Until very recently, if you wanted a decent taco in Rochester, you had to wait until Saturday morning and hie yourself down to the Public Market. I was excited, then, when I found out that a new taqueria had opened to fill my need for good Mexican on the other six days of the week. El Dorado, the brainchild of Carmelo and Juan Guzman, came about in part because several years ago the brothers could find nowhere in Rochester that served the sort of food that they had grown up with in El Naranjo, a town of about 20,000 people in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosi. While neither was in a position at that point to start a restaurant, the idea blossomed between them, and when the opportunity to purchase the former pizza shop on East Henrietta Road came up, the brothers combined their savings, found partners, and made their idea a reality.

El Dorado is in every way a typical taqueria. Located in a nondescript strip mall in Henrietta, it is unassuming to the point of invisibility (Carmelo has rigged up a large, colorful sign to help diners find the place). The interior, which is still under renovation, is spartan - a single long counter with about 10 stools facing the open kitchen where Juan cooks while Carmelo manages the front of the house.

There is nothing here to distract from the food: tacos, tostadas, flautas, enchiladas, burritos, tortas, quesadillas, and a few specialty plates. Chips and salsa do not come with your drinks. Nothing much is topped with melted cheese, although the refried beans are topped with a generous crumbles of queso blanco (a Mexican cheese somewhere between feta and sharp cheddar in flavor). There are, blessedly, no combination plates. And much of the menu is unapologetically in Spanish (Carmelo will be happy to translate for you if you, like me, can remember little or no high-school Spanish). The food, though, is out of this world, so good that you will want to keep this secret to yourself so that you don't have to wait longer for a stool to open up. (Fortunately, the brothers will be installing new seating in the next couple of weeks to accommodate more diners.)

As teenagers, both Carmelo and Juan learned to cook by watching their grandmother and emulating her recipes. They stick very close to her example even today, only reluctantly altering or adding to her dishes. Judging from the food that is coming out of Juan's kitchen, his grandmother's cooking must have been phenomenal. Everything is made from scratch. The brothers make their own salsa - a smooth, tangy green sauce that is at the same time both cool and spicy - their own chorizo, and their own enchilada sauce. That last item, in particular, is worth an epic poem.

When Carmelo told me that they didn't make enchiladas verdes, my heart sank. I envisioned tortillas covered in chalky red-orange sauce and buried in melted cheese. Instead, El Dorado's sauce is a deep, rich red - almost brown - and deeply aromatic, redolent of smoky ancho peppers along with cumin and several other spices that I was at a loss to identify. Rather than covering up the taste of the meat (or cheese) inside the enchiladas, the sauce is a perfect complement, a nice foil for the rich and savory shredded roast chicken that I prefer over just about any other filling. The drizzle of crema (think thin sour cream) across the top adds a nice cooling factor to a dish that builds in intensity as you eat ($6.75 for three, singles $1.95).

Suitably, given the name of their taqueria, the brothers have a real talent for turning humble cuts of meat into gold. The chicken in their enchiladas is made with thighs and legs rubbed down with spices and then slow roasted until the flesh falls from the bones. Similarly, meaty morsels of gisado de puerco (pork on red salsa, $9.50) start out as pork shoulder braised until tender in a deep red ancho and guajillo pepper sauce. The meat is gloriously tender and liberally scattered with those "burned" bits of deeply cooked meat prized by true barbecue aficionados. Served with rice, beans, and corn tortillas (no doubt to make sure that not a drop of the gravy escapes), this is a deeply satisfying lunch. The only unfortunate thing is that you might be too full to try anything else on the menu.

Or, perhaps you will still have room for a taco: they're small, but pack a lot of punch at less than $2 each. The carne asada (grilled, sliced steak, $1.80) tacos are very good, putting a beefy flavor forward along with onion, cumin, and lime. But my default taco filling is always carnitas, pork slow roasted in a tangy, spicy sauce that perfectly balances the fat in the meat ($1.75). Served shredded atop a small corn tortilla with not much more than its own juices, a sprinkling of onion, and a squirt of lime, this is among the simplest and best lunches (or snacks) you'll find for the price.

For those looking to revel in meaty excess, the Guzmans offer up a selection of tortas, Mexican sandwiches served on Cuban rolls and stuffed with a bewildering assortment of fillings and condiments, including fried cube steak (milanesa, $4.99), ham steak ($4.99), and taco fillings - steak, chorizo, and two different styles of roast pork. For the indecisive, though, the brothers offer torta ala barda, the Mexican version of our beloved garbage plate ($5.99). Carne asada, carnitas, a thick and smoky ham steak, cube steak, a generous scoop of spicy chorizo, and whatever else Juan has on hand when he makes the sandwich (once, mine contained shredded chicken) are heaped on the roll along with refried beans, sour cream, lettuce, tomato, and slices of avocado. The result is a glorious mess that overflows the sides of the sandwich, soaks the bread, and spills out into the takeout container with every delectable bite. All of the tortas are excellent for carryout, which allows all of the flavors to melt together. Make sure you grab a fork to take with you; you'll need it.

El Dorado

2513 E Henrietta Rd, 486-4170

Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.