Augusta Eats: Mexican restaurant in Columbia County celebrating seven years' good luck

Was it planned or was it fate?

However it happened, Taqueria El Rey is celebrating its seventh anniversary, July 2, on Taco Tuesday, and customers who crave authenticity in their Mexican cuisine will want to join the party.

The restaurant is one of several locally run by the Galvan family. La Cocina del Rey in Grovetown snags an avid breakfast crowd. Munchies Snacks in Martinez offers sweet and savory experiments imagined by the family's culinary crew.

Taqueria El Rey, 3830 Washington Rd., specializes in variety and volume. Salsa lovers can sample the restaurant's salsa bar with intensities for most every palate.

A "gringos" portion of the menu includes more commonly found entrees at other Mexican restaurants. Other dishes are more distinctive, such as the chicharron con cueritos: porkbelly and pork skins served with pico de gallo, cabbage, avocado, homemade salsa and a cream sauce.

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Tacos are limited only by your choice of ingredients. If beef, chicken and pork sound too humdrum, try tasty proteins such as lengua (tongue) or beef cheek. If you still can't decide, the alambre filling combines grilled beef, bacon, peppers, onion, cheeses, salsa and avocado.

Perhaps the restaurant's biggest buzz is generated over its massive California-style burritos. On one visit when a server was asked about a burrito's typical size, she held out one of her arms for comparison. Past menu offerings have included the 20-inch-long El "Tiny" burrito.

But for something truly boundary-pushing, try the El Chapo burrito, not named for the jailed drug lord, but for the Galvan family's enigmatic French bulldog. The El Chapo stuffs a flour tortilla with grilled shrimp, grilled steak, bacon, rice, refried beans, sour cream and fresh guacamole, topping it all with homemade queso sauce.

Their most admired foods, however, could be the items they give away in El Rey's continuing community outreach.

When the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools in 2020 - along with the kitchens that fed pupils - the restaurant gave out hundreds of free meals to families who relied on school lunches. When El Rey ran out of birds last December during its annual Christmas turkey giveaway, other community partners swooped in to help.

Regardless of whether the food is free, El Rey expects the recipients to feel full and happy. If you dine there, you should feel likewise.