Smoked meats and Mexican food

Loco & Taco opens today with management hoping to get their fair share of customers in Saipan’s already crowded restaurant industry. Loco & Taco is located at the former N@nchan Japanese restaurant in the heart of the island’s tourist district.

General manager Sungnam Lee is confident that they would thrive with not much competition of Mexican-style and smoked food restaurants on the island. “We’re positive with our chances despite a lot of restaurants opening. There are no other Mexican-style restaurants on Saipan.”

Lee added that what also makes Loco & Taco distinct is their smoked fish and meats done in their very own curing room where they use wood from coconut, mango, and Tangan-Tangan trees.

“I have friends in Guam who told us to be particular with the wood that we’re going to use. These three were our choices that give our meat a different flavor. Aside from Guam, this type of restaurant can also be found in Hawaii and Japan,” said Lee, who added that they put in small amounts of Tangan-Tangan wood since it burns faster.

“We don’t want burnt meat since we have different ways of processing our food. Take for example our smoked fish with the processing alone takes us a week,” Lee said.

Their staff prepare the fish by drying it on the first day before marinating and putting it in the chiller the following day. They will then take out the fish, wash it with water, and let it dry again on Day 3.

The fish will then spend three days inside the smokehouse before having it vacuum packed and set aside inside the refrigerator to lock in its freshness. “In this way, it remains fresh when we cook it and serve it to our customers,” said Lee.

Aside from the usual Mexican food like tacos, taquitos, nachos, and other Mexican favorites, they also have their originals like smoked burger and pulled pork burger. They smoked the patty and added the cheese until the meat is cooked and the cheese melts.

Hitoshi Narita, the chief executive officer of Solution & Investment, said their group thought of the idea of opening this type of restaurant on Saipan. They first discussed the proposal and deliberated on the concept of having Saipan’s very own Mexican and smokehouse restaurant.

He said that their specific instructions to the contractors is to keep the island theme with the roof taking three months to complete since the cogon grass, found on Mt. Tapochao, needs to be dried first before being put into place.

The interior remains almost the same, except for the repainting and the other decorations, while the exterior and façade is completely new as they’re utilizing the warmer Thomas Edison lights. The entire establishment can fit 178 people.

Loco & Taco offers lunch buffet from 11am to 2pm at $12 each, while their dinner, a la carte, is from 5pm to 12am. They also have Happy Hour from 5pm to 8pm with $1 off on all drinks. For more information and reservations, call 233-5233.