Tripe Torchy's Tacos September 28, 2013

Post date: Oct 01, 2013 4:33:24 AM

As a fun outing, myself and a few of my friends partook in the Triple Torchy's Tacos walk. What is that? It is an all day event in which you walk to all three Houston Torchy's Tacos locations shown below:

Although the map shows 6.8 miles of walking, we visited two safe houses along the way (not shown) so our total trek was approximately 11 miles.

Breakfast:

We started off at the Rice Village location for breakfast. Although I had previously eaten at Torchy's often, this was my first time going for breakfast. I ordered "The Wrangler", which offered scrambled eggs, potatoes, beef brisket, and cheese, and a Jalapeno Sausage, Egg & Cheese Taco. Like their lunch/dinner counterparts, the breakfast tacos were well filled. Both tacos featured plenty of egg, a bit too much for my preference, although to be fair I am not a big fan of breakfast tacos. On "The Wrangler", the potatoes were a little undercooked and could have been more crisp. The brisket was cooked well and a fair portion was provided. On the Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Taco, I felt the amount of Sausage was a bit lacking (especially in comparison to the egg). Whereas other tacos featuring their sausage had some spice behind them, there wasn't much heat on the breakfast counterpart. With our bellies full, the team made the adventure to safe house #1 for some Nintendo 64 excitement and Scategories.

Lunch:

We departed to the Sheppard location for lunch. There were a few sprinkles during the walk over, but the team made it in one piece. Since I have tried many of tacos on the menu, I decided to switch things up and ordered the grande pork burrito. I know what you are thinking: how can you order a burrito at a taco shop!

Overall the burrito was good, made in the Chipotle style. The burrito was packed with pork, more than other burrito shops. It also featured guacamole and incredibly tasty refried black beans that were the highlight in the burrito. The first bite was loaded with sour cream which was a small drawback; it could have been mixed better. Overall it was tasty, but fell short of the other options. Unless you are really craving a burrito, stick with the tried and true tacos.

One of my friends ordered the green chili queso. Although I consider the chips to be average, the queso itself is on another level compared to most other dips. If you have never experienced it, branch away from ordering that extra taco and dig in. There is plenty so it is definitely a good item to share with a group.

Dinner:

A much longer walk north, a detour into Petco, a quick pit stop at safe house #2, and finally we arrived at Torchy's on 19th in the Heights. Although arriving a bit early for dinner, the restaurant was not overly crowded. The line leading up to the register was not intuitively marked, and we were scolded. I ordered "the Scallywag" and "the Hipster".

The Scallywag has been my favorite taco of the month since I have been going (June 2013). It features coconut-battered shrimp, bacon, green chilies, shredded jack cheese, and picked onions, and topped with habanero peach jam and cilantro. The coconut shrimp is bounds better than the shrimp featured in the "Baja Shrimp" taco. The habanero peach is the perfect accent to really set this taco apart. The bacon, although tasty, was probably not necessary in my opinion.

"The Hipster" is one of the secret tacos. It features panko fried tuna, green chiles, bacon, black bean relish, cotija cheese, topped with avocado sauce and cilantro. Compared to most of the other secret menu offerings, this taco isn't larger and overfilling compared to the normal menu offerings (I am looking at you "Ace of Spades" and "Hillbilly"). The tuna remains the star of the taco and everything else serves as a nice compliment. If you have never tried "Mr. Pink" start there and order "the Hipster" next time through. If you are a fan of the "Mr. Pink" taco, order this and be happy.

Finally one of my friends ordered the lil' nookies. These are deep fried cookie dough balls, resulting in a crisp outside and raw inside. I am always torn on whether or not to like deep fried cookie dough. I enjoy cookies; I enjoy cookie dough. The combination of the two leaves me in a pondering state. The nookies were served with maraschino cherries, which seemed like an odd combination. Perhaps a scoop of good, homemade ice cream would have been a better alternative.

Upon completion of the meal, we departed back to safe house #2 and the adventure came to a close.

Overall it was a fun day, and something I would do again in the moderately distant future. Any opportunity to include food and walking is a win-win in my book. Maybe in the future it could be converted into a run or some other silly, large group event. The next time you visit a Torchy's consider getting a second helping at the next stop on the Torchy's trail!