Taco Tour stop #70 - Chico's Restaurant (again) - 4407 W Maple

If you haven't heard the recent news, Chico's Mexican Restaurant is in some financial distress.  I won't bother to explain all the details here - if you're interested, you should find the articles on FB or Wichita Eagle.  That said, I (Travis) had some heartfelt thoughts about them and talked the other 2 dorks into going back for a second try.  Chico's was originally our 6th stop - so it's been QUITE awhile since we've been there.  If you're interested in going back to see our first reviews, you can - but here's the cliff notes: food was alright, some good, some okay - but service was poor. In fact I got charged for tacos I didn't order. After our review, the owner reached out and offered us a free meal if we came back. Ironically, I forgot about this offer when we went back. Ohwell.

My family has been going to Chico's possibly since they opened. I know my mom and dad's orders by heart. But I also know they haven't visited much since they opened the location on Maple. The common theme from them and from others is it's just not the same as the old spot. My opinion is similar. We went there pretty regularly, got to be friends with the family, and I even went to school with some.  As fellow small business owners in the same neighborhood, they do have a special place in my memories.

But enough reminiscing - we wanted to give them another visit to see if things have improved and frankly just to give them a bit more business.  So how did it go this time around?  We went on a Tuesday and they were pretty busy (compared to last time when they had maybe 1 or 2 other tables taken). I arrived first and was seated fairly quickly, but there weren't many tables open and people were coming and going.  I ordered waters all around and the other two arrived shortly after.  The chips and salsa were complimentary but they did take a bit of time to arrive.  Chris timed the time between our drinks arriving and when we placed our food orders - 15 minutes. Even when you're pretty busy, that's an unusually long amount of time between water arriving and coming back to us.  We didn't see much of our waitress, so flagging her down sooner didn't work out.  Once we placed our orders, however, the food arrived in a reasonable amount of time considering how busy they were. I didn't watch the clock, but I'd say it was quicker than our order was taken.

Getting our waters and chips refilled was a chore that took longer than it should have.  We were shorted a set of silverware and had to grab the waitress before she left after dropping off our food. She didn't ask really anything and was leaving without checking on us. We also had to ask for more chips even though the basket was obviously barren also. When the water refills finally arrived, it was from a different server. So the consistent theme between these two visits is frankly the service is below average.  It's kind of sad considering this is a family run business. Service can make all the difference and unfortunately it's not making a difference this time around either.

That said, the tacos I ordered (al pastor) were pretty tasty.  I didn't bother getting a variety this time around. Looking over the menu, I wasn't impressed with the pricing so I just stuck with a simple combo plate with beans and rice.  The tacos weren't hot - just warm. They were seasoned pretty good though and I enjoyed the taste.  They're not in the top 5, but they had good taste.  I will confess that I didn't know there was a Taco Tuesday deal here. I asked the guys and none of us remember anything being said to us or seeing any signage. Maybe we should have known - but had we, we probably would have ordered a few more tacos... So on a Tuesday, the value is pretty high - other days, not so much.

Shon's Take:

Chorizo - probably the best taco of the day, a nice spicy pepper flavor without the crappy after taste some places have. I liked that it came on a fried shell, which held up well. I could totally go back and have a plate of just chorizo tacos here. 
I also had an al pastor, a steak, and a chicken taco. Onion and cilantro. Honestly, they were all three ok. Not horrible by any stretch, but nothing memorable. Seemed like a fair amount of meat, but just not a ton of seasoning or flavor. That said, I could’ve eaten a couple more tacos, but I was ordering based on the menu price which looked higher than average. Yet when we cashed out, we had pretty cheap bills. Apparently there was some kind of taco special going but no one mentioned it. 

Chris's Take:

We reviewed the menu and I settled on an al pastor street taco and a fried flour chicken taco. The last time we visited was early in our taco adventures. What I previously thought to be good al pastor is mediocre at best. I am unsure about the other yahoos but my al pastor was room temp and lacking in flavor. The chicken taco was also very bland. It tasted like unseasoned chicken was tossed into a shell and into the fryer and some cheese tossed on top when it came out. There was no taste to speak of. 
The real confusion came at checkout when my ticket was about half of what I expected. The lady checking us out referenced the $1 al pastor and what a good deal it is. The three of us exchanged confused looks as there had been no previous mention of the promo. 
At their normal price of $3+ per taco, the value is non-existent as that is roughly $1 per bite. At $1, it’s hard to whine too much about the mediocre al pastor. I wouldn’t order the chicken taco again and would never consider paying regular al la carte price for their tacos. 

