It took 10 indecisive minutes of looking over the menu at Taco Town to know that I wanted to pick items off of their traditional menu. My boyfriend is Colombian and on our first date at a Mexican restaurant, according to him, I ordered white-washed Mexican food. Four months ago was the first time I had ever eaten in a Mexican restaurant, but over winter break I definitely ate more Colombian and Mexican food than I did American food, so I was excited to see how Taco Town matched up to his mother’s cooking. 

Ranked from worst to best, I ordered the chimichanga, the quesadillas with ground beef, and the flautas with chicken. Each platter was $12 and my bill came to $39.60.

The dish that I tried first was the chimichanga. It had brilliant plating with green and red salsa laid out on both sides of the chimichanga and queso in the middle to replicate the colors of the flag of Mexico; it came with rice and beans on the side. While it was pleasing to the eye, I think that the green salsa unfortunately ruined the dish for me. I could taste the lime and I didn’t like how, because it was on top of the skin, it gave the outside of the dish a soft texture that melted through any crispness. On the side that had red salsa, I was able to enjoy the inside’s delicious cheese and meat. If I wanted to get this again, I would get it without all of the salsa and eat it dry and crispy or I would ask the cook to smother it in queso. Overall this wasn’t for me. 

As I said, the dish came with rice and beans. I don’t know what good beans taste like – so on the bean scale, these ones landed averagely. The rice was yellow rice. It tasted good but was a little dry, like it sat for a while in a chinese buffet. I think it needed queso.

For some reason I hadn’t thought about the quantity of food I planned to purchase, so I let my friends order before me, not thinking about the leftovers I would be able to share (sorry guys). They finished the chimichanga for me, but I struggled to share my leftovers from the other two dishes.

The last two dishes shared similarities, as both were filled with tasty, quality meat. The chicken flauta dish came with avocado on top of 3 flautas. I appreciated the brilliant blanket of lettuce beneath the avocado, which prevented the flautas from becoming soggy. The chicken inside was really juicy, and the crunch was perfect. 

The meat from inside the quesadillas had fantastic flavor. It was tastier than Moe’s but I think I would still choose the Moe’s kids quesadilla simply for the price. There was nothing to complain about with these two. I just didn’t really enjoy the lettuce, tomato and avocado side. It’s interesting how Latin American cuisine at restaurants provides extra food on the side to construct part of your dish. I didn’t want lettuce on my quesadilla, but I had the choice to add it if I wanted to. 

Taco Town isn’t perfect, but the environment inside was super rad, and it’s worth going for Jarritos and to spend time with friends after class. The music was loud and, even after we asked them to turn it down, I still kept getting distracted by it. So I brought my friend out of her seat to dance with me which made their cook shout “baila” – or dance.