Situated in downtown SLC is Taco Taco, a modern taqueria that is beautifully balancing authenticity with modern “millenary cuisine.”
Taco Taco
208 East 500 South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111
tacotaco.com
I am a street food junkie and lucky for me once a week, every week, we devote the day to tacos. After grabbing a beerita and some chips & salsa I settled in and got ready to feast.
Authentic and best served naked, these tacos are served to your table sans toppings – just a healthy heaping portion of whatever filling you ordered. As a meat lover and taco purist, it is refreshing to see this Mexican street food served traditionally and authentically.
However, for gringas like myself, they have provided a generous topping bar that, I am ready to say, is hands down the best in Utah. Filled with house made caramelized onions, shredded cabbage, pickled red onions, pickled jalapeños and carrots, limes, cucumbers, and of course white onions and cilantro, their topping bar also includes a selection of fresh salsas/sauces for you to top your tacos – six of them, to be exact.
The chicken chili verde is a house favorite, so first I ordered that. However, I decided today, like every day, would be a cheat day… so I ordered every taco on the menu, nachos al pastor, and a margarita (for digestion, obviously) then quickly got to work. The meat and zucchini blossom taco is good enough to eat sans toppings, but I was not about to pass up the chance to creatively stuff my face and to make a long story short – I put everything on everything. Tacos also come with a side of tortilla chips that are perfect for scooping up anything that may have jumped out of your taco.
The big surprise here was the zucchini blossom. It tasted fresh and creamy and as a meat lover who is super non-accommodating to my vegetarian friends, I didn’t feel like I was missing a thing. This taco should be named “king taco” for vegetarians because it packs incredible flavor and (honestly) potato tacos are not cutting it. I topped it with mild pico, cabbage, caramelized onions, and a very spicy white sauce that turned out to be spicy crema. I would definitely recommend this to anyone, meat lovers and vegetarians alike.
My hands down favorite was the al pastor taco. Prior to overfilling it with all the toppings, I tasted the meat and this was so perfect naked I could cry. It had the most flavor and the meat was cooked to perfection. It was tender and juicy and at home in the corn taco shell.
The special, which was a mahi mahi beer battered taco with a cabbage slaw, paired well with the lime margarita and didn’t need a thing from the toppings bar. Their daily specials, which are primarily seafood, provide variety for the one person in the group who is doing a stupid diet so it’s fish taco Tuesday for them.
Taco Taco is easily the quiet assassin of all taco restaurants in Salt Lake, delivering a clear message to taco importers. From their laid back atmosphere to their done-up toppings bar they are definitely not to be missed. If you like good inexpensive food grab your friend who’s always down to get tacos and get there.
