Someone Had to Order the Naughty Santa

Torchy's Tacos
350 West 19th Street, Houston

Torchy's Heights Location

(multiple area locations)

I love tacos. In fact, one of my greatest guilty pleasures when living in DC was taking the Metro to Union Station on Friday afternoons for a Taco Bell lunch in the food court. There's just something about that special Taco Bell beef that is addicting. But, I digress. Living in Texas, there are a plethora of taco options. Though I explored Austin's breakfast taco scene a bit last month, I'd yet to try some of Houston's taco offerings. This past Sunday night, we returned from a weekend away. Since our refrigerator was bare and we didn't want to fight the holiday grocery store crowds, we decided to get take away from Torchy's Tacos in the Heights.

Torchy's Tacos -- wrapped up and ready to eat

Torchy's is actually an Austin institution that migrated to H-town a few years ago. There are four Houston area locations including one in the Heights. At Torchy's, they serve "damn good tacos." The menu is broken into breakfast tacos and non-breakfast tacos (aka "tacos"). Breakfast tacos are served all day. Of particular note is the Monk Special which includes potatoes, bacon, green chiles, and cheese. The non-breakfast taco menu is filled with so many diverse and unique taco varieties that it's almost overwhelming. I ordered the Mr. Pink which consists of guajillo [that's a type of chili pepper] seared ahi tuna, a cabbage slaw, cilantro and queso fresco with a slice of lime. Mr. Pink is served with a tasty chipotle sauce. Delish. Other interesting combinations include the Fried Avocado taco and the Trailer Park which consists of fried chicken and green chiles and can be ordered "dirty" meaning they add queso.

Delectable Torchy's guacamole

In addition to the standard taco offerings, Torchy's also features a Taco of the Month. The featured taco this month? That would be the Naughty Santa. Really, can you go to Torchy's during the month of December and NOT order the Naughty Santa? I think not. Thankfully, Hubby agreed and ordered it (though he maintains he wasn't aware of its name at the time). The Naughty Santa includes grilled shrimp and chorizo served with pickled onions, jalapenos, cilantro, avocado, and cheese. Hubby said it was okay, but he wasn't a huge fan of the chorizo-shrimp combination.

Prior to trying Torchy's we'd heard that there

were two must order sides -- guacamole and the queso dip. We ordered both. After all, it's the holidays, and I am a huge fan of pretty much anything into which I can dunk a tortilla chip. The guacamole was excellent. It was filled with intense citrus flavor and very fresh. The queso was also quite good and traveled well since we were getting take away, but it was definitely on the spicy side.

Overall, I really enjoyed my Torchy's taco meal. The ingredients were fresh and the menu was adventurous. I'm only sorry that I wasn't able to try a larger variety of tacos during my first visit. I'm looking forward to future visits and I'm hoping to check out the breakfast menu in the not too distant future. And, all this writing about tacos has me thinking I might just also need to make a Run for the Border soon as well. Feeling nostalgic.

Texas Forever.