Taco Mesa in Orange California

We recently read a review online about how yummy the food was at a small place in Orange, California called Taco Mesa. Since we are all about the yummy, we decided that this would be a good candidate for our first official TacoTuesdayJunkies.com outting! After a short (read: 25 minute) drive East from our house, we arrived in a small shopping center where Taco Mesa was located.

The Establishment
Upon entering, we noticed the layout of the dining room was a bit odd. The kitchen/order desk ran right up the center of the room, separating the dining area into two sides. Probably not a big deal on a normal night, but on Taco Tuesday this created a serpentine line that ran around and through the dining area. There were plenty of tables on either side, and the walls were colorfully painted in a sort of abstract-mexican flavor. We definitely got a good vibe from this place.

Chips, Salsa and the Coveted Guacamole!
One of our favorite things to try is the guacamole and all the different salsas! We ordered a boat of chips and a side of guac (the side is enough for two people). To the right of the order counter is a small salsa bar. There were four salsas available; a mild, a medium, a hot and a guacamole dip (a much runnier version of the straight-up guacamole). I filled up our cups with the medium...the mild and hot were completely gone! (NOTE: Get there early and you won't encounter this problem!) After a short while, the mild and hot were refilled and we were able to try all three. The mild salsa is really good. It had a great flavor without any heat to it whatsoever. Both of us, though, gravitated to the medium salsa...it was downright excellent! Great flavor, a little chunky (dig to the bottom of the serving tin if you like chunks) and the right amount of heat! The hot salsa, however, had an odd flavor that didn't really agree with either of us. It was pretty hot, but we just couldn't get past the taste. The guacamole is a different story. Taco Mesa decided not to get all crazy with the guac and kept it simple and tasty. We would certainly recommend you try it.

The Main Course - TACOS!
Taco Tuesday's provide one very difficult decision when ordering...and that's how many to order. You see, some establishments make their tacos puny, requiring you to order 50 to fill you up. Others serve you plump, juicy tacos that will fill you up with just one or two. Taco Mesa would be in the latter category! We ordered 3 Shredded Chicken, 3 Carnitas and 1 Shredded Beef taco (uh, we thought we were hungry!). All seven tacos came at the same time and had to be arranged on two separate plates! They were double-wrapped in black and yellow corn tortillas and packed with meat, lettuce, tomatoes and salsa. All three meats had great flavor, however we were partial to the chicken and shredded beef. The carnitas had quite a bit of juice and, unfortunately, all that juice ran off the taco and into the bottom of the plate. This caused all the 'tacos-in-waiting' to get soggy and a little difficult to eat. I would suggest ordering just a couple at a time as this would help prevent soggy-taco syndrome. This would also make it a little easier to discern which kind of tacos you have on your plate! We had to do a little investigative work to figure this out.

Final Thoughts
We enjoyed our experience at Taco Mesa. We left there completely full and almost useless! If you're in the area but it's not a Tuesday, that's fine too. Taco Mesa offers a Wednesday Burrito Special, a Thursday Tamale & Tecate Special and every Sunday & Monday kids eat for a penny! Capsaicin Head and I are going to wrangle up some kids and head back there to try some of Taco Mesa's other fantastic offerings!

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