PR's Taco Palace in College Park, FL

I visited PR's Taco Palace in College Park for lunch recently. This restaurant used to have a few locations, including one in Winter Park which was around forever and another in Longwood which was much shorter lived. As far as I know, their College Park location is the only PR's remaining.

I had the Lunch Combination, where you got to pick three items off the menu. I picked a tamale, something called a Truck Stop, and rice & beans. The Truck Stop was almost similar to a quesadilla, filled with cheese and beef pressed (and possibly fried) in a tortilla. The Tamale was smothered in cheese. Rice and beans were pretty standard. It was interesting that the normal sides counted as an item for the combination. I had the option of picking something which would be considered more of an entree in place of the rice and beans.

Pretty standard of what I'd expect from a Tex-Mex lunch special. Everything was good, but nothing ground breaking. It's good to know that there is still a PR's Taco Palace still around in Orlando...

Tijuana Flats Cheeseburger Tacos

Tijuana Flats invited me to one of their Orlando locations to sample some of their new menu items, specifically the new Cheeseburger Tacos and fries.

Tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole, and queso are always on the menu at Tijuana Flats.

The seasoned fries were good. They were crispy with a peppery flavor. Once they were dipped in queso, I'm sure the fries became healthier...

The Cheeseburger Taco was a tortilla filled with ground beef, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes plus pickles, ketchup and mustard. You get two tacos with seasoned fries for $7.89.

The Cheeseburger Tacos and fries are available at Tijuana Flats through the end of August. Go try them while you can!

Earls Kitchen + Bar in Orlando, FL

I had lunch at a newish restaurant called Earls Kitchen + Bar in the Mall at Millenia. They are one of the strange outer restaurants that are in the main mall building, but aren't accessible from inside the mall itself. I'm not sure what Earls replaced. I had never eaten at whatever it was.

I had the Chicken Pibil Tacos. The two tacos were served on corn tortillas with nicely marinated chicken, topped with cheese, radish slices, pickled onions, and cilantro. The tacos came with a side and I choose the caesar salad.

The tacos were pretty tasty, but a bit pricey at $14. I've been to plenty of other actual Mexican restaurants in town where I can equivalent, if not better tacos for under $3 each. The caesar salad didn't make up the value difference. I guess they have to make that money for expensive mall rent somehow...

Tijuana Flats Flat Outrageous Menu

Tijuana Flats has added a new section to their menu. They call it Flat Outrageous. This new Flat Outrageous menu features street tacos, flautas, and tostadas. I was recently invited to one of the newest Tijuana Flats locations in Orlando near Millenia to sample some of the items from the new menu.

Tijuana Trio: Chips, salsa, queso, and guac. Not from the new Flat Outrageous section of the menu, but chips and dips are always a standard.

Crispy Baja Fish Street Tacos: Crispy fish, chipotle crema, shaved cilantro cabbage, and pineapple salsa.

Jerk Chicken Street Tacos: Crispy jerk chicken, MoreFire! hot sauce, shaved cilantro cabbage, pineapple salsa, and cotija cheese. Of the street tacos, this one was my favorite. It had much more heat than I'd expect from tacos in a chain restaurant.

Lime Steak Street Tacos: Grilled garlic-lime steak, avocado crema, shaved cilantro cabbage, pico de gallo, and cotija cheese.

Philly Cheesesteak Flautas: Cripsy tortillas stuffed with shaved sirloin steak, mozzarella cheese, grilled onions & peppers served with queso.

Bangin' Chicken Tostadas: Cripsy corn tortillas with Smack My Asss Bangin' Chicken, refried beans, cheddar jack cheese, grilled onions & peppers, tomatoes, and ranch dressing. Another item that I really enjoyed. I think this is what I'll be ordering on my next visit to Tijuana Flats.

Cookie Dough Flautas: Chocolate chip cookie dough in a flour tortilla, lightly fried and topped with powdered sugar. Served with a side of chocolate syrup.

Austin Food #2: Mellizoz Tacos, Home Slice Pizza, and Stubb's Bar-B-Q

Continuing with food from my trip to Austin...

Mellizoz Tacos:

This taco truck was located in another one of Austin's food truck parks. This was a few doors down from where I ate at the Torchy's Tacos food truck the day before.

I had two breakfast tacos from Mellizoz. One was the Bac-Spin. This taco was filled with egg, bacon, and spinach. The other was The '04, filled with egg, bacon, beans, avocado, and cotija. Both were good!

Home Slice Pizza:

I ate at Home Slice Pizza in Austin's SoCo neighborhood. I ate in their fancier dining room, not realizing they had a smaller storefront next door for pizza by the slice until after I had finished eating.

Their pizza was very good. I had a slice of cheese and margarita. Both had nice, thin and crispy crusts. There was good proportions of sauce and cheese. The margarita slice had the addition of chopped tomato and basil. I was very pleased with my pizza in a state that I don't typically think of being known for pizza.

Stubb's Bar-B-Q:

Somebody told me that all barbecue in Austin is delicious because any bad barbecue wouldn't survive with all of the competition in the city. Stubb's BBQ proved that wrong. Like Torchy's Tacos, Stubb's was another restaurant in Austin which I had heard of in the past. Not sure where, perhaps I knew the name from the barbecue sauce that they sell in Publix. The place was half restaurant and half music venue. There were no concerts happening when I was eating there.

