Local Favorite, Juan in a Million, Has Us Curious

The first time I saw Juan in a Million was during a drive down Cesar Chavez; I spotted the name and had to point it out while I chuckled because I sure do love myself a good pun. We started to see it more often as we kept going down that way for a variety of reasons but never made the detour to stop in. Then one day, we decided we really ought to do a "taco tour" where there was a cluster of restaurants doing tacos within walking distance of each other; Juan in a Million fell onto our map. When we got there, we saw a line that wrapped around the building and a full, full parking. Good sign?


Since 1980, this local restaurant has been serving up Tex-Mex to the joy of the community. The menu apparently hasn't changed much since then as there are favorites filling the menu's pages for many. That includes breakfast tacos that are served daily, an item type that seems to fuel Austin dwellers no matter where they get them. In addition to the variety to choose from, Juan in a Million also sates stomachs with affordable prices and loaded plates/tacos. Since the line was so intimidatingly long, we popped inside to ask the counter if we could just order to-go...and we could! So we threw together a quickly decided-upon order of three tacos to give ourselves a spread of options and waited not long before we got the foil-wrapped treats.


They were the Guacamole Taco ($2.80), Carne Guisada Taco ($2.99), and Barbacoa Taco ($2.99) in addition to Horchata ($2.00) for the blazing sun that was already beating down on everyone that day. Now here was where we were surprised - they were okay but likely not tacos we'd wait such a long time for. The guacamole taco was simply guacamole sitting heavy-handedly in a tortilla and lacking distinguishing pizzazz; in fact, it tasted more like mashed avocado than anything seasoned in the mix. We all really enjoyed the carne guisada though as the beef was tender and the sauce extremely flavorful. The barbacoa was moist and generous though saltier than desired and seemed muted in flavor.

So now we're curious. The establishment is coming up in a few years on their 40th anniversary so perhaps we didn't order the right things! You can find them at 2300 E. Cesar Chavez St., Austin, TX 78701 and maybe should let us know what you decide to get there...or if you've been, what's your favorite at Juan in a Million? What are we missing out on?

Photography by Duc Duong.