Tag: tacos

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Tres Tacos

tacos

I had stopped off at Cribbs Causeway to charge my car and grab a late lunch.

Was going to go to Wagamama and try out their tteokbokki. However, they were quite busy, and I couldn’t see the tteokbokki on the menu. In the end I went to Tortilla and had tres tacos.

I do like the tacos from Tortilla, they are tasty, fresh and I think good value for money. I went with three chicken tacos and added extra guacamole. That is probably my only annoyance, is that I have to pay extra for guacamole, and it’s not as though you get a massive portion of guacamole either, it’s a small spoonful on each taco. I remember once getting tacos from somewhere else, a street food market, and then popping into Tesco Express to get a pot of guacamole as it was significantly cheaper and you got more guacamole. Don’t think I could do that at Tortilla unless I did takeout.

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Tacos from the Halls

trains

When arriving at Paddington and needing something for lunch, I have on the last few occasions headed to the Market Halls.

Having been impressed with the meal I had there, I had thought about repeating the steak and chips I had before. However, there is quite a choice of places to eat and I do like to try new things. I decided to try out one of the other stalls, so this time I headed upstairs and went to try out the tacos from Breddos Tacos.

I had their lunch deal, which was three tacos and some rice for £15. I went with three different tacos.

I did enjoy all three tacos, but in order of preference, my least favourite was the chicken taco. This was Yucatan grilled chicken, pico de gallo, habanero salsa, and avocado. I had anticipated a warm chicken taco, but this wasn’t to be the case. Don’t get me wrong it was really nice, but I was expecting hot grilled chicken.

The mushroom taco was full of flavour. This mushroom guisado taco was filled with braised mushroom, onion, jalapeño, and habanero salsa. I do like mushrooms, a and this was really tasty.

The fish taco was the best of the three. The Baja Fish taco had tempura cod, pico de Gallo, and habanero mayo. The taco looked great, the cod was hot and crunchy and the accompaniments were tasty.

Overall I really liked the three tacos and it was a nice meal, the rice in my opinion didn’t add much. I think next time I would forgo the rice and just go with the three tacos.

It’s interesting to compare this with the Wahaca lunch deal for one, which is available next door. I think the Wahaca meal is a better choice if you want tacos.

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Time for some Gas Street Social tacos

I met up with some friends in Birmingham for drinks at the Gas Street Social at The Mailbox in Birmingham. We decided to that we would stay where we were and eat at the Gas Street Social.

Though I visit Birmingham on a regular basis, pretty much going at least once a year I was a little surprised that I didn’t realise I hadn’t heard of or visited The Mailbox before. There are quite a few places to eat there. Somewhere I would probably now visit in the future. Of course Birmingham is a big place and in the main I have usually been to places around the ICC and Brindley Place.

Looking over the menu I went down the small plates route. I was quite hungry, as I had missed out on having a big lunch and it had been a long day.

I went with four small plates, these are only really big enough for one, and not entirely suitable for sharing.

The first of my dishes to appear was the achiote chicken taco.

A single soft taco filled with achiote chicken, and dressed with sauces, pickled red onions and coriander. The chicken was nice and tasty, as were the accompaniments. The taco was either stale or overcooked, but wasn’t as soft as I would have preferred.

The second small plate was the cajun fried shrimp, a soft shell taco, crispy cajun shrimp, sautéed shallots, peppers, and spicy Baja sauce.

Some good flavours in there, but the prawns were a little greasy for me.

My final taco was a cauliflower tinga taco. 

This was a crispy corn tostola, blackened cauli, and black bean hummus. It was nice. This was very similar to the achiote chicken taco in both appearance and flavour. I did like the black bean hummus.

Alongside I had some loaded tater tots, which were loaded with salsa, guacamole, and cheese sauce.

Though not a huge dish, it was quite filling. I enjoyed it very much. The salsa was nice, zingy and tasty.

There was a little too much food, so much so, that I probably could have had one less taco.

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Taco Holders

I like making tacos at home, but this usually means making them one at a time at the table. I have been thinking about getting some taco holders so that I can prepare them in advance before serving them to the table.

I had a look online and in the end I got some colourful plastic taco holders.

These will hold two tacos, or turn them upside down and they can hold three.

Having tried them out, they work a treat, makes it very easy to construct tacos for serving.

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Tres Tacos from Tortilla

tortilla

I have to say I am a bit of a fan of the tacos from Tortilla, and is one of my go to places for a light lunch. They make a nice fresh and tasty, but light meal. This time I tried out the branch of Tortilla at Cabot Circus. I had three chicken tacos with all the trimmings and added guacamole as an extra.

Tres Tacos from Tortilla

What I like about the food, is it tastes very fresh, true the chicken has been around for a while, but combined with the fresh salad, salsa, and toppings, they are delicious. Can be a bit messy to eat, so I usually use a fork, but in theory you can eat them by hand.  Really enjoyed these tacos and they made a nice lunch.

I do wonder why places charge extra for guacamole, and in the case of Tortilla they also charge extra for hot cheese sauce. Can make a cheaper deal a little more pricey.

One time I will get a burrito from Tortilla and see how that is.

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Burger and Tacos in Leeds

Avoiding a hotel meal in Leeds, myself and a colleague headed out for something to eat. We didn’t go to far and went to the Editor’s Draught, a pub that sells food on Wellington Street.

I was hungry, having missed lunch, so I went with their big burger, The Triple Threat.

It’s the biggest and baddest of the stacks, and it’s piled up with triple beef patties, triple bacon, triple burger cheese slices and triple onion rings drizzled with cheese sauce, in a toasted bun with ketchup, burger sauce, iceberg lettuce, chopped onion and gherkin, with skin-on fries and BBQ sauce.