So in conclusion, you'll see that service was still lacking and the food was somewhat okay depending on who you ask.  If you want my opinion, I think that's the core of why they've struggled.  The two things they had going for them on West Street was good, consistent food and family-oriented service. Without those two things, pretty much any restaurant is going to struggle regardless of size, location, or drive-by traffic.  I do wish them the best of luck though!

Out of 5 tacos, here are my ratings:

Food Taste:
Value (based on $1 tacos):
Value (based on regular price):
Cleanliness:
Service:
Overall:
Likelihood to return:

Taco Tour stop #69 - Puerto Vallarta - 602 N Tyler

In case you haven't noticed, turnover in the Mexican restaurant business in Wichita is a real thing. It's fun to see new spots popping up, but it's bittersweet because it usually means something also has gone out.  Puerto Vallarta is no exception - it used to be Charlie's Pizza Taco long ago, and most recently was Pedro's Express.  (We did a review on Pedro's some time ago).  In case you're not familiar, this is the spot on Tyler, just south of Central on the west side.

So the question is, is the new tenant at this location worth the stop?  Well without giving you any obvious spoilers, Shon and I (Travis) have been there twice in 2 weeks and we talked Chris into going without us too.

Not much seems to have changed on the interior - although only having been in Pedro's once, I don't remember all details.  The layout does seem to be identical - it is a sit-down style restaurant where the waitress brings you menus, takes your drink and food orders, and brings everything to your table.  A bit of a concern is that on our first visit, there was only one other table of patrons there.  (Our second visit was more encouraging with quite a few more diners).

The chips and salsa were pretty tasty here and complimentary (my favorite kind!).  The chips were light and crunchy and the salsa has a very slight kick with a hint of sweetness.  It's good enough that we welcomed multiple refills on both visits.

If you ask for tacos a la carte, you'll be told they are $2.99 each. If you're like me, you cringed slightly at that because it might sound slightly expensive when you like to order 4 or 5 (or 8) street tacos at a time.  But they also have a taquiza plate on the appetizer menu that gives you one of each of their 4 street tacos for $9.99: shrimp, chicken, steak, and carnitas.  For our first visit, Shon and I both went this route and I subbed an extra carnitas instead of the shrimp.

By the way, service here is very polite and prompt.  Our waitress was very attentive to us and took the time to explain details of their entrees, offer suggestions, and answer our questions.  Our food came out quickly as well as some extra limes that we requested and some hotter salsa for our tacos.

Let me say right here that the amount of meat on the street tacos is impressive. Normally when we think of street tacos, we think of pretty small tortillas and a little meat - and usually need to eat about 6 (or more) to feel satisfied. That is not the case here - there is too much meat for the tortillas and that's a great thing.  

First taco was the chicken - it has a nice red tint to it like you'd see in an al pastor.  This taco was VERY tasty - it reminds me of a similar taco at Taco Fajita (which is very good too).  It was tender and juicy - which we can't often say about chicken tacos.  It obviously had been marinated for some time because the flavor was throughout the meat.  Once I added a little bit of the hotter salsa and brought up the heat - this taco quickly became a favorite.

Next up was the steak taco - and it was also tender and had a decent flavor. It wasn't as flavorful as the chicken, however.  It was fine but not as good as other carne asada tacos we've had at other restaurants. Definitely not saying this is a bad taco.  Adding some of their salsa definitely helped and added some heat - but again, you'll find better steak out there.

As for my two carnitas tacos, both were tender and juicy and had a really nice flavor.  The quality of the cut of meat was good as I encountered no fatty spots or chewiness - which can sometimes happen with carnitas elsewhere.  Once again adding the hotter salsa brought along some good flavor and nice heat. I was happy I had two of these to enjoy.

Shon's take on the shrimp taco was also very positive.  Besides plenty of tiny shrimp, it had lettuce, a slice of avocado, cheese, some kind of pickled cabbage and a tasty crema sauce. It was well cooked and not chewy. Overall, a tasty taco. Shon said he definitely enjoyed the different flavors of the toppings, sauce, and shrimp.  He would definitely recommend this one.

I think it's worth noting that on both visits, Shon and I both left full. The only thing I changed on the second visit was two chicken instead of two carnitas - and I'm very happy with that decision. Shon went for the bigger taco entree which has regular sized tacos instead of street tacos. He said they were very tasty yet again.  After talking with Chris about his solo visit, he concurs that it's a tasty round of tacos.  We were all in agreement that the chicken here is delicious, the steak is the weakest, the carnitas was excellent flavor and quality, and both of them really enjoyed the flavor of the shrimp taco.  

