Tacos Norteno in Winter Garden, FL

Tacos Norteno is a Mexican restaurant in Winter Garden which I've visited several times now. It just might even be one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in Orlando at the moment.

You order at a counter, then find a seat. While you're waiting, they have complementary chips to go with your meal. The best part about these chips is the salsa bar. This has all sorts of sauces along with other toppings to go with your food. I'm particularly fond of the creamy avocado sauce...

Chicken Salsa Verde Enchiladas were tasty. The chicken filled tortillas were topped with cheese and tomatillo sauce, served alongside rice and refried beans.

Chicken Big Floured Enchilada. This was my least favorite thing I've tried here. It was like a giant burrito topped with a queso sauce. The fillings in here were pretty monotonous and I wasn't a big fan of the queso. It got a bit of a slimy consistency as the enchilada cooled.

I've noticed that who takes your order determines how customizable they are willing to be here. I've tried the Three Taco Plate which comes with rice and beans a few times. Sometimes they will let you mix and match taco fillings. Other times they tell you all three tacos must contain the same meat. On one of the occasions where they wouldn't mix, I had three of their Al Pastor Tacos. The marinated roast pork was topped with cheese. I dressed the tacos up with toppings from the salsa bar.

On one of the visits when Tacos Norteno would customize, I had the three tacos filled with Asada y Chorizo, Pollo, and Al Pastor. They're pictured here after they were dressed up with cilantro, pickled onions, and sour cream from the Salsa Bar. I think the Al Pastor is my favorite of the types of tacos I've tried here. The pork was tender and has a nice, slightly sweet flavor. Chicken was pretty good, but the steak in the asada y chorizo was a little chewy. Otherwise, these were good tacos!

Tacos Norteno is one of those restaurants that I seem to return to whenever I'm in the west Orlando area. I mean to try new places out here, but the tacos and salsa bar here keep on calling my name...

 

Copper Canyon Grill in Orlando, FL

Copper Canyon Grill has been located in Pointe Orlando on International Drive for years now. I had been warned multiple times from different people about how horrible the restaurant is and to avoid Copper Canyon at all costs. I finally decided to ignore those warnings and give the restaurant a try. 

I was there for lunch on a Sunday. These lunch specials were advertised outside the restaurant and it must have worked. I ordered the Korean Pork Belly Tacos.

The food took quite a while to be served. The restaurant was mostly empty. They had an open kitchen and the guy cooking was getting loudly upset at something and yelling at some of the servers. If you have angry cooks, don't put them in an open kitchen where the guests can see and hear them. Once the food did come out, I had no complaints. The tacos were delicious. The pork belly was tender rather than rubbery (I've been served rubbery pork belly one too many times at other restaurants). The sauces were delicious. The side of kimchi was unexpected, but I graciously devoured it.

Prices at Copper Canyon Grill were a bit too high for most of the food which was served, but I suppose most of their business is from the convention center with people with expense accounts. Besides the high price point and the angry cook, I have no complaints about the food itself. Copper Canyon definitely didn't live up to their reputation as a horrible restaurant...

El Taco Amigo in Deland, FL

I had Mexican food for lunch from a restaurant called El Taco Amigo in Deland. They are located downtown in a building shared with an auto repair garage. You order at El Taco Amigo from a window outside. There are a few tables on the porch next to the window.

 

They had a good sized menu consisting of a section of tacos where you got to choose the style and type of meat. There was also a section offering meals and combinations.

 

I tried three of their tacos. For the meats, I tried a chorizo, a pork pastor, and a polio. The three tacos were served on corn tortillas, topped with cilantro and cabbage. Slices of lime, radishes and hot sauce were served on the side. The chorizo and pastor tacos were my favorite and I liked them equally. The meats actually tasted very similar and I was unable to tell which one was which. They did have a slightly different appearance, so I know I did get two different tacos. Regardless, they were equally tasty! I'm not up on my spanish enough to know if polio was a typo on the menu rather than pollo, but the shredded chicken taco was the most boring of the three tacos. Luckily I didn't catch any polio from it.

I enjoyed my meal at El Taco Amigo. I would most definitely go back here again for more tacos!

Del Taco in Orlando, FL (International Drive)

Del Taco is a fast food Mexican chain that has a few locations in the Orlando area. They recently added ground turkey as a meat option to their menu. To announce the turkey, I received a box of feathers in the mail with a gift card to go try the new meat at Del Taco. I used the gift card to try the turkey at the Del Taco on International Drive in Orlando. I ordered a Turkey Taco, a Turkey Crunchtada Tostada, and a Vanilla Milkshake.

Turkey soft taco:

Turkey Crunchtada Tostada- I preferred this to the taco.

Vanilla Milkshake:

Mitsitam Cafe in Washington DC

While sightseeing in Washington DC, I stopped for lunch at the cafeteria in the National Museum of the American Indian. The restaurant is called Mitsitam Cafe and is set up with different stations, each serving traditional (I hope) Native American foods from different regions of the Americas.

