Going, Going Gonzos! (Gonzo’s Mexican Grill Review – West Hempstead, Long Island)

A long time ago, in a Muppet galaxy far, far away…there was a furry little blue guy by the name of Gonzo.

Gonzo may have been a little wacky. He may have been sort of the outcast of his social group, which is saying a lot when you take into consideration the miscreants he chose to associate with. But at the end of the day, no matter what sort of zany, hair-brained mischievous plan Gonzo was concocting, he always meant well. His loyalty to his friends, his left-of-center lifestyle and his general Cosmo Kramer-esque aura made him lovable; and someone I looked forward to seeing every week.

That’s kind of how I used to feel about Gonzo’s Mexican Grill when I lived in West Hempstead. It was never going to blow you away with how authentic or upscale it was, nor was it super-cheap and quick like Taco King (the chinese style Mexican joint up the block), but there was something charming about the place that would continually bring me back.

Its been quite some time since I’ve been there, so grabbing some lunchtime tacos last week when I was visiting my parents seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately, it served more of a reminder of why I always used to get the Burgerville Quesadilla and not tacos than a nice trip down taco memory lane.

The sauce was a little too sweet. The tortilla was corn, which is good, but it wasn’t thrown on a grill before serving so it had that weird raw corn tortilla chewiness that I’m really not a fan of. Also they seemed to focus more on overloading the tacos with bland accompaniments than the meat itself. Overall, I would probably never get tacos from here again. That being said their Burgerville Quesadilla is still one of the best faux-Mexican creations I’ve ever tried.

The Verdict: Go there, Get no tacos. Get the Burgerville.

Steak Tacos – Whereas the Doc tends to shy away from chicken tacos in favor of the steak, my preferences lead me in the opposite direction. Still, in this case the steak was the better of the two. As you can see from the above picture it didn’t really matter anyway because the taco was mostly accompaniments. I give this 2 out of 5 tortillas.

Chicken Tacos – This was the very definition of bland. It really made me question my  pollo loyalty. Not much else to say about it, so…1.5 out of 5 tortillas.

Gonzos Mexican Grill
149 Nassau Blvd.
West Hempstead, NY 11552

Website: http://gonzosgrill.com/
Facebook: Taco Friends!
Twitter: No Tweets, Just Meet

Love & Guac,

– TS

Taco King…The New Regime (Taco King Review – West Hempstead, Long Island)

It all started one cold and snowy afternoon circa 2008. Though I wasn’t quite the tac-aficionado that I am today at this point in my life, it gave me great happiness that a new taco joint opened in my hometown of West Hempstead. I decided to test the taco waters shortly thereafter, and despite the fact that it more resembled a dive-y chinese restaurant than a Taqueria (a trait I would later find to be much more common than I knew among low level taco joints), it found a special place in my heart.

I can’t even tell you how many chili soft tacos I’ve eaten from Taco King, not to mention the two brief stints as a vegetarian I went through where I practically lived on steamed vegetable soft tacos, black bean tacos and jalapeno quesadillas from there. But in all honesty, the place won’t provide you with any sort of  mind-blowing taco experience. It’s more a nostalgic favorite, similar to supporting a local band you’ve seen (and loved) a million time, but knew they would never make it to the next level.

For five years, the menu at Taco King remained unaltered. So it was quite a surprise this past weekend when I saw ‘Pulled Pork’ burritos, double-shelled tacos (think Taco Bell’s gorditas) and other slightly more ambitious items on the menu. I had walked in with the intention of some comfort food, chili tacos and a jalapeno quesadilla, being that I hadn’t gotten back to TK too often since moving from West Hempstead to Long Beach last year. However I figured I would take the opportunity to review something new for the site.

Double-Shelled Chicken Taco

I’ve already reviewed my favorites from Taco King before for Taco Slut before, so I ordered a double-shelled chicken taco. The verdict, it was like eating a standard Taco King hard chicken taco…with a loose soft tortilla shell around it. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as I generally enjoy their hard chicken tacos, albeit in the same way one enjoys rib sandwich day in a high school cafeteria. I was really hoping when I ordered it that the soft taco shell would work in tandem to create some unique taco-eating apparatus, but it didn’t. To be honest that was probably an unfair expectation going into the experience though. After all, even though I get a hankering for a cheesy gordita crunch (or a cgc if you will) from Taco Bell every once in a while, that isn’t exactly a life-altering experience either. I will say this though, at least the cheesy gordita crunch uses cheese to hold fast the soft taco around the hard taco. This taco made no effort to form unity between the two. In the end, I would give this taco a 3 out 5 tortillas.  It was good enough, but in the situation where someone put this taco and a a CGC next to each other I’d probably roll with T-Bell.

On a more positive note, they did also add the possibility of getting a side of “Fire” sauce with the menu enhancements, which was amazing. The fire sauce is more of a straight-forward Sriracha style hot sauce than the salsas Taco King usually offers. It was so good that I ended up saving the rest of the serving and putting it on the homemade Mushroom Balsamic Vinaigrette flatbread pizza Taco Queen made that night.

Oh and full disclosure…I still got the jalapeno quesadilla and two chili soft tacos. They were on point.

Between the (inner) Tortilla

• Grilled Chicken
• Lettuce
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• Sour Cream
• “Fire” Sauce

Between the (outer) Tortilla

• Space
• Opportunity
• The inner tortilla.

Website: http://2.tacokingonline.com/
Twitter: No Tweets, Just Meat
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Taco-King/115564335133786

Taco King (West Hempstead)
480 Hempstead Turnpike
West Hempstead, NY 11552

Love and queso,

Taco Slut