I don't do this often, but I'm going to ask all of our readers to please stop by. We don't have a ton of quality taco spots on the west side. There are a few but we need more of them and from a purely selfish standpoint, I'd really like for PV to stay in business.  They are conveniently located and the chicken taco is one of my newest favorites in town.  I think they could use some traffic and some additional word-of-mouth recommendations. The staff is super friendly and I'd love to see them have some success. So give it a shot and stop by - the three of us are in agreement that you won't be disappointed!

Out of 5 tacos, here are my ratings:

Food Taste:
Value:
Cleanliness:
Service:
Overall:
Likelihood to return:

West side tacos at Puerta Vallarta

Today I stopped and snagged lunch at Puerta Vallarta. They are in the old Charlie’s Pizza Taco location at Central and Tyler. 

The other goofballs came a few weeks back but have been awful about getting their review up. I had. A few free minutes and made the stop. 

As I was liked through the door, I was immediately greeted and told to sit anywhere. I found a nice comfy booty and she had the menu, chips, salsa and beans out within seconds. 

I order the a Mountain Dew and the 4 taco appetizer and enjoyed some chips, salsa and beans while I waited. 

When my tacos arrived, only a couple minutes after ordering, I was blown away by how much meat was on each taco. 

I started with the seafood taco which was full of flavor. The mango was strong but not overpowering. 

The carnitas was very tender and juicy. It is easy for huge globs of fat yo end up in carnitas but that was not the case here. This was a very tasty taco!

 Next comes the chicken. There a ton of meat on the taco and it was well cooked, very tender and tasty. With a squeeze of lime and a bit of the salsa onboard, this was absolutely delicious. 

Last came the steak. The meat was tender and plentiful. Each bit was quite tasty. The ONLY problem I encountered while at Puerta Vallarta was the steak taco has some funky underlying aftertaste. I am not sure what caused it but it was difficult to get past. It was strange as this was the only taco I experienced this with. 

I am unsure what the deal with the steak was but everything else was on point. The service was excellent. The other tacos were fantastic and the price was certainly reasonable. It ran me $12.87 for 4 tacos, chips, salsa, beans and a Mountain Dew. 

I will definitely be back for another round and you should give it a try to. The west side seems to be lacking tacos unless you feel like dealing with New Market Square so this is a nice new option. 

Shon's Take - Taco Tour Stop #68 - La Pasadita - Haysville

So, after some shuffling and scheduling (then rescheduling), we FINALLY got the three of us together for some tacos. Travis was playing cricket (don't ask me why) down in Haysville, so we decided to coordinate and meet there to try out a place that several people had recommended: La Pasadita Mexican Grill.


When I got there, Chris was already there munching on what turned out to be some pretty decent chips and salsa. Apparently the restaurant just moved next door into a different location at 424 W Grand Ave and Travis, for whatever reason, was unable to Google his way there (Thanks Android!). Anyway, when I popped in, there were a few tables occupied. But otherwise pretty wide open. There was some kind of confusion about ordering tacos a la carte, so I decided to just go with the 3 Taco Platter for $9.99. This normally comes with beans and rice, but I just went double rice. Anyway, after looking over the meat choices, I decided to go with a chicken, chorizo, and an al pastor. The three of us placed our orders and waited.


Aaaaaaand waited.......and waited.......Ok. So, now I'm starting to get cranky. There are only 4 occupied tables (and we're one of them), so the wait was unreasonable. Made even more so by the fact that I saw our food come up on the counter and it just sat there for who knows how long. Which makes sense that when we got our food, the rice was cold, dry, clumpy and flavorless. Blech. Took one bite of that and then moved on. The tacos came with cilantro, lime, and carmelized onions, which were a little different than the raw onion norm. I started with the chicken taco and it was actually a decent taco. It had a nice crispy grill to the chicken with good flavor. And the taco shells here are a little different: thick, kinda chewy, yet grilled and crispy on the outside. They're tough to explain, but I actually liked them. I added in a little of their red salsa to the chicken and that had a nice smoky flavor to it. Overall, a good taco, but could've used a little more meat. The chorizo was up next. I would say it was an average chorizo taco for me. The meat just didn't have the spicy zing that I really like. Not horrible, but nothing special. The al pastor was next - tasty meat, with a nice hint of pineapple. And plenty of pork in this one, unlike the chicken. My favorite taco of the night for sure.


Overall, I'd say this was a decent find with some odd inconsistencies: Positives: chips and salsa, taco shells, and the Al Pastor for sure. Negatives: wait time, rice, and the chorizo. Still, I found enough here, that I could definitely see myself coming back if I'm in the area. But not enough to make a trip down there just for tacos. My rankings on the 5 Taco Scale are below.


