Mystery Diner in Spring Valley: Marichuy’s Taqueria offers homemade Mexican food at good prices

Know of any restaurants that started as a humble food truck before settling into a brick-and-mortar location?

Here’s an example for you: Head to Marichuy’s Taqueria in Spring Valley for homemade Mexican favorites at reasonable prices.

Though the store boasts of having been established in 2009, this cozy dine-in eatery on Route 89 south of downtown has been open for about a year. Prior to that, owner Marichuy Villagomez of DePue whipped up Mexican dishes from a food truck operated primarily in DePue.

Villagomez has created a restaurant menu that highlights mostly a la carte offerings, rather than including the usual plates that add sides of rice and beans to a dish. The fixed menu showcases burritos, gorditas, flautas, deep-fried tacos and tortas. The eatery also features weekly specials.

Any nitpicking over the non-standard structure of the menu ended when the food arrived.

This Mystery Diner and his companion split a quesadilla with chicken, along with a plate (well, actually a skillet) of loaded nachos, both served on cutting boards with the words “Easy Peasy” etched into the wood.

Villagomez is a skilled owner-chef. The shredded chicken was moist and tender, and the quesadilla quarters were quite filling. Loaded nachos come with a choice of meat, and the chicken, our selection, generously was piled onto a skillet groaning with nacho cheese, lettuce, tomato and sour cream.

Though we were too full from dinner to order desserts, Villagomez unexpectedly brought over two sample-size cups of bionico, a combination of homemade yogurt with fresh fruit (blueberries, in this case), topped with chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

Marichuy’s Taqueria, after operating as a food truck, has metamorphosed into a dine-in restaurant with drive-up service at the former home of Grandma Rosie’s Sweet Treats.

It is located at 502 S. Spalding St., Spring Valley. Hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information and specials, visit fb.com/marichuystacos or call 815-200-2346.

• The Mystery Diner is an employee at Shaw Media. The diner’s identity is not revealed to the restaurant staff before or during the meal. The Mystery Diner visits a different restaurant and then reports on the experience. If the Mystery Diner cannot recommend the establishment, we will not publish a story.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Marichuy’s Taqueria

WHERE: 502 S. Spalding St., Spring Valley

PHONE: 815-200-2346

INFORMATION: fb.com/marichuystacos