by Sue Giustino
Nestled among the markets and shops at the east end of Main Street, this authentic regional Mexican food restaurant stands out in quality. Serving just take-out for the time being, but you can choose to stay out front or in the back garden area to eat.
From Nachos, chips and guacamole, tacos, build your own burrito or bowl, quesadillas, or Mexican corn on the cob everything is prepared fresh to order. For protein there’s chicken, pork, beef, fish, shrimp, and vegan options to choose from as well as a variety of toppings.
The Corn is dressed with Piquin, mayo and queso fresco served with sliced of lime giving the corn a burst of added Mexican flare. The chips are crunchy and the guacamole fresh and creamy. So if you are looking for a snack or an entire meal, there’s many choices.
For our tasting, we did a number of different dishes and proteins as to be able to report on a variety. The Pork burrito was full of brown rice, black beans, and Pork al pastor- marinated in a delicious guajillo (Chile sauce and grilled pineapple). This is a large meal and can have toppings added to it like cheese, onions, sour cream, lettuce and fresh cilantro. As with the burrito, the burrito bowl can be customized. Ours had lots of toppings; brown rice, black beans, lettuce, corn, Pico de gallo, and Chicken breast al pastor marinade.
The choice for tacos are numerous. The list includes chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, corona [fish of the day], avocado, jackfruit, and vegan carnitas [portabella mushroom]. In addition, the pork and jackfruit can be either en verde or el pastor. Jackfruit is a giant tropical fruit that’s often used as a meat substitute. It is technically a fruit, however, its consistency is similar to that of chicken or pork. It has a fairly neutral taste when young, so it takes on the flavor of whatever sauce or seasoning you pair it with. It also has a stringy consistency that works well with these Mexican dishes.
For Tacos we chose beef, which is Sirloin – grilled steak, the seared shrimp, and the corona; fish of the day [fluke] in corona beer butter. Each was served in a corn tortilla with toppings of our choice. The shrimp were large marinated and tender, while the fish was lightly battered, fried and also very tender.
Everything tasted so fresh and the added hot sauce, available in different degrees of heat, allows for different tolerances of spice. If you go on-line, https://www.thetacoole.com/ you can customize your order and they’ll have it ready for pick-up. Or go to the window and see Kenny and he’ll take your order and have it out to you in a few minutes.
