Fast Food Mexican

Anybody remember the Naugles chain in SoCal? I loved those guys. They had two items I had a hard time deciding between. There was a burrito, which I guess had beans, but was really loaded up with tons of cheese, and it was not junky stuff. Simple, but effective. After the merger with Del Taco, burgers (at Del Taco) continued to be offered, but they lost the one I really loved, an Ortega Burger, with American cheese. There was something about the Ortega chiles that kept the rather ordinary patty really savory, without SEEMING too greasy. But it probably was. Good fries, too, at Naugles. The only thing I like today at Del Taco is the nachos, and only if the cheese has not been reverting over time into a petroleum product. I like the regular ground beef tacos at Taco Bell, and plain bean & cheese burritos, but the nachos are weird tasting to me. It's the chips that are off. Nicely delicate, but fried in something wrong.
Last time I was in Las Vegas, I noticed a taco chain out of Oregon, I think, had a location there... Can't recall the name, not worth trying out. We have something here in LA called Qdoba that I was recently unimpressed with, and another I think called Taco Time, which was more or less OK. Pretty generic hard shell tacos, but the meal deal includes tater tots, always good, and a drink. I know there are a couple of chains operating in Dallas, but I have way better options when I'm there. It's kind of interesting how madly popular the Jack in the Box taco has been for generations now. I remember that recently, the Combo # 1 was a pair of Monster Tacos, a side, and a drink. In the SoCal area, Burger King offers a taco, which I have not tried. There's a place out in North Hollywood, which has just beautiful 1960s signage, called Henry's Tacos, that serves up something called a Taco Burger, a sort of Mexican Sloppy Joe. Or Jose. We also have a chain in LA called Benito's "rolled tacos", but I don't like shredded beef, have not tried them. Other burger chains have played around with "Mexican" items. What's also interesting in the Southwest, with the huge number of Latinos, is how many one-off little joints there are with a mix of hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, chili, tamales, tacos, and many other "south of the border" type items. True Mexican-American cuisine, I guess.
-Scott Lindgren
scottlindgren@netzero.com

quote:

Originally posted by salindgren

Anybody remember the Naugles chain in SoCal? I loved those guys. They had two items I had a hard time deciding between. There was a burrito, which I guess had beans, but was really loaded up with tons of cheese, and it was not junky stuff. Simple, but effective. After the merger with Del Taco, burgers (at Del Taco) continued to be offered, but they lost the one I really loved, an Ortega Burger, with American cheese. There was something about the Ortega chiles that kept the rather ordinary patty really savory, without SEEMING too greasy. But it probably was. Good fries, too, at Naugles. The only thing I like today at Del Taco is the nachos, and only if the cheese has not been reverting over time into a petroleum product.
I like the regular ground beef tacos at Taco Bell, and plain bean & cheese burritos, but the nachos are weird tasting to me. It's the chips that are off. Nicely delicate, but fried in something wrong.
Last time I was in Las Vegas, I noticed a taco chain out of Oregon, I think, had a location there... Can't recall the name, not worth trying out.
We have something here in LA called Qdoba that I was recently unimpressed with, and another I think called Taco Time, which was more or less OK. Pretty generic hard shell tacos, but the meal deal includes tater tots, always good, and a drink. I know there are a couple of chains operating in Dallas, but I have way better options when I'm there.
It's kind of interesting how madly popular the Jack in the Box taco has been for generations now. I remember that recently, the Combo # 1 was a pair of Monster Tacos, a side, and a drink.
In the SoCal area, Burger King offers a taco, which I have not tried.
There's a place out in North Hollywood, which has just beautiful 1960s signage, called Henry's Tacos, that serves up something called a Taco Burger, a sort of Mexican Sloppy Joe. Or Jose.
We also have a chain in LA called Benito's "rolled tacos", but I don't like shredded beef, have not tried them. Other burger chains have played around with "Mexican" items. What's also interesting in the Southwest, with the huge number of Latinos, is how many one-off little joints there are with a mix of hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, chili, tamales, tacos, and many other "south of the border" type items. True Mexican-American cuisine, I guess.
-Scott Lindgren
scottlindgren@netzero.com

TacoTime IS an Oregon chain, so that must not have been your mystery LV chain, but I am mystified as to what you mean, unless you really mean TacoJohn's, which is good stuff, but not from Oregon.
Most of these have been discussed and there are threads on them.
The search engine is your friend.
here
s a start:
http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3598
http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2044

Could the place in LV have been Taco Maker?
We now have one in Rolling Oaks Mall in San Antonio.
It actually wasn't bad,I liked what I got.Dallas probably has Taco Cabana and some other chain.I think Taco Maker also has tater tots.

Taco John's has Whiplash the Monkey as a spokesman too.
Anyplace that has monkey Ed McMahons is a friend of mine.
http://www.tacojohns.com/promos-and-fun-videos.asp

We have a new Chipotle Grill near us. Is it worth the trip?

Absolutely.

http://www.chipotle.com/#

Click on Ingredients and see the lineup. Pointing your cursor over each item tells you about it.

Salsarita's is a chain very similar to Chipotle (or so I've heard) and is really decent, fresh, "fast" Tex-Mex. Barbarito's is also similar, but IMHO, below Salsarita's in terms of choice and taste. Both are here in Johnson City, I don't know where else they have locations.

Chipotle is fantastic, I highly recommend it.

--Jessica

Well, to Bill Voss, thanks for the links, and sorry for the delay reading that response.
It is funny how many folks bemoan the loss of both Naugles and Pup 'n Taco. Including me. Yeah, a buddy of mine loves Taco Cabana in Dallas, but I am usually only there for a short time, I can't waste time fooling around with fast food. What I saw in LV must have been Taco Time. I was not impressed, but the one (I think there are 3) in DT LA I checked was OK. Uh, here's something I'm leery about, but will consider... Across the LA River, at a Shell station in 99% Latino territory, they have something they are calling "Taco! Taco!" Whatever, I'll try it. I have not seen this at any other Shell stations.
I really need to start cooking this stuff myself, it's just a little involved to get it right. Burritos are easy. It's dealing with the beef, the sauces from scratch, that make me lazy. But I have a lot of recipes collected, I'll get there.
It does seem that FF Mex has declined since the 1980s, but maybe that's just me and my aging taste buds, I don't know. But in a way, my favorite (and MANY other's fave), in Dallas, Ojeda's, is almost fast food. It's just that you sit down, and order a Margarita. But the food comes out in about 3 minutes! Service is lightning quick. And the prices are just unbeatable.
I'll look into Chipotle, but I think the problem for me there is that I don't like machaca, and I can really fine tune a bean burrito to my taste, so why go pay for one I don't really like??
-Scott Lindgren