It\u2019s so far, so bad for Westmere\u2019s new Taco Loco (apart from one great dish).<\/p>\n
I really wanted to like Taco Loco, the new Westmere outpost of a Mexican food business that began life as a food truck. <\/p>\n
\n From food truck to restaurant, from restaurant to chain-of-restaurants \u2013 it\u2019s
\n a familiar and well-proven pathway to success, but something has gone wrong along the way. Just a few weeks after opening, Taco Loco Westmere was disappointing in a creative number of ways.\n <\/p>\n
I hadn\u2019t planned to be here but various other options had either closed early or were about to on this exceptionally chilly Wednesday night. The only thing worse than your restaurant being empty is having one single diner walk in as you\u2019re about to send your staff home, so for everyone\u2019s sake I got back in the car and drove to Westmere for a third review in as many months. <\/p>\n
Nobody wants a restaurant snob parachuting in to dump on their neighbourhood favourites, but Taco Loco is in such a prominent spot, within striking distance of Western Springs, Ponsonby and Grey Lynn, that I thought there might be enough interest from the rest of the city as to whether it\u2019s any good. <\/p>\n
Taco Loco. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
The space (ex Garnet Station) is big, bright and colourful and I liked the staff, who seemed friendly and reasonably proud to work here. But they\u2019ve been let down by a lack of training, I think. <\/p>\n
At one point early on I deliberately put down my food and drink menus and looked around hopefully for someone to take my order but though there were four of them in the room and no other customers to serve, I couldn\u2019t get anyone to even look at me. I felt like a ghost in The Sixth Sense. <\/p>\n
The space is big, bright and colourful. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
When one of them eventually came over I made the most of it by ordering a beer (bright, hoppy, fresh from the tap) and a margarita. The cocktail looked great, with a perfect rim of chili salt and it was decently strong but it wasn\u2019t made with real lime juice \u2013 or certainly not enough to be detectable. I know citrus isn\u2019t always cost-effective or available, but this is a Mexican restaurant, in a sunny suburb, in peak season. As I type from my comfy Grey Lynn living room right now I can see two heaving trees from my window. Either find a supplier, or stop charging $21. <\/p>\n
Lime was also missing from the guacamole, surely the first dish a Mexican kitchen has to get right. It was unsalted too, but the worst crime was that it was fridge-cold. So, clearly not made fresh or recently checked by anyone in the kitchen \u2013 it came with (top-quality) totopo corn chips and a house salsa that tasted of tomato passata and not much else. <\/p>\n
The tuna taco on the menu at Mexican restaurant Taco Loco in Westmere. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
So far, so bad. But things improved substantially with the arrival of my first taco, featuring buttery shrimp, some pretty good corn tortillas (flexible but toasty), melted cheese and a range of yummy toppings. Each taco comes with its own salsa on the side and this one, a dark brew featuring pineapple and habanero, is a real goodie. I had asked for a salt shaker by then too, which made everything taste a little better, though I\u2019m afraid the guacamole was unsalvageable. <\/p>\n
I wondered if the lesson was to only order tacos here and this was confirmed upon the arrival of my burrito which was plump and pretty but no better than something you\u2019d get at Mexicali fresh for two thirds of the price. <\/p>\n
I was starting to strain at the seams but, with your best interests in mind, I ordered one more plate of tacos (they come in sets of three, which is a shame to me when there are 10 exciting flavours to try). <\/p>\n
Taco Loco’s cactus taco. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
On the advice of the waiter, I tried the vegetarian de nopales filling \u2013 a kind of chopped green cactus, sprinkled with a feta-like cheese and fattened up with some refried beans underneath. These ones came with tortillas doubled up \u2013 a great innovation which means even if the top one gets soaked in flavour and starts to lose its integrity you have a backup underneath. <\/p>\n
The staff, who were no doubt a bit confused by now as to why one man was sitting with two drinks and five dishes in front of him, happily supplied some takeaway boxes and a bag so I could take the remains home for lunch the next day. The guacamole wasn\u2019t worth the effort but the burrito, filled with pulled beef birria and rice, made for decent leftovers. <\/p>\n
Unfortunately, that\u2019s the best I can say about Taco Loco right now: good enough for an expensive lunch, with work still to do before it\u2019s worth stopping in for dinner.<\/p>\n
Cuisine: Mexican street food <\/p>\n
Address: 85 Garnet Rd, Westmere <\/p>\n
Contact: 09-971 2551, tacoloconz.co.nz, @tacoloconz<\/p>\n
Opening hours: Tuesday-Thursday, 5-9pm; Friday, 3-9.30pm; Saturday, 11.30am-9.30pm; Sunday, 11.30am-8pm <\/p>\n
From the menu: guacamole and chips $16, prawn taco $29, cactus taco $23, beef birria burrito $29, tuna tostados $21 <\/p>\n
Score: 0-7 Steer clear. 8-12 Disappointing, give it a miss. 13-15 Good, give it a go. 16-18 Great, plan a visit. 19-20 Outstanding, don\u2019t delay.<\/p>\n
According to dining-out editor Jesse Mulligan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s so far, so bad for Westmere\u2019s new Taco Loco (apart from one great dish). I really wanted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[103394,138,3013,2946,48220,6309,23966,528,2082,71,6101,16773,302,2537,241975,51705,2538,111,139,69,763,6100,87018,4504,61,59452,241976,4576],"class_list":["post-481342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-apart","tag-business","tag-but","tag-dinner","tag-dish","tag-do","tag-enough","tag-far","tag-for","tag-from","tag-good","tag-great","tag-its","tag-jesse","tag-loco","tag-lunch","tag-mulligan","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-reviews","tag-still","tag-taco","tag-theres","tag-to","tag-westmere","tag-westmeres","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}