It was only a couple of pounds more than a standard burger and came with onion rings.

For a starter, well probably a side dish I had the chicken tacos which came with salsa, guacamole and sour cream.

I enjoyed both dishes, they weren’t out of this world, but I wasn’t expecting an out of this world experience. The burger was a nice burger, good flavours and if anything impractical to eat with your hands, as it was so tall.

The chicken tacos were a nice snack.

Overall a quick tasty meal, just what I needed.

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Wahaca for One

I had really enjoyed my last meal at Wahaca at Paddington, so had thought about going again at some point.

Arrived in London and went to Wahaca for lunch. They do a deal for one, which looked nice. Better than a sandwich. Initially I thought do I want to go there, as it was quite early, just approaching midday. But then I thought, what was the alternative? A sandwich from Pret? So headed on up the stairs. I was the first person in the restaurant. However, by the time my food arrived twenty minutes later, the place was packed.

What you got was:

      • Guacamole & Tortilla Chips
      • Smoky Sonoran Hummus
      • Sweet Potato & Feta Taquito
      • Two tacos of your choice, I went for the Buttermilk Chicken Taco and the Beef Gringa Taco.

I loved the way the food was presented on a wooden board.

The guacamole tasted nice and fresh, and it was nice to have the mixed tortilla chips as well. I really liked the smoky Sonoran hummus, not too smoky, but I liked the addition of the sunflower seeds. The Sonoran hummus is a Mexican hummus, made with roasted vegetables, chickpeas, guajillo and herbs, drizzled with chilli oil.

At the heart of the board was a sweet potato & feta taquito. There was a variety of textures and flavours in this taquito. It came with caramelised onion, salsas and chipotle mayo, and was served in a crisp blue corn tortilla. The crunch of the rolled taco and the smooth sweet potato made this a tasty treat.

I had gone for the buttermilk chicken taco and the beef gringa taco. You got one of each. The gringa taco was slow-cooked British grass-fed beef with grilled cheese and salsa fresca, in a soft corn tortilla. The beef was tender and full of flavour.

The buttermilk chicken taco was chicken crispy fried in WildFarmed flour with pink pickled onions and spiced mayo, in a soft flour tortilla.

It was a great meal, really tasty. Service was excellent as well.

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Time for Tacos

One of my go to places for a light lunch, is Tortilla. I always go for the three tacos, usually with added guacamole.

I was at the Mall doing some shopping and decided to grab a bite to eat at Tortilla. I went for the chicken tacos.

What I like about the food, is it tastes very fresh, true the chicken has been around for a while, but combined with the fresh salad, salsa, and toppings, they are delicious. Can be a bit messy to eat, so I usually use a fork, but in theory you can eat them by hand. One time I will get a burrito from Tortilla and see how that is.

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Back to Wahaca

I was travelling back from London and rather than catch a busy peak train, I decided I would have some dinner and catch a later train. The other option was to catch a busy train, probably stand or be cramped, and then cook when I got home. So dinner it was, and I had already made up my mind to visit Wahaca.  I had heard about the branch at Wahaca at Paddington when it opened, but I hadn’t had the chance, or the opportunity to make a visit until this week.

It’s just outside the station and upon entering the restaurant you climb a set of stairs to get to the tables. Even though it was early the place was buzzing and quite busy. I was initially offered a seat at the bar, but as I wanted food and not a drink, I asked for a table.

I sat down and looked over the menu. I had a voucher for a free portion of tacos, so that was the first area of the menu I went through. I was tempted by the buttermilk chicken tacos, but went with the Ancho Mushroom Tacos, with jalapeño mayo, beetroot crisps and dressed slaw, in two soft corn tortillas

I had really enjoyed the Mexico City Nachos when I had them a few years ago. So that was next on my list of choices. I went for the veggie version, as I didn’t think the addition of the chorizo really added that much to the dish, and the veggie dish was cheaper as well.

My final choice was the Zesty Bean & Feta Tostadas, with chickpeas, borlotti beans and organic peas with fresh tomato salsa. I had hoped they would have the crab tostadas they use to have on the menu, but they didn’t.

The nachos arrived first and I was a little surprised by the size of the dish. Either the dish was smaller when I had it a few years ago, having made my own version of this plate, I was expecting something smaller, or more than likely I had just plain forgotten how large the dish was. 

There was plenty of crunchy tortilla chips, a large helping of guacamole, black beans, crema, pink pickled onions, cheese sauce, fresh tomato salsa and jalapeño. I left the jalapeño, but the rest of the dish was delicious.

I really enjoyed the Zesty Bean & Feta Tostadas, full of flavour and contrasting textures of crunchy tostadas and soft beans.

The Ancho Mushroom Tacos were really tasty, I liked the mushrooms and the intensity of flavours across the two tacos.

I really enjoyed all three dishes and the experience reminded me how much I enjoy the food at Wahaca. Service was excellent, warm, friendly and efficient. It’s a real pity that the branch in Bristol closed, as it would be nice to have somewhere local to visit.

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Tres Tacos

Needing a quick lunch, I went to Tortilla and had their three tacos. You have a choice of flour or corn tacos. This time I went with flour tacos.

three chicken tacos

For the filling I would usually go for the beef, but this time I went with the chicken. I have gone for the beef in the past, thinking it would be steak, but it usually isn’t.

The chicken was a much better choice. It was very tasty, and I enjoyed my choice of toppings of tomato salsa, sour cream, guacamole, and cheese.

It’s quite a light lunch, which is what I wanted. If you wanted something more substantial, you could have the burrito option.

I always think it is a little cheeky to charge extra for guacamole and then put essentially a small spoonful on each tacos. I remember having (takeaway) tacos once from a place which did this, I actually went to Tesco and bought a tub of guacamole rather than pay more for less.