I ordered something that they called an Indian Taco from the booth serving foods from the Great Plains region. This consisted of a large, fluffy piece of fry bread topped with buffalo chili. Cheese was melted over the chili, and then was covered with lettuce and tomato. I really have no clue if this is something that is traditionally eaten by Native Americans in the Great Plains region, but it was pretty tasty. It couldn't actually be eaten like a taco since the chili completely covered the fry bread and silverware was used. The chili was slightly spicy with large chunks of bison floating around. The lettuce and tomato almost seemed like an afterthought how they were just thrown on top of the plate, but I ate it all and enjoyed my Indian Taco!

The Mitsitam Cafe was on the expensive side with my taco costing just over $12. Since it was inside a museum, I suppose it's equivalent to theme park prices so it really wasn't too bad for better food. Compared to the food options at the Air & Space Museum next door (McDonalds), this was definitely the better option as far as Smithsonian snack bars go!

Taco Bus in Tampa, FL

I've read a bit about the Taco Bus in Tampa. It's number four on Urbanspoon's list of Tampa's Best restaurants and I've heard people talk about going to visit the Taco Bus whenever in Tampa. From what I can gather, the Taco Bus started as a food truck and has grown into several permanent restaurants and trucks all around the Tampa area. Hearing so much about this Mexican food truck, I figured it was about time I give Taco Bus a try. I think I visited the original permanent Taco Bus location on Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa. It looked like they bought up several old buildings including what appeared to once be a restaurant as well as a motel. Not sure what they actually do with an old motel, but at the center of the complex was the Taco Bus itself. The white bus doesn't look like it's going anywhere any time soon, but still serves as the kitchen for the restaurant. 

I ordered tacos filled with something new to me. I chose cochinita pibil as my filling, which was described on the menu as shredded pork marinated in achiote and bitter orange, then wrapped in banana leaves and slow roasted in a smoker (based on a 5,000 year old Mayan recipe!). I went with their combination which came with the tacos, rice, and refried beans. The tacos were interesting. They came on corn tortillas with tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and lime topping the meat. I wasn't really sure what to expect with the pork, especially since I wasn't even entirely sure what achiote was when ordering (hurray for Wikipedia). Unfortunately, the pork wasn't as flavorful as I was hoping for and was actually sort of bland tasting. It was still nice and tender and the tacos got their flavor from everything else in them.

The food at Taco Bus was alright for what it was. I was expecting a bit more from the cochinita pibil, but in the end it tasted like pretty plain pork. That aside, the tacos were still pretty tasty. What was not alright about Taco Bus was the smell. When we walked up to the bus to order, the air was clear. Once we went to sit down on the outdoor patio though, we got a whiff of a nasty bathroom smell. We figured it must be something outside, so we tried the indoor seating area (closer to the bathrooms) and the smell was unbearable. Once returning outside, we sat as far away from the source of the stench as possible, but it was still there. We debated eating in the car, but settled on dealing with the smell and staying where we were. While there was nothing wrong with the food, I don't think I'd return to this Taco Bus because of the smell. It wasn't exactly an environment that was conducive to eating. The thing is, I have seen no other complaints about the smell written anywhere, whether it be food blogs or review sites. I really do hope I happened to unfortunately arrive at Taco Bus on a day with some bad air...

Korean BBQ Taco Box in Orlando, FL

The Korean BBQ Taco Box was among one of the initial food trucks in Orlando that started the food truck craze that we're in right now. Everyone seemed to love this place, but it took me a while to actually try them.

When I finally got around to trying one of the Korean BBQ Taco Boxes, it was at one of the Food Truck Bazaars in the Oviedo Mall parking lot. I was reading the truck's menu when someone inside yelled out that they only had one box left, containing some sort of beef, and I could get it for half price. Sounded like a good deal, so I went for it. My mystery box contained beef cooked with onions, rice, and two fried chicken drumsticks. I was disappointed, with the beef being so fatty and tough that I couldn't eat most of it. The fried chicken was much better, but it wasn't the main focus of the meal either. I guess you get what you pay for I suppose with a half price meal...

While at the Food Truck Bazaar at Winter Springs High School, I decided to give the Korean BBQ Taco Box another try. I figured I should have their food when it wasn't the discounted bottom of the barrel. This time around, I tried the Spicy Pork Taco Box.

 The box came with a taco, salad, chicken wing, tempura potato, and a fried cheese roll. This was a huge improvement over my first meal with the Taco Boxes. The taco was filled with spicy shredded pork topped with lettuce. The salad consisted of iceberg lettuce with ginger dressing. The chicken wing was similar to what I had previously, and still good. The cheese roll was interesting too. It was like an egg roll filled with rice and cheese.

After my second meal with the Korean BBQ Taco Box Trucks, I am now a fan!