Food Quality - 3.0 Tacos
Price - $
Value - 3.0 Tacos
Cleanliness - 4.0 Tacos
Service - 1.5 Tacos
Overall Experience 2.5 Tacos
Likelihood To Return - 2.5 Tacos

Shon's Take - Taco Tour Stop #67 - Whiskey Dick's Bar and Grill - 801 S Seneca

Well, I know what you're thinking...... it's been forever since we've done a review. Our apologies. Life and work are in the way right now. We're still eating tacos every week, but we've really just been enjoying our faves as of late (Pollo Express, Taco Fajita, Los Compadres to name a few). I've been on Thing 1 and Thing 2 to get to some new spots, but ever since Chris decided to get a real job, coordinating a lunch between the 3 of us has been harder than normal. So, when Chris said he wanted to hit the taco special at Whiskey Dick's last week, I (reluctantly) agreed. We haven't had much luck with "non Mexican" restaurants for tacos. But like I said, it's been forever since we wrote something up and this seemed like a good chance to try.


If you've never been to WD's, it's basically what you would imagine with a name like that: a hole in the wall bar joint that serves up drinks and bar food. They seemed to have a decent crowd for lunch on this day, so I hoped that would be a good sign. Tacos are on special on Thursdays and since I wanted to make a thorough tasting I went ahead and asked for one of each kind: chicken, pork, ground beef, shrimp, and fish. I was pleasantly surprised to find more than just ground beef tacos. After a short wait our tacos showed up in a basket with salsa on the side. I decided to start with the chicken taco. This taco was plain, just meat only. I thought the flavor was decent but the taco was the first one I grabbed and it was already lukewarm. Also, it looked pretty bare in that shell and really could've used more meat. Still, it had decent flavor. Next was the pork taco, which had some pico on top. This one could've also used more meat, but I enjoyed the flavor. Had an apple cider tinge to it that I liked. Ground beef was next. Typical really, basically like every other ground beef taco I've had at a bar. Lettuce, tomato, cheese. Nothing special, but at least this one was filled with plenty of beef. Last ones were the fish and shrimp tacos. Both of these were topped with a pretty onion-y slaw. Personally, I thought the fish taco was the better of the two. The slaw and fish went together much better than the shrimp, which didn't have enough flavor and got overpowered by the slaw. The fish on the other hand had a decent flavor to the breading that mixed better with the slaw and seemed to take some of the onion edge off.


Overall, I would say the tacos were decent for a local hole in the wall bar joint, but they don't compare to the authentic tacos we prefer. On the plus sides, our service was attentive and friendly and the price was reasonable: my entire order above was under $9.00 before the tip. My overall rankings on the 5-Taco Scale are below.


Food Quality - 2.5 Tacos
Price - $
Value - 3.5 Tacos
Cleanliness - 3.0 Tacos
Service - 4.5 Tacos
Overall Experience 2.5 Tacos
Likelihood to Return - 2.5 Tacos

Shon's Take - Taco Tour Stop #66 - The Hill Bar and Grill - Douglas and Oliver

I know what you're thinking: "It's about time you wrote another review! Are you guys burnt out or what?!?" The short answer is,  No, we're not burnt out. But with Chris trying to act like an adult and getting a different job, getting together for tacos over lunch takes a little more maneuvering. Especially since we've been spending Taco Tuesdays going to old faves instead of new places. But last week, we did FINALLY, hit a new place together (after much prodding from yours truly). After trying to go to El Corral (does anyone know if they're still open?) and finding locked doors and confusing handwritten signs, we decided to pop over to The Hill at Douglas and Oliver.


The Hill is a local neighborhood bar type place that has street tacos on the menu. I had been there before, although it's been a while. What I recall was that for a sports bar type place, it was a good place to sit, watch a game and drink beers. We got there on a Thursday after work and the place had a few tables with people, but was pretty open. It's a pretty nice place inside, but the parking was ridiculously small, which could be a problem if you're going on a busy weekend night. Anyway, Thing 1 and Thing 2 were already seated, so I copped a squat and went straight to the taco menu. My first impression was that this was not going to rank high on the value scale, unless the tacos were huge and amazingly delicious. A plate of 3 street tacos with rice was ten bucks and it was another $3.00 on top of that to get a variety. So yeah.... a $1 upcharge per taco just to get different ones, which doesn't make sense to me, but whatever. So after waiting to see what the Turds ordered, I placed an order for 4 tacos (just in case they were small, I wasn't wanting to go home hungry) - I decided to go with the fried fish, a chorizo taco, shrimp taco, and a steak taco.


