Friday Foodie: The Taco Shop

You know what is so great about being off school this week?? Getting to eat whenever and whatever I want!! School keeps me so boxed in with three hour classes or four hour client sessions so my meals always seem like such a crammed after-thought. I’m usually preemptively eating or wolfing something down because I’m so hungry after waiting for hours to eat. But not.this.week. It’s party city over at the Bungalow. Mostly, it’s been super healthy, cooking-at-home stuff like fruit smoothies and spinach salads, but today, it was tacos. 3pm tacos, to be exact.

The Taco Shop is brand new! (another perk about being on break-I get to go to places while they are super fresh and hot!) It is right next to the downtown Central Library in what used to be Plow & Anchor, a high concept chef-driven spot. Well, it is fancy pants no more, unless you count bare floors and bright murals as your kind of fancy. The Taco Shop is now counter service, weekdays only, with 400 tacos made daily (the store closes whenever they run out). I was nervous they might run out today, but thankfully, we were safe!

Just to be clear: this place is tacos and tacos and pretty much just tacos. I think they were about $3 each. I ordered 2 to start, but was still hungry, so added on a 3rd. I tried 2 carne asada tacos and 1 chicken in mole sauce taco. All tacos are topped with traditional chopped onions and cilantro. It was super quiet inside; very spacious interior with only one other customer in the corner. Service was friendly. Tacos took a few (like 10) minutes to come out, which seemed a little funny since we were the only people there ordering food.

The verdict? Good, but not great. As some other reviews on Yelp mentioned, I found the carne asada to be a bit salty and the chicken in mole to be a little bland. I would prefer a little more generous onion/cilantro topping. I’m not quite sure about the atmosphere-I think it has potential, but it seems awkward to have so much space for such a small menu. I think a walk-up window or something would be more appropriate. Or expand the food options and add table service. BUT it is the first week open; I mean, they don’t even have a website up yet, so I may be tempted to give them another try in a few months once they’ve figured out exactly what they want to be when they grow up. I’m pretty picky about my tacos, though, so they better perfect the art or I’m sticking with my other favorites.

Total Vote: 3.5/5