My two Mexican friends were skeptical as to why we were driving so far from our neighborhood just for a taco. There are many places to get tacos, they told me, shaking their heads; why this one?

“Trust me,” I said. “This place is really good. You’ll see.”

They shrugged, looked at each other and rolled their eyes. We continued on. After all, I was paying (and driving).

I almost missed the little stand because of the bus stopped in front of the Comex store where the Loaiza family has set up shop since 1985. There were perhaps 25 people there already and the corner was bustling with activity. We made our way to one of the big communal tables and took a seat. A TV, perched unsteadily on a plastic chair in one corner, flickered erratically. Bare light bulbs are strung on wires criss-crossed above the tables, casting an eerie glow. It’s a typical set-up on a typical street corner in Mazatlan.

Raymundo Loaiza Guerrero, the cook, is center stage, chopping carne asada, grilling onions and jalapenos, cooking chorreadas and vampiros and stacking the prepped shells, piling ingredients on tacos, quesadillas and papas locas in a blur of movement, punctuated by laughter, calls for more meat, greetings to friends and regulars. Nearby, his wife is making tortillas de maiz, corn tortillas, using small chunks of soft fresh dough to form the perfectly round tortillas, cooking them quickly on top of a big, slightly warped grill, then passing them in stacks to her husband. Two sons are taking orders and serving drinks, simple sodas and agua de cebada, the horchata-like Sinaloan/Sonoran specialty drink served over big chunks of ice. Raymundo’s mother bakes fruit-filled empanadas and gorditas de elote, crunchy cookie-like rounds of cornmeal and crunchy sugar that somehow taste healthy.

How popular is this place? Let’s just say they use 15 kilos of harina a night – that’s hundreds and hundreds of tortillas. It’s open from 7 p.m. until 3 a.m., seven days a week – and the customers are non-stop, sometimes beginning to arrive before they’re even set up. You could see it as just another of the ubiquitous taco stands that seem to be everywhere – but then you’d be missing out. This is, truly, a destination spot.

What makes Tacos Loaiza so good are the little details, starting with the hand-made-on-the-spot tortillas. Then there are the whole cooked pinto beans, fresh-grilled jalapenos and bite-size chunks – not slivers – of sweet white onions. A sprinkling of grated sweet queso fresco. Big bowls of bright red, green and white salsa fresca, colors of the Mexican flag, and the thin guacamole that’s de rigueur in Mazatlan. Trust me.

My friends ordered, still skeptical. The food came quickly, steaming hot, on plates covered with plastic bags to make up for the lack of running water. They inhaled the fragrant aromas of the grilled meat, the chiles, the onions. Added salsa. Took a bite. Then another. The silence of contentment, of good food. And then, my friend put his taco down, looked over at me and made the universal thumbs-up. He smiled and spoke, just one word:

“Riquisimo!” Enough said.

Tacos Loaiza is in front of the Comex store on the corner of Ave. Ejercito Mexicano and Ramon Lopez Alvarado, about four blocks south of the big intersection near WalMart. Open 7pm to 3am daily. To-go or eat-in. Limited English.