Travis - Taco Tour stop #55 - When Pigs Fly - 7011 W Central

This week, a friend clued me in on a special 1 week only deal at When Pigs Fly for brisket tacos.  Since BBQ is right up there with tacos for me on my list of favorite foods, I had to give this a try. So letting doofus 1 & 2 know about it, we decided we'd give it a shot.  Yes, I know it was a 1 week only deal - but you never know if/when they might bring them back again.

The deal was 3 corn shelled tacos filled with brisket, BBQ Sauce, lettuce, cheese, and pico + 2 sides for $11.99.  Normally we just go for a la carte orders at most places, but this was the special, so that's what I ordered.  If you've never been to When Pigs Fly, it's a fairly typical BBQ joint where you order at the counter, grab your own drink, and seat yourself.  I've been a few times and I definitely enjoy their BBQ - so if nothing else, I'll definitely recommend them for that!

The tacos were ready fairly quickly and I added chips and macaroni salad for my sides.  Overall, for $11.99 plus tax, you're going to come away full.  On the taco value scale, it wasn't great - but it's still right in line with a full meal plus sides, so really not much to complain about there if you know what to expect.

Since all 3 tacos were the same, there's not much detail to break down.  Overall the tacos were tasty. If you like a heavy dose of sauce on your BBQ, these would be right up your alley. I don't mind sauce, but I also like the taste of the meat, so I could have used a little less than was served.  I know their meats are great here too - so it was a bit of a bummer to be covered up that much.  The meat was plentiful though. The shells, with that much sauce, won't stay crisp for long. So it was a mix of crunchy and slightly soft by the time I made it through the meal.  

The macaroni salad was pretty tasty too - nice a cool and a contrast to the temperature of the tacos.

Overall I'm glad we made the visit, but talking strictly from a taco review standpoint, the tacos were enough to definitely fill you up, but not something I'd run right back for to get.  I'd rather go in and have their BBQ for sure.  So keep that in mind as you read my ratings below - I'm a fan of WPF BBQ, but the tacos were just middle-of-the-road for me.  I have had brisket tacos a few other places that were REALLY good - so even compared to those, these were just average.  Stick to the BBQ here and you'll be a happy customer!

Here are my taco ratings (out of 5) for our visit - based STRICTLY on the tacos:

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

Shon's Take - Taco Tour Stop #55 - When Pigs Fly BBQ - Central and Ridge

I know what you're thinking: The Taco Tour guys had one too many margaritas and walked into the wrong restaurant, right? But nope, we were actually in the right place. Someone had mentioned that When Pigs Fly had a brisket taco special and since we didn't want to discriminate against anything with the word "taco" in it, the three of us decided we had to check it out.


I love me some tasty BBQ and although I have a number of favorite joints around town, I had actually never been into WPF. The restaurant is located in a strip mall, just east of Central and Ridge. The place is a pretty nice restaurant, family owned, and it smelled tasty when I walked in. It's a typical quick serve BBQ restaurant - order at the counter, and then someone brings it to you after you self serve your drinks. No need to peruse the menu like we normally have to, as we already knew what we were here for: brisket tacos, which apparently were the "Weekly Special". I forgot to ask, so just a note that you might have to check with them ahead of time for availability, as I don't see the tacos on their menu online. Anyway, I placed my order and paid - $11.99 for 3 tacos and two sides, before grabbing my drink and seat next to Chris, who had already arrived. The tacos came out in quick order with my sides of corn and baked beans (no fries or onion rings here, since they don't have any fryers). My tacos were comprised of a fair amount of brisket inside hard shell corn tortillas with lettuce and tomato on top. The brisket was pretty saucy, so much so that I had a hard time really telling if the meat was any good or not. The sauce basically overpowered the meat to the point that the sauce was all I could taste. That said, the sauce wasn't bad and had a nice flavor to it. But I think instead of drenching the brisket in it, they could maybe just put a little for flavor on top so the meat could stand out.


Overall, I didn't find anything here that would stop me from coming back. The sides were good, if typical, and the place was more than adequate for BBQ lovers. But I'll probably try to make a stop in the near future for some actual BBQ and save the tacos for the Mexican Restaurants. My overall rankings on the 5-Taco Scale are below.


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

El Fogon sucks. Here’s why

This week we are back at Taqueria El Fogon. 

