taco joint with three locations around the city, plus a food truck, puts all of the love into each fresh and homemade ingredient they use. We were lucky enough to meet with Tina, owner of two of the Bull River Taco locations, to learn more about this tasty business and sample some of their iconic menu items.
Bull River Taco Co. is a fast food-esque taco experience but in a “relaxed, funky” environment. Their menu includes tacos (of course), rice bowls, nachos, weekly specials, sides, and their amazing queso. Seriously, this queso is next level. The weekly specials are announced on their Instagram page and will be different for each location to keep things exciting! Some of the awesome specials that rotate through are BBQ quesadillas, piña colada shrimp tacos, and a Bull River take on a crunch wrap – say no more, we are on the way.
One thing that makes Bull River Taco unique is their commitment to dietary restrictions. All of their ingredients are gluten-free with the exception of the flour tortilla. Chris, Tina’s husband and co-owner of the food truck, Whitehall and Squirrel Hill locations, has Celiac disease so they understand the importance of avoiding cross-contamination. Everything on the menu is made to order which also accommodates vegetarian diets. At the Squirrel Hill location, you can even find vegan cheese and other vegan substitutes!
Aside from Squirrel Hill, you can find brick-and-mortar locations of Bull River Taco in Whitehall and White Oak. The White Oak location is owned by another local entrepreneur, but all of the owners work together to stay consistent at all three locations. They work together so much so, that all of the meat is smoked at White Oak and distributed to the other locations. Chicken, pork, and beef are the three types of meat that Bull River uses in their menu items, all seasoned and smoked to perfection. This way, with all the meats coming from the same smoker, your meal is sure to be the same level of deliciousness no matter where you dine!
Speaking of deliciousness, we previously mentioned Bull River Taco puts a great deal of care into its ingredients. The quality of the ingredients they use to concoct their tacos and side dishes is top-tier! They even make all of their sauces in-house! Each of their four hot sauces are house-made as well as their pico de gallo, queso, bullseye sauce, and cholula cream. During our visit, we sampled the pico, queso, signature hot sauce, bullseye sauce, and HOT hot sauce. Somehow Bull River Taco manages to make every sauce as great as the next. The hot sauces alone are truly one of a kind. The signature hot sauce is a little on the sweeter side which paired awesomely with the rice side dish. The hottest of the hot sauces was our personal favorite which gave an extra kick to our tacos. All hot sauces are also bottled and available for purchase.
Taco wise, we tried the chicken and the spicy beef. If you’re a lover of spice and heat, the spicy beef taco is an absolute must. A flour tortilla with beef, shredded cheese, pico, jalapeños, bullseye sauce, cilantro, and lime is what goes into this iconic taco. This taco pairs fabulously with the queso and chips for a little cheesy bite to take the edge off of the spice. The chicken taco comes on a soft corn tortilla with farmers cheese, Mexican coleslaw, bullseye sauce, cilantro, and lime. This was a fun one with that extra crunch of the slaw! We added some of the beans from our side order to this taco and *chef’s kiss*. Basically what we are saying is everything is so good we tried to eat it all. You can’t go wrong with any order at Bull River Taco, and like we said it is all made to order so if there is something you want to swap out or add to your taco or rice bowl, go for it!
The future of Bull River is bright as a second food truck is in the works and future brick-and-mortar locations are always being scouted. Bull River Taco is also available on food delivery apps to be delivered right to your door. If there isn’t a location near you, check out the food truck schedule on their Instagram page to stay in the know at @bullrivertaco_pgh! You can find them anywhere from breweries to local businesses depending on the week.
