There is a never ending duel on Greensboro Street in Carrboro. Two loncheras, or taco trucks, are fighting for business, and The Biscuit thinks it’s time to step in as a mediator.

This past weekend, with friend Steven Chu, The Biscuit visited both and tried to figure out who could call itself supreme.

Latin Grill, as the owners call it, is across the street from Harris Teeter in the Fitch Lumber lot in a jazzed up ice cream truck. Down the street, at the intersections of Greensboro and East Main in a gravel lot next to Cliff’s Meat Market is a nameless trailer that we’ll refer to as “Comida Mexicana” for the words scrawled across the top of the mobile kitchen.

From the start, The Biscuit noticed that there were a lot more people at the Latin Grill. There, patrons get white ticket stubs as they wait for their food.

We tried to order the same things at each eatery so we could compare them, but that proved difficult when both were only serving certain items from the menu.

At Comida Mexicana, the $1.25 barbacoa taco was tender and greasy. Chu thought the meat could use some salt, while The Biscuit agreed it lacked flavor. All in all, not bad.

Latin Grill served up tacos for the same price. After asking Hispanic immigrants for the past year their favorite dish, The Biscuit knew it was time to try beef tongue. The texture was not bad, very soft and light. Its appearance, however, all yellow and hairy and bumpy and tubular, was enough to outshine, maybe darken in this case, any satisfaction. The lengua tasted more like the cilantro and onions suffocating the meat than anything.

The Biscuit is reluctant to order tamales because they always sound better than they are. For the most part, this notion was right when it came to Comida Mexicana’s $1.25 creation. The chicken inside was plentiful, the salsa verde had some zing, and the masa was warm and moist. Each bite still, however, filled our mouths with too much cornmeal relative to meat and sunk straight to our stomachs like lead.

Unfortunately, the Latin Grill did not have any tamales, so we got a barbacoa quesadilla for $3.00 to compare it to the meat in the taco we had already eaten. The crunchy, gooey tortilla and cheese combination was good - it always is. The pork, though more flavorful than the Comida Mexicana’s recipe, was so similar to N.C. bbq that The Biscuit would have preferred a trip to Allen & Son for a better take on the dish. It was smokey and sweet and sour, all good, but not what The Biscuit expected.

Both places offered tortas, a sandwich stuffed with meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, beans, onions and avocados, so we could finally compare the same dishes bite by bite. We opted for al pastor, which is pork roasted with spices and pineapple.

Chu preferred the Latin Grill sandwich, $5, because the bread was toasted. The Biscuit liked Comida Mexicana’s $5.50 torta because the bread was lighter and its onions were less overpowering than the competition’s. The bread seemed unnecessary in both cases.

For many people, a torta may be a refreshing change from the usual Mexican fare, carne and queso encased some various way in a tortilla. The Biscuit thinks they should leave the sandwich to the delicatessen. Tortillas just work better than bread when they’re holding a slurry of meat and beans.

The verdict: It’s tough making this decision. Both loncheras had their strong points and their weaknesses. The prices were nearly the same. They’re both open from around 6 p.m. to midnight. Neither had a completely unique dish or crazy take on a recipe.

The Latin Grill does have a larger selection of food. In addition to everything on Comida Mexicana’s menu, they have sopes, burritos, enchiladas (they were quite good when The Biscuit had them this summer, perhaps better than any of the food this weekend), tripe and lots of unique beverages. Some of the options were better than the others. They’re also open Thursday. This really just suggests to The Biscuit, however, they have better resources or management.

One man standing in line at the Latin Grill who said he comes for dinner multiple times a week said he liked its food too much to eat anywhere else.

“I won’t try the other place,” he said. “I’m in love with this one. The food is wonderful.”

On the other hand, The Biscuit liked his meal at Comida Mexican just as much.

In the end, there was only one way to settle this: salsa. The sauce is a staple of the cuisine, a way to stand out and have a voice, and if you can’t do it right, it’s not worth trying anything else.

The taco trucks both put out two salsa, one green, one red.

At Comida Mexicana, they produce a medium-spiced roja that balances well with the flavor. The verde, on the other hand, is quite spicy and sour, bringing no other wonderful sensations to the palate.

The Latin Grill shines in the salsa department where its competitor fizzles out. The red salsa is smokier, but not as good, while the green beats them all. It’s thicker, perhaps because of an avocado presence, spicier and very complex when many greens are more tangy than anything else.

Yikes. Unfortunately, this is still a draw. Nothing wowed The Biscuit. When we need a Mexican fix, either place will suffice. Every place has its good and bad days, and maybe because of the nature of a lonchera, these places can be quite inconsistent.

Chu, not The Biscuit mind you, had a very surprising reaction when the tasting was over: “Don Jose is just better.” The Biscuit would have to agree. The Carrboro convenience store might be stationary, but it’s just as cheap with an even larger menu. If it’s a late night taco you crave, you might want to head over to Greensboro Street and take your pick; if you’ve got the time, Don Jose still doesn’t disappoint.