The last time we were here we ran into several issues that sent us home with a far from amazing experience. I was so bummed by the visit that I didn’t even bother with a review. We had less than fantastic food and service. 

Somehow, the fogon fanboys have us back here because they just won’t shut up about this place. 

Instead of writing a review, I am going to make a list of reasons that this place sucks. I hate writing from a position of negativity but here goes:

1. The entrance does not look like an entrance. 
2. The restaurant is extremely dark as most of the lights are burnt out. 
3. The place is an electrical fire waiting to happen. There are extension cords running all over the place.  
4. The ceiling is sagging and has nasty dark spots on it. At some point, it is going to land in somebody’s food. 
5. I bought my 4 year old daughter a bottle of Jarritos. They don’t have small cups to pour it into and the straws will fall all the way into the glass. 
6. They don’t know if they want to take orders at the tables or at the counter so there is confusion on who has ordered and who has not. 
7. What sort of Mexican restaurant does not have chips and salsa? Hell, what restaurant does not have chips and salsa? 
8. The taco shells are extremely small. For $1.75, there should be more taco. There are better places, with similar size shells, for $1 every day. 
9. The carnitas had quite a bit of meat on it, unfortunately, it was cold. 
10. The al pastor tasted funny. They are usually my favorite tacos but not something I would order again. 
11. The meat on the al pastor was not warm 
12. The cheese quesadilla I ordered for my daughter was half filled with flavorless goop. The rest of the quesadilla was empty. I am not sure which half was better. 
13. The carne asada was not warm. 
14. The barbacoa was not warm. 
15. They do not accept modern payment methods. Come on guys, it’s 2018, get with it. 

The only highlight of this place was that the barbacoa had pretty decent flavor. That’s it. 

Shon's Take - Taco Tour Stop #52 - Bento Cafe - Central and Ridge

Time to play a little catch up - my apologies for the delay getting this one out, but life, work, and everything else seems to be happening. But at least I actually made it to this restaurant. It's been two weeks since Travis and I went to Bento Café, and Chris still hasn't made it over there for tacos. Turd.


Anyway, Tour Stop #52 brought us to a place that I would say has one of the more eclectic menus around - I've been to Bento Café once before, but NOT for tacos. I actually stopped in a few months back and had some sushi and I remember it being pretty decent. That's right - sushi and Mexican. Strange combo, but it seems to work for them.


Bento Café is in the former Poblano Mexican Grill space just south of Central and Ridge. I used to come to Poblano's quite a bit and Bento has kept a lot of the same stuff. No really - furniture, fixtures, even the menu (at least the Mexican grill menu) is still the same. The M.O. for the Mexican food is also the same - walk up to the counter, place an order, pick your toppings as you go down the line, pay and eat. Basically a poor man's Chipotle with a sushi option. Anyway, there were three taco options on the menu and so I went for one of each: chicken, steak, and a shredded beef. I had them make mine with lettuce and pico de gallo, with the salsas on the side.


I decided to start with the chicken taco - a fair amount of meat, but the flavor was nothing special. Not bad, but nothing amazing. Travis noted that the chicken was too perfectly diced and thought it might have come out of a bag. The steak was next and again, I think they treat the customers pretty well with a decent amount of meat. The steak was a better taco and had more flavor to it than the chicken for sure. Still both tacos really needed the toppings and the salsa on them to bring some extra flavor and unfortunately that's actually a minus when it comes to judging the meat. Awesome street tacos just need meat, cilantro and maybe a squirt of lime. These definitely had to be "Tex-Mexed" with more toppings to add some flavor. Last was the shredded beef taco. I would say this one was probably the best of the three. The beef had stewed for a while and was quite juicy, almost messy. But still, a decently tasty taco that really didn't need any extra salsas to spice it up.


Overall, I would say the tacos here are about what I would expect for a Chipotle style local restaurant. The service was ok, but I took note that almost every drink option at the fountain had a "Sorry, we're out" sign on it. Which would've been very frustrating if I were looking for anything else besides water. If you're in a hurry and understand what you're getting into here, this place probably isn't a bad option. But if I come back, I will probably be going for the shredded beef.... or maybe I'll just stick to the sushi again. My overall rankings on the 5-Taco Scale are below.