Frank's Ristorante in Pompano Beach, FL

I was in Pompano Beach and wanted to get a quick slice of pizza for lunch. Frank's Ristorante was close to where I parked so I gave them a try. Frank's had several different traditional pies to choose from, but for some strange reason I decided to try a slice of their taco pizza. It wasn't my best pizza decision, with my end conclusion being that American cheese and lettuce definitely don't go on a slice of pizza. I won't be ordering taco pizza again any time soon...

Orlando Food Truck Bazaar #1: The Taco Company/Lady

The first Orlando Food Truck Bazaar happened on March 29, 2011 in a church parking lot on Orange Ave. The event was organized by TheDailyCity.com and even though the Bazaar was promoted everywhere, I don't think anyone was expecting the humongous crowds that showed up. I decided to stop by the event on my way home and didn't think the parked cars that went on for a few blocks could possibly be for a parking lot filled with food trucks. They were. I parked and entered the mass of thousands of people consuming street food...

Because of the huge crowds, I decided I would make my food choice based on whatever line seemed shortest. After a quick walk around, The Taco Company (also listed as The Taco Lady and The Taco Truck) won my business.

It took me about twenty minutes to place my order. With the amount of people still lined up for the other trucks, I figured I was doing pretty good. I decided to get a torta with carne enchilada (seasoned pork). Turned out the only meats left were steak or chicken, so I went with a chicken torta instead.

Once I placed the order, it was time to wait for the food. I must put the emphasis on wait because my twenty minutes to order was dwarfed by the next hour and a half that I stood there waiting to get my torta. In that time, all of the other trucks had either sold out of food or shut down for the evening. I did receive my food eventually and the nice people inside The Taco Company truck threw in some tacos and a soda to apologize for the wait. By that point though, I was completely over standing in line for my food and just wanted to get home...

Once back home, it was time to eat the food! I started with the chicken torta. The large roll was filled with plenty of shredded chicken, lettuce, tomato, onions, peppers, and cheese. Unfortunately, the avocado that was also supposed to be on the sandwich was nowhere to be found.

I actually preferred the tacos over the torta. Being that these are from a taco truck, I guess it's only appropriate. They gave me one chicken and one steak taco, each on a warm corn tortilla, garnished with onions and cilantro. A handful of radish and lemon slices completed the plate.

My food was good, but there is no way it was worth the wait. If you want to try The Taco Company, I would suggest finding them in Ocoee when they aren't swamped with thousands of people. I have a feeling the tacos would probably be served up pretty quickly in another situation.

The Food Truck Bazaar was definitely a success with the amount of people that showed up. I waited way longer for my food than I was anticipating and didn't get to try as much as I would have liked, but this is the first event of it's kind in Orlando. After the success of the Food Truck Bazaar, food truck events seem to be becoming a weekly thing in town. With food trucks out all the time and more events like this, such as last Wednesday's Food Truck Pod at Firestone Live, it only means Orlando's street food scene will get better from here...

Taco Bell in Atlanta, GA

Let's go to Taco Bell in Atlanta! Who wants to see more food from Taco Bell? Apparently lots of people since a post about a Taco Bell Mexican Pizza somehow became the most viewed page on this blog. So why not, here's another Taco Bell post to placate all the people googling Mexican Pizzas...

This particular Taco Bell was located on Ponce De Leon Avenue in Atlanta. It was one of the old school Taco Bells that hasn't been redone to share a building with Pizza Hut or KFC. Lunch here was made a bit more interesting with the dining room being randomly filled with jugglers and people with unicycles...

I had a Mexican Pizza to please the masses along with a soft taco. The Mexican pizza was better than the last one I tried, although the meat filling did spur a conversation on how much beef is actually in Taco Bell's beef thanks to the recent lawsuits...

La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant in Longwood, FL

I recently tried La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant in Longwood. I had been to the Chinese buffet that was in this location formerly, but for some reason I never got to La Fiesta until recently.

I ordered the Traditional Combination #1, served with a taco, enchilada, refried beans, and rice. The taco came in a crispy corn tortilla filled with chicken, lettuce, and cheese. The enchilada was stuffed with chicken and was topped with melted cheese and a somewhat spicy red sauce.

On a return visit with a coupon from La Fiesta's Facebook page, I tried the Enchiladas de Mole. While there are many different types of mole, the standard mole served in Mexican restaurants in the United States is specifically called Mole Poblano. This mole is made with chocolate, chilies, and other good stuff. The Enchiladas de Mole consisted of three chicken enchiladas topped with this awesome sauce. It's spicy, smoky, and chocolately all at the same time. My tongue couldn't decide whether I was eating dinner or dessert with the great mix of flavors in the sauce!
I liked La Fiesta's food! Everything I tried had nice flavors, and I'd gladly return. They also offer a lunch buffet. I've never been to a Mexican buffet before, so I'm going to check it out next time I'm in the area for lunch. One word of warning though: Karaoke night happens every Tuesday. Reminded me of this, whether that's a good or bad thing...