I ordered the Stubb's Minor, which came with two meats and two sides. I had the brisket and the pork spare ribs for the meats. Unlike the delicious brisket which I had had previously in Austin at Terry Blacks, this was not so delicious. Both meats were very dry and rubbery. They lacked the smokey flavor generally found in barbecue. They just tasted very bland, even with their peppery rubs on the meats. The barbecue sauce didn't help either. It just tasted like plain ketchup to me. For the sides, I had mac & cheese and serrano cheese spinach. Like the meats, the mac & cheese lacked flavor and was very bland. The serrano cheese spinach was one of the few things I enjoyed. It was a very spicy creamed spinach. White bread, pickles, and onions were served on the plate with everything else.

I was not a fan of Stubb's Bar-B-Q at all. Perhaps they are more well known for their live music than their food...

Black Rooster Taqueria in Orlando, FL

I tried a new Mexican restaurant on Mills in Orlando called Black Rooster Taqueria. This was a quick service type place where you ordered at a counter, given a number, and had the food delivered to your table. I ordered two tacos: the Achiote Pork and the Chicken Tinga. The achiote pork taco consisted of a corn tortilla stuffed with slow roasted pork cooked in banana leaf, achiote, pickled onion, cilantro, and habanero salsa. The chicken tinga was also served on a corn tortilla filled with pulled roasted chicken, chipotle chile-tomato sauce, lettuce, and crema fresca.

Of the two tacos, I preferred the Achiote Pork. The meat was nice and tender and pickled onions were a nice touch. I wasn't a big fan of the chicken tinga. The chicken was a bit chewy and the lettuce and sour cream were spilling out of the tortilla before I even tried picking up the taco. The tacos also could have been improved if they used double layered tortillas. The single corn tortilla got soggy and was starting to rip as I was eating the tacos. A second tortilla would have helped. Another improvement for Black Rooster in general would have been to put orders on the correct plates. We had ordered multiple achiote pork tacos. They all were served together with other wrong taco combinations on other plates. Actually putting tacos together as they were ordered would have saved some messy rearranging.

Overall, Black Rooster Taqueria was okay. Not the best tacos I've had, but not the worst. I think I'd prefer a Mexican restaurant serving a little more authentic tacos for a lower price point over Back Rooster, but I still might return here eventually...


 

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...

 

Zona Fresca in Winter Park, FL

Zona Fresca is a new restaurant which has recently opened in Ravaudage near the intersection of Lee Road and 17-92. This fast-casual restaurant serves fresh, healthy, Baja-Style Mexican food. They are based out of South Florida and this is Zona Fresca's first Central Florida location. I was invited to give Zona Fresca a try, and I did enjoy what I sampled!

I started out with the Pozole Soup. In all my experience eating in Mexican restaurants, I don't think I have ever ordered soup. This soup had braised chicken, hominy, onions, cilantro, and radishes in a guajillo chili broth. I very much enjoyed the soup, and may be my favorite dish out of everything I sampled at Zona Fresca.

I had a sampling of tacos on the Three Street Taco Plate. I tried the Chicken Breast, Machaca, and Baja Fish tacos. Each was served on a double layer of corn tortillas. Of the three, the Chicken Breast taco was my favorite, exceeding my expectations. The chicken was topped with cactus, avocado, cilantro, onions, and a lemony dressing. With a meat that had the potential to be bland, the combinations of toppings on the chicken taco made it burst with flavor. The Machaca was my second favorite. I don't think I've ever ordered machaca at a Mexican restaurant before. This was slowly braised shredded beef, topped with poblanos, tomato, and queso fresco. It reminded me a bit of ropa vieja with the shredded beef being tender and flavorful. The Baja Fish Taco was my least favorite of the three. Nothing wrong with the taco, but the fried fish topped with cabbage, pico, and tangy dressing really didn't have anything that stood out.

I also tried the Chili Rellenos. Two charbroiled poblano peppers stuffed with jack and cheddar cheese, served with black beans, cilantro rice, and pico de gallo. The peppers had a nice charred flavor and were very tasty.

I had the Flan for dessert. Can't go wrong with custard-like desserts topped with honey.

I liked everything I sampled at Zona Fresca. When it comes to Mexican fast food chains in the area, I enjoyed Zona Fresca more than some of their competition. The menu provided interesting flavors not typically found at non-sit down Mexican restaurants. I'll be returning...

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...

Urban Cantina Mexican Restaurant in Tampa, FL

On a recent rainy evening, I stopped for dinner in Downtown Tampa at a Mexican restaurant called Urban Cantina. My initial destination was going to be a nearby Taco Bus location to give them a second try. After walking by and seeing that restaurant deserted with all the employees outside smoking, we decided to give Urban Cantina a try instead.

Chips and salsa was served first. The chips were interesting. They were probably double the thickness of a typical tortilla chip. They reminded me more of a pita chip than a tortilla chip.

I had their Three Taco Combo. I tried the Carne Asada taco, the Tinga taco, and the Al Pastor taco. The carne asada was filled with steak, onions, cilantro, queso fresco and avocado. The tinga was served on a hard taco shell, filled with chipotle marinated chicken, onions, lettuce, pico, and queso. This was my least favorite of the three tacos. The chicken lacked flavor and toppings combined with the hard shell reminded me of something Taco Bell would serve. My personal favorite of the three tacos was the Al Pastor. This soft tortilla was filled with marinated pork, pineapple, cilantro, onions, and cheese. The sweet pineapple provided a nice balance between the savory pork and the salty cheese. Refried beans and rice were served alongside the tacos.

Overall, I liked my tacos. The food was good. My one complaint about Urban Cantina is the TV placement in the restaurant. They had televisions placed around the dining room, like many restaurants do (although I'm not a big fan of this). The problem in this restaurant was that the TV that I was facing behind our table was so low that it was very hard to ignore. Seeing silent images of some sort of crime scene reconstruction show slightly above eye level for my entire meal was really distracting.

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!