Nearly everyone loves Tex-Mex food: I don’t think that I’ve ever met anyone who expressed a dislike for one of America’s most popular cuisines. Of course, this means that there are new locations and new restaurants perpetually popping up to serve the cravings of hungry high schoolers and their families. So when I heard about Let’s Taco, a new restaurant located in Edmonston’s Crossing (near Wintergreen Plaza), I had to try it.
Initial impressions
This restaurant is surprisingly difficult to find. Even though it was in a relatively small parking lot, I still had to circle around a couple of times before I realized where it was. When I finally found it and went inside, I was surprised to discover that instead of being its own individual restaurant, Let’s Taco is a small food-station sort of setup within a larger area. It shares the room with a couple other restaurants, like a sushi place, so it’s really like a tiny food court. Although the location was a little unexpected, the service was pretty decent: I had ordered ahead of time, and it only took a couple extra minutes for the food to be ready. However, based on the small size of the restaurant and the minuscule amount of staff, I could easily see service getting backed up extremely quickly on a busy day.
Note: because of COVID-19 and my reluctance to eat indoors, I did get takeout instead of dining in, so I may have missed some aspects of the service experience.
The food
Obviously, the most important part of any restaurant is its food. But unfortunately, the quality of Let’s Taco’s cuisine was a little inconsistent. The first piece of food I tried was the Quesabirria taco, which was easily the best thing I sampled. It had a nice kick that wasn’t too overwhelming, and the meat (braised beef) was incredibly tender. It also had a nice balance of ingredients: there was a good amount of meat, and there was enough cilantro to flavor but not overpower the other tastes. The shell was also an interesting texture since it didn’t feel super crunchy or super soft, but somewhere in between.
The next thing I tried was their chips and salsa, which were pretty decent. The chips were a little thicker and smaller than normal tortilla chips, which gave them a nice hearty crunch; they also had a good amount of salt on them. As for the salsa, it had a strong tomato flavor, but didn’t really have any kick, which was disappointing.
After that, I sampled their tinga de pollo (chicken) burrito. Like the beef in the taco had been, the chicken was incredibly tender. It almost seemed to melt in my mouth. It had a slight kick like the taco had as well, and it was with this burrito that I noticed a common theme between many of Let’s Taco’s foods: lots of their menu items seem to have a pretty strong tomato flavor. (So if you’re not a huge fan of tomatoes, I would be careful before choosing to eat here.)
I then tried their al pastor (pork) and carne asada (beef) quesadillas. These were, frankly, the most disappointing items I tried. There was an obscene amount of cheese that I had to fight through to get to the meat of the quesadillas. Even though quesadillas are supposed to have a bunch of cheese, it was honestly too much. Additionally, while the meat in both tasted good, it was often incredibly fatty, which dampened my enjoyment somewhat. (Carne asada and al pastor are usually fatty, but these seemed a lot fattier than average.)
Overall rating: ⅘ stars
Overall, Let’s Taco’s food and experience were pretty enjoyable. There are definitely menu items that I would recommend trying, like their tacos and chips and salsa. But, like many other restaurants, the menu had its lowlights that, unless they enjoy artery-clogging, fatty cuisine, diners should stay away from.