After what seemed like forever (in reality was about 25-30 minutes or so) we did, finally, get tacos. My first impression was that they looked quite tasty. It was a well presented plate. My last impression was that they tasted like they'd sat back there on a table for 20 of those 25 minutes. Nothing came out hot. Anyway, I started with the fish taco, which had a nice slice of fried fish with some slaw and some type of tartar sauce I think. Anyway, I would say this was probably the best of my plate. Pretty tasty, and the warmest of my tacos. The toppings complemented the fish well, as opposed to overwhelming it. Which was really the problem for me on the steak and shrimp tacos: there wasn't nearly enough meat and the toppings were ok but really seemed to bury the meat. Not to mention, I really think the sheer amount of toppings contributed to their overall low temp. Anyway, I could taste a lot of oniony toppings, but not much of the steak or shrimp. Last was the chorizo taco, which was easily the second best taco and I think that was because it just didn't have as much topping on it, which actually allowed the flavor to come through.


In the end, I ended up with a four taco plate with some rice for $20.00 after the tip. That was with a water to drink by the way. So, on the value scale? Not very high. Service wise, I would say our waitress was polite, but she didn't seem to have any issue with our wait time. Which makes me think this must be the norm. So, if you're going for dinner, plan on some time. My overall ratings on the 5-Taco Scale are below.


Food Quality - 2.0 Tacos
Price - $$
Value - 1.0 Tacos
Cleanliness - 4.5 Tacos
Service - 2.0 Tacos
Overall Experience - 2.0 Tacos
Likelihood to Return - 2.0 Tacos

Travis - Taco Tour stop #66 - The Hill Bar & Grill - 4800 E Douglas

Hey it's me, Travis. Remember me? We used to write about good (and bad) tacos here in Wichita.  I know, I know - it's been a minute.  It's not entirely my fault though. Chris has a different job now and he has very limited time for lunch - so getting 3 guys together for supper is a pain.  Anyway, we did finally make a new stop this week at The Hill Bar & Grill.  But that's because we tried to go to El Corral and they were closed.  I'm not sure why they were closed because their sign really made no sense... So we went to the closest stop we could find, which ironically was actually on our list of places to try. So way back when, someone must have actually told us to check The Hill out.

Chris and I were seated fairly quickly and waited on Shon to arrive.  This was a Thursday night so it wasn't busy - but service didn't seem to be speedy either.  This wasn't great because I had limited time to be there.  Chris tried to order a Mtn Dew but they don't have it - even though they're a Pepsi place (#confused). Looking over their menu I could tell we weren't going to be happy about the value.  You could either order 3 tacos of one kind for $10 or you could mix and match for $13 - so that's a $3 upcharge ($1/taco) just to get a variety of tacos.  Those plates did come with a bean salsa and mexican rice on the side (more on those later).

Order placed for the mix & match with carne asada, carnitas, and chicken tacos. Then we waited...and waited... for quite awhile... 20 minutes pass and still no food.  Finally the food did arrive and it was almost 25 minutes after we ordered.  At first glance, nothing too impressive but lots of toppings.

I went for the Chicken first.  It had plenty of toppings on it and actually had a lot of flavor with a good kick.  The chicken was tender, not overly dry but not really moist either. I did think this taco was acceptable, but the flavor came from the toppings, not really from the meat.

Next I tried the carne asada - meh. Really wasn't anything special at all. I wouldn't say it's bad, but it's not really "good" either. It's just there.  It had plenty of kick and lots of toppings also.  It wasn't warm - maybe room temp at best and slightly chewy. Again, not much flavor in the actual meat.

Last and least was the carnitas. I like carnitas tacos a lot of places - this won't be one of them. It wasn't warm and the carnitas was lacking any real flavor in the meat also. I taste the salsa and everything else on it - including the very strong onions. I wanted to taste the actual meat but couldn't. Again, good kick to it, but that's about it.  Disappointing.

Additionally, the bean salsa was okay but not enough to wow me back into a happy place. The rice was sticky and kind of dry.  So the entire plate was pretty disappointing - especially since it was $16 (with tip) for 3 mediocre and small tacos, the sides, and water.  And I left still hungry (and having to rush).

Overall, I left pretty dissatisfied with The Hill. I've heard people talk about liking it - but maybe they didn't get tacos. Service, while polite, was slow.  I skimmed the rest of the menu and there are other things I'd be willing to try - but I just can't see coming back here anytime soon. And definitely only if I have plenty of time to just sit.

Out of 5 tacos, here are may ratings:

Food Taste:
Value:
Cleanliness:
Service:
Overall:
Likelihood to return: