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Nino Taco
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Alcohol:
- None
4 reviews for Nino Taco
So just to clarify - Nino Taco does offer another meat option. In addition to ground beef, they also offer chicken, plus beans, rice and any combination of the four above mentioned ingredients.
With that being said, the food is good - not great. It's a mixture of fresh ingredients and some shortcuts. (Example, the taco salad uses canned tomatoes on top of iceburg lettuce.) But the food is cheap, comes out relatively quickly; the place is always clean and the service decent. All things considering, you can't really complain since the place does not pretend to be anything more than it is.
FYI - the Mexican Fries (without meat) and hot sauce is so tasty. You'll end up craving it every now and then.
The fact that this place serves their soft drinks and food in styrofoam cups and plates (when dining in/sitting down) should tip you off to as to the quality level of this restaurant. If you are looking for well-seasoned, tasty, authentic Mexican cuisine, you are most definitely in the wrong place. I have to shamefully admit that I would rather eat at Taco Bell than this place.
I have had the misfortune of being taken here on two occasions, so it's not like I went here once and based my review on a single instance.
The first time I ordered a Taco Salad, and it had the bland flavor of high-school cafeteria fare. The beef was a slopping, unflavorful, oily mess on top of wimpy iceberg lettuce, and salsa that tasted like it was from a can.
The second time I ordered a chicken fajita burrito, and that was a horrible mistake. It was a dripping, oily, lukewarm, half-melted cheese mess and had a distinct sour, food gone bad flavor that still haunts me to this day. I had to scrape off/drain whatever travesty of spices that soaked into my uncooked cheese that they slathered onto the chicken to even begin to choke down the rest of my meal.
A lot of what other people use to defend Nino Taco is that the pricing is considered "cheap". The price of my chicken fajita burrito was $6.75, and for something that I had to force down, that's a lot of money to be spending on something that I felt like vomiting out later. I could probably get three Taco Bell Burrito supremes for the same price and be more than satisfied. Or better yet, get a chipotle chicken burrito.
The only positive thing I can say about this place is that it's clean, and the decor is very whimsical and fun. That's about it.
So we sojourned out for lunch today and headed for this place which my compatriot seemed to remember as being a Qdoba. We were craving some queso and figured we'd get our fix there.
To our surprise, it wasn't a Qdoba after all -- rather, a little joint called Nino Taco. It was also packed to the gills and smelled pretty good inside. The upshot: authentic food it ain't. But don't let that throw you. The food is that weird blend of gross and good that you just need to have in your food rolodex sometimes, when all the attractive popular restaurants are not returning your calls and you really need to get some action.
Apparently the rules of Nino Taco are:
- The first rule of Nino Taco is that all meat is ground beef.
- The second rule of Nino Taco is that ALL MEAT IS GROUND BEEF.
Seriously. That's the only meat they offer here.
- The third rule of Nino Taco is that all cheese comes from a pump.
We started with the Mexican Fries, which are basically really good waffle fries with Rule #1 meat and Rule #3 cheese on them. This is not a bad thing, especially when you douse them with Texas Pete. In fact, using waffle fries instead of tortilla chips for nachos should probably become some sort of trend, like cupcakes.
I had the "Meat Sombrero" (yes, that's actually what it's called) which was two tortillas filled with Rule #1 meat and diced jalapenos, baked, and then covered with chunky salsa and Rule #3 cheese. It was almost, but not quite, delicious. I'd probably try the chimichanga next time, because it looked pretty good.
The one thing that this place really, really has going for it is price. No entree breaks the $7 barrier. Many things are $4 or so. You can get stuffed to the gills here for less money than Taco Bell, even.
Oh yeah. Ambiance -- it's crowded and noisy but very clean, and the servers (once they notice you came in) are pretty on the spot. Don't expect fancy -- food is served on various combinations of paper plates and tinfoil.
So I'm ambivalent about Nino Taco -- it falls just short of being one of those 'dives with great food' places, because (1) it's not quite scary enough inside and (2) the food isn't memorable enough to stand out. But I'll probably end up back there.
I was introduced to this place a few years ago by my cousin when it was just a shack in Randallstown. He made one point to me clear before coming here. "There are two types of nachos - the 'Authentic', fresh tortilla chips and blend of 4 cheeses kind of nachos, and the 'Stoner', stuff as much cheese, chips, meat and beans as you can in a dish and cook it, kind of nachos". And I later found out that Nino Taco has MASTERED the art of Stoner nachos.
I am, of course, referring to their "Mile High Nachos". Served in both "3/4" and "Full" sizes, you have to be pretty daring to get the full. The "3/4" is massive, and dense. As with most of the dishes, you have a choice of beef, bean, or combo. I usually choose the combo, with the substitution of chicken instead of beef.
Please note that the chicken is actually their "chicken fajita" mix, which comes with onions and peppers, and can be a bit zesty at times, depending on who seasoned it that day.
They make all of their tortilla chips in house - if you sit at the bar area, you can sometimes catch them slicing tortillas into 1/8ths and deep frying them. The beef is always sizzling in a greasy aluminum pan on the fryer. The cheese, nacho cheese from a can, along with some bagged shredded cheese. A neat trick I saw them do once was take the unopened can of cheese and stick it in the deep fryer to heat it up before sticking it in the nacho cheese dispenser - the kind of trick you would only see at a place like Nino Taco.
Once they combine all of the ingredients, they stick it in this industrial oven that bakes the mess to perfection. You know it's done when the edges of the chips that are hanging outside of the bowl are blackened. They stick a fork in it and serve it in the aluminum dish it was baked in, with a paper plate underneath.
Again, you must keep in mind that this is the Stoner-spectrum of nachos. There is more nacho cheese, salsa, meat and bean on top of yellow corn tortillas than 2 fingers can handle - a fork is absolutely necessary to eat this stuff. Once it cools a bit, you can usually take your plastic knife and cut a "slice" of these plastered nachos to eat.
Refills are free, and every seasoned nacho-eater knows that plenty of Mountain Dew is necessary with one of these dishes.
I've ventured to other areas of the menu - the taco platter is a good deal. Up to 3 tacos, spicy or mild, served with 2 sides - your choice of beans, rice, or chips and cheese. Tacos are overflowing - they are not stingy, and won't let you leave hungry. The burrito was pretty good, but once you start going through menu more, you start to realize that everything kind of tastes the same, because it's just a different configuration of the same ingredients.
I did have their chili once - which is only served in the Winter months - and it was awesome! They offer the option of adding nacho cheese to it, and they serve it with a handful of their chips. Thick and spicy, very filling.
The prices are hard to beat. You can usually get by with a soda and one of their entree's for under 10 bucks. These days, this much food for that price is hard to come by.
There aren't many negatives - consistency can sometimes be a problem. The nachos do come out slightly cold in the middle at times, and the chicken fajita mix varies in zestiness as noted earlier. I could say that the place doesn't offer many options for those on a diet, but you really shouldn't be eating at a place like this when you're cutting back the calories. Like a previous reviewer said, this place doesn't pretend to be anything it's not. If you're looking for a big sloppy mess of nachos on the cheap, look no further than this place.
My girlfriend hates this place, but then again she also hates anything that has as much grease, cheese, and beef as this place does. If she didn't hate it, I don't know how it would be able to get 5-stars in the "stoner-nacho" category.