This week our tour stop was Chico's Mexican Restaurant. Now believe it or not, I've been a patron of Chico's longer than Chris has been alive. I actually used to go with my parents long ago when they were located on West street. I got out of the habit of going, so I've only been to their "new" location on Maple maybe 3 or 4 times or so.
Because Chris and I had an 11:30 engagement, the taco tour was moved to 1:15pm. We arrived to Chico's and a pretty small lunch crowd. We were seated immediately and drink orders were taken right away. Chips and salsa and our waters hit the table fast. I do like their chips and salsa but not everyone will. These are a little thicker than others and I went for the hot sauce only - which had a very solid kick to it.
I ordered a chicken flour taco, a Chorizo corn taco (which I was told was a pork sausage), and a ham corn taco. The food took an "appropriate" amount of time to arrive at our tables - meanwhile enjoying the chips and salsa and trying to clear some congestion with the hot sauce. Chris and Shon had their tacos delivered first and mine appeared about 2 minutes later (first odd service thing I noticed).
Speaking of odd, here's where things get a little strange - and part of this will be why the value and service rankings have taken a hit. I see 3 tacos on my plate, so I assume that everything is good. I take a bite of what I was thinking was the ham taco. Now to be fair, I didn't know how the ham was going to be prepared so I didn't know what it would look like. I started comparing my tacos to Shon and realized that either I didn't have a ham or something was wrong. I asked our waitress and she said I was actually eating a Taco El Pastor. No complaints because it was a tasty taco. I quite enjoyed the nice flavor and the texture and flour shell all went nicely together - no harm no foul. So as I continued to ask about my ham taco, I finally came to realize that she never put it down on my order - I guess she thought I ordered the El Pastor. I'm still not sure how that happened. She asked if I wanted the ham and I decided I did want to try it.
Next I took a bite from the chicken taco. It was just average. The chicken was a little bit chewy - not horrible, but not as tender as it could have been. The taste wasn't as good as other chicken tacos we've had on the tour. Overall, just an average taco - nothing I'd need to go back for.
During the conversation of tacos, it was revealed that the Chorizo wasn't simply pork, it was "pork". Apparently it is various pork parts shoved into a sausage casing made from pig intestines. Honestly it didn't bother me - but I eat hot dogs, so... yeah, whatever, no big deal. The first few bites were interesting. A very bold taste and a definite spice to it. But as I continued to eat it, the odd fried flavor started to get to me - and eventually I left about 1/3rd of it on my plate and didn't care to finish it. It tasted like it had been fried too long or something. I don't think it was overcooked, but the deep fried flavor just wasn't appealing. No need to have that one again.
The ham taco was delivered while I was eating the chicken taco, so I picked it up and quite a bit of juice ran out the end. By quite a bit, I mean easily a couple of teaspoons... The ham was actually cubed ham and my bites were met with a familiar cooked ham flavor. It wasn't great, but it was definitely a unique taste to have on a taco. I wasn't disappointed by this taco - but it wasn't necessarily something I'd go running off to tell everyone about. It's safe but unique - and if you want to try something a little different but not weird, give it a shot.
Everything I ordered was a la carte - or so I thought - but the meal came with beans and rice. I don't eat refried beans, so normally I would have subbed double rice. I actually didn't eat any of those items today - so that was definitely a waste.
Unfortunately, I had another appointment to get to so I asked for the check. When it was all done, with tip, I ended up with a $19 bill. I was QUITE confused as to how 3 tacos and water would net me that much so I asked the others and they were a couple of bucks cheaper (even though we had the same number of tacos). The reason given was that since I ate the taco that they delivered incorrectly, I was going to be charged for it. *insert dramatic pause here* YES, I was paying for their mistake. So I guess I was supposed to spit out what I had? I had already taken a bite, should I have left the taco half eaten? Would I have been charged for half a taco? I'm baffled by this logic, but I didn't have time to argue the point (and it likely wouldn't have mattered anyway). At this time it's fair to mention that there were other issues around the table with incorrect or incomplete tacos. Shon was given a wrong taco too, but she actually took it away before he bit into it (which was weird too). It makes me wonder if someone else was given his taco later after it had been at our table for awhile. She was timely with water refills, but overall the service was only average - and the ridiculous wrong taco incident made it take a big hit.
Overall, I used to really enjoy Chico's - but from a taco tour perspective, the El Pastor is a good one, the rest were just okay but decent, and the Chorizo was a no-go. Service was average, but I'm taking away a full taco for the weirdness. I'm also taking away a full taco because the value was terrible. If I go somewhere for a weekday lunch and spend $19, I'm going to be bloated and walking with a waddle the rest of the day.
Out of 5 tacos, here are my ratings:
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| Cleanliness: | |
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| Overall: | |
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