Category Archives: Mexican

Torchy’s Tacos

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This is a great addition to the local taco scene. Like competitor Velvet Taco, Torchy’s is a chain out of Texas that specializes in high-end taco assembly. Their menu offers a wide variety of semi-traditional and eclectic taco. We liked all three that we tried:

Trailer Park Taco – fried chicken and a bunch of stuff on a flour tortilla. This wasn’t my favorite, but my wife liked it a lot. It’s pretty far from any Mexican origins!

Green Gile Pork on a corn tortilla. The most traditional, this contained very succulent carnitas.

Mr. Orange – This was my favorite. A delicious piece of grilled salmon with a somewhat spicy sauce and lots of cilantro.

I really liked that all the tacos had completely different ingredients, which is very different from most assemblage places.

I usually prefer sit down restaurants to quick serves, but it’s worth noting that they do have margaritas, and you can come in, sit at the bar, and order food and drinks.

Be sure to join their club and get a free half order of queso and chips— it was large and delicious.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/torchys-tacos-winter-garden

San Jose’s Original Mexican Restaurant

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I had given up on this place ever opening after it spent a year or so in construction and then… nothing. But it finally made it, and it is a good addition to the neighborhood. I’ve long thought that Lakeside Village was the perfect spot for a genuine sit-down Mexican restaurant.

We were greeted graciously and service was excellent throughout. I really like the interior; it’s nicer than the other San Joses.

The food is pretty much the same. Good salsa with the chips. The cheese dip is a challenge; really runny.

The top-shelf margarita was excellent.

My wife enjoyed her quesadilla, which was nicely browned.

My tacos pastor were pretty good, The pastor included the traditional pineapple bits, but was a bit on the dry side compared to others I’ve had.

As others have noted, it’s a bit pricey, but I guess every place is these days.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/san-jose-s-original-mexican-restaurant-windermere

Frontera Cocina

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4 Stars

I’ve never been a big fan of Rick Bayless’ Chicago area restaurants, but I enjoyed our visit to this one in Disney Springs. The huge space is probably bigger than all of his Chicago restaurants combined! I’m sure it can get noisy at night, but a Monday lunch was sparsely populated.

The “Half & Half” was a nice combination of guacamole and pumpkin seed hummus, served with chips, jicama, and cucumber, plus red and green salsas.

My wife loved the Smoked Salmon Ceviche Tostadas. Conchinita Pibil was also good.

As with everything at Disney Springs, it’s very expensive. But on the bright side, Margaritas at our Monday lunch were only $5 instead of the usual $19.

Service was good.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/frontera-cocina-lake-buena-vista-3

KAVAS Tacos + Tequila

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2 Stars

Exterior
Interior
Antojitos Platter
Chill Platter

Mediocre is the word that kept springing to mind throughout this meal. I really wanted to like this place, but I just couldn’t. From the moment you look at the menu and see that they charge for chips, and that tacos come on flour tortillas, you know you are in a tourist restaurant, not a Mexican restaurant. And with drink prices ranging up to $32 a drink, the pricing verifies that. But let’s give all that a pass.

The house Margarita, which is a mere $10, is one of the best house Margaritas I’ve had anywhere. If only everything else were as good.

The antojitos platter includes okay taquitos, a very, very thin queso dip, and weird beef empanadas. The empanadas were edible, but had clearly been prepared in advanced and then spent only seconds in a deep frier. As a result they were pale white, and the insides were still at refrigerator temperature. Surely this was a mistake?

The Chill Platter was a combination of a fairly tasty shrimp cocktail, an oddly spiced white fish ceviche that was okay, and a tuna tartare that seemed iffy.

Service was largely missing, even though we were there at lunch on a slow Saturday. Let’s just say the glass of chardonnay ordered before the meal was delivered as dessert.

Better options are available.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/kavas-tacos-tequila-orlando

Old Town Mexican Grill

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Exterior
Exterior
Interior
Interior
Nachos
Nachos
Taco and enchilada combo
Taco and enchilada combo
Taco salad
Taco salad

**** (4 stars)

One of the measures of a good Mexican restaurant is the quality of the refried beans and rice, and they do very well on both counts. A other measure is whether the nachos are made with melted cheese, and sadly this is just liquid queso.

Still, this is overall decent food, and convenient to the highway.

Old Town Mexican Grill
116 Commercial Pkwy
Canton, MS 39046

https://www.yelp.com/biz/old-town-mexican-grill-canton

Taco Bell

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Rancid chip fragments
Rancid chip fragments

* (1 stars)

I like Taco Bell. This is the only Taco Bell near us. Unfortunately, this is the worst Taco Bell on the planet.

I think it's really unfair when people have a bad experience at a restaurant one time and leave a one-star review. But when you have a bad experience at a restaurant literally dozens of times, it means… well, it means you like Taco Bell, it's the only Taco Bell near you, and it is the worst Taco Bell on the planet.

Of course there are the expected staffing issues when you don't pay a decent wage, and the resulting not being open when you say you are. I can give them a pass on that.

But how can the tortilla chips be rancid 20% of the time? Do they have a special process for aging them to imperfection?

How can they be out of major ingredients like onions, or lettuce, or–get this–taco shells?

Oh, and here's a helpful note: if you want Diet Mountain Dew, be sure to order MTN DEW® Baja Blast™ Zero Sugar, because they've been out of the latter for years and never updated the menu.

Taco Bell
7970 Winter Garden Vineland Rd
Windermere, FL 34786

https://www.yelp.com/biz/taco-bell-windermere-2

Garibaldi Mexican Cusine

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Interior
Interior
Fiesta Sampler
Fiesta Sampler

**** (4 stars)

I've been to Garibaldi before, but this is the first time I've been to this location. I actually like it better than the original.

The menu is very extensive, with all the standard American Tex-Mex offerings. The fiesta sampler offers a pretty good selection of most of the menu, it is a very generous serving, more than enough lunch for two people.

This is one of the most extensive margarita lists in town. The house margarita is by far the best deal, and is an ample serving of a well mixed margarita.

Garibaldi Mexican Cusine
848 Sand Lake Rd
Orlando, FL 32809

https://www.yelp.com/biz/garibaldi-mexican-cusine-orlando