Food Quality - 2.5 Tacos
Price - $
Value - 3.0 Tacos
Cleanliness - 2.5 Tacos
Service - 2.5 Tacos
Overall Experience - 2.5 Tacos
Likelihood to Return - For tacos? 2.0 Tacos. For sushi? 3.5.... sushi rolls.

Travis - Taco Tour stop #53 - Taco Fajita - 1004 S Meridian - Round 2

So lately we've been on a bit of a kick to revisit some places. I mentioned awhile back that we had went back to Los Compadres and I'm glad we did.  Another place that has been sticking in my mind is Taco Fajita.  Now the other 2 dorks have actually been back multiple times and they've said that the service has been improving (specifically the wait) and the tacos continue to be very tasty.  If you take a look back at my previous review of them, you'll see that while their tacos were pretty good, we had an unacceptable wait (in my opinion).  Here's my review from last time.

I'm not going to take the time to review each individual taco again this time around.  So I'll keep this pretty brief.  I got 6 tacos this time and a variety of several of their options. So good!  Taco Fajita is climbing my list of favorites for sure after this visit.  Their tacos are very tasty and their salsas are very good also.  The service this time around was way more acceptable as we all got our tacos in a very timely manner.  So I think they're stepping up their game and you should definitely go check them out.

I still need to try the machete which has become a little famous - but I stuck with the tacos this time around.  Everything came out great and I'm definitely a fan of their food.  The staff is friendly and the value is very good.  Bonus for me is the location is reasonably convenient - although admittedly it IS very close to Pollo Express.  But that's okay, Taco Fajita will continue to get my business - especially as long as they keep up the good work on the timely service!

I'm revising my 5 taco ratings based on this visit:

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

Travis - Taco Tour stop #52 - Bento Cafe - 550 N Ridge

So this week we were attempting to plan ahead again - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  Shon had apparently been to this place before but suggested we take the next tour stop at Bento Cafe Mexican Grill & Sushi. Yes. I thought it was a weird combination too...  I didn't even know the place was there - but it is! Chris had to bail due to a customer coming in from out of town, but we went anyway because he said he would go that evening (guess who didn't go that evening).

Upon walking into the establishment, it felt really similar to a Chipotle - like down to the colors and menu and everything. It was weirdly familiar and yet....not.  Anywho, they only have 3 taco options to choose from so I got all three:  Grilled chicken, steak, and shredded beef.

They make the food in front of you at a counter setup (like Chipotle) and toasting the tortillas on a flat iron grill.  Ingredients are put on to your request and you're given a choice of salsa.  I took their tacos just like they typically make them (lettuce, shredded cheese, & tomato) and added cilantro.

They didn't look too bad, but since I've become a big fan of more traditional tacos, it seemed like the other ingredients were excessive and "over-Americanized".  Sidebar, I did try their chips and salsa and although I'm not convinced the chips weren't from a bag, they were fresh and tasty. The salsa is served warm (not chilled) - which is kinda weird and interesting, but it was good.  It wasn't enough to convince me to pay extra for them if I go back, but they were enjoyable.

I went for the grilled chicken first.  It had plenty of meat and was tender with a good taste. It definitely wasn't dry like we sometimes run into with chicken.  Overall the taco was fine, but nothing memorable.  The steak was next and it was a little chewy but not bad.  There wasn't a ton of flavor and not much heat either. Last taco was the shredded beef. It had a decent flavor and was juicy. She did drain it before she served it, so it wasn't excessive, but it was enough to drip out a little.  The meat was slightly chewy.  I added some warm salsa and this brought more flavor out.

I think the tacos were okay but it wasn't anything I would rave about. The common theme I found about this visit is that the toppings are excessive.  They should compliment the meat, not cover up the flavor.  I just think they could have toned it down with all the toppings. I'm also pretty sure the meat isn't freshly prepared. The steak and chicken were diced too perfectly and uniformly to be hand-cut on site. I could be wrong, but pretty sure I'm not - I think the meats came from a box/bag.  They had that texture/flavor.  I know for a fact the shrimp did because I saw them pull it frozen out of a box.

I just felt like it's probably not much different than if I bought the ingredients myself and assembled it at home.  If that's what you're expecting and you're okay with it, then you'll probably be fine going here.  I think this is probably popular with a lot of people, but just not for me. Overall not bad, but not really the flavor I'm after.  I prefer something else and less "Amercanized". 

So here are my ratings out of 5 tacos:

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