Lili's Cocina Restaurant Taco Review

Tucson Dave’s Taco Trail 2009 Review July 28, 2009

Lili’s Cocina, 2205 S 4th Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85713 622-6351

This Taco Trail thing is hard work I have found out. We are at our fifth stop on the Trail taking another turn down to the heart of Tucson’s famous Mexican food on south fourth avenue in the City of South Tucson. For those not in the know, this is the largest concentrations of Mexican food restaurants in the area. Lili’s opened a few years ago and as grown to be a local favorite. It happened to be 110 degrees today and there was a nice cool spot in the back available. Lili’s was started by Grandma and then her daughter came in and helped. The service is quick and friendly and you feel right at home like you are actually in their home. I had a client from northern California with me and he liked the ambiance of the place. I found their taco meat selection to be rather limited. Chicken or Beef. Where is the cabeza or lengua? I don’t understand. So, I order the carne asada taco plate with rice and beans ($7.95). The meat was served on a flour tortilla with a side of lettuce and tomatoe. No cheese. Hmm. Where is the cheese. In fact, where is the queso blanco (white cheese)? There was a pile of meat on the tortillas that was rather taste less and kind of rubbery. There was nothing really bad, but nothing really good. There was no seasoning on the meat. Unlike our earlier visit to BK’s, these tacos just were not real special. If you want more bang for the buck, go to BK’s or our first stop, Maico’s. My client pal had the chicken enchiladas. They looked pretty good. I restrained myself from even extending the reach across the table. I do recommend the red chile plate here. That is what they excel at here at Lili’s.

On to the next spot. It is unbearably hot with no monsoon at all this week.

Chaco's Tacos Review Tucson Dave's Taco Trail

Hi everyone. We sense the end of summer approaching. It certainly is not connected with the weather as it is of course just about unbearable at 103 degrees just about every day this week. We made a Friday dash to one of our favorites, Chaco's Tacos. We had not visited our pals Brenda and Chaco for some time and looked forward to some good tacos. I have had the pleasue of eating here for about 13 years and their daily specials are pretty good. No if they could just get that evaporative cooler working better................ Once again, I brought a business pal to join me in the blog trail. The fog of taco joints. One after another. Most everytime I have been here you are met by owner's spouse, Ms. Brenda. Service is quick and they crank people in and out of here. There are enough Border Patrol patrons to chase every dishwasher this side of the Mississippi back to Mexico. Headquarters is right down the street. We started by tackling the salsa bar and getting huge quantities of their homemade avocado sauce to go with our chips and salsa. Good stuff. I ordered a la carte once again to get the ulimate combination of tacos possible. Chicken, Carne asada, ground beef. The ground beef taco was deep fried and I asked for it that way. The meats here are good. The store bought tortillas, both corn and flour, seem like what happens to a bag of potato chips with your evap on high. They get a little "pliable". Even the deep fried taco had lost some crunch to moisture. The carne asada was good. They serve a lot of these on Carne Asada Tuesdays. The chicken taco was served on a flour tortilla. It had large chunks of white chicken meat and was pretty good save the tortilla. I making a guess here that there brands of tortillas must have some shelf life to them. They could do better. My pal Marshall ordered the green chili plate and he just about polished it all off. He is a small guy and he was challenged. All in all, Chacos serves some good home cooked style Mexican food and you get a lot for your money. Our lunches were $18 all together. This place has a solid following and their location down the street from the Border Patrol and also Davis Monthan provides them an endless supply of customers. This spot ranks in the middle of the pack of those places we have visited.

Las Cazuelitas Restaurant

Hi guys and gals. Yes, the lack of monsoon madness has created more madness. Its time for a business meeting and I need a taco post. This trip was quick and necessary. I met my business appointment at Las Cazuelitas on Ft. Lowell just west of Dodge. I tend to think that most good Mexican food stops geographically at 22nd Street to the south but I went here because it was convenient and I had not visited a Las Cazeulitas restaurant in years. This is their third location located at 3535 E Ft. Lowell (784-0405). It was still hot and there was a small lunch crowd. Everyone there was a friendly crowd and very welcoming. Service was quick with the usual chips and salsa and beverage. The salsa was a little liquidy but had some spark. I ordered tacos a la carte so to try as many differnet tacos as possible. One ground beef taco, one machaca taco, and one fish taco. My appointment friend who I was trying to recruit to be a taco blogger ordered two fish tacos. We both admitted that we were each the best taco makers ourselves. She specialized in fish tacos and I specialize in machaca tacos. Once they arrived they arrived quite hot and they were quite good. The fish taco was a little bland and a little soft in texture. We both admitted we like a little crunch. My ground beef taco might be the best basic ground beef taco I have had so far. Here they excelled. The meat was cooked inside the soft tortilla until it came out crunchy. It was old fashioned and of course plainly unhealthy but good to the palate. Once again, mums the word with my friends at Bluecross. The machaca taco was cooked the same way and was a little overdone in my opinion. It was a good plate overall and receives a middle of the pack ranking. One thing that we have never experienced at a Mexican food restaurant during the Taco Trail 2009 is the over supply of well dressed people coming to our table to make sure we enjoyed our lunch and how was the service. By the third time by yet a third different person, my lunch appointment accused me of calling ahead to identify myself to get better service. No. I did not. These guys were generally interested in how we perceived our visit and the food. These were not professional mystery hosts. We thanked them. Service was great. While not quite as good as those joints on the southside, this place offers a reasonable alternative to driving 20 minutes south.

Tucson Taco Dave Taco Trail 2009

Hi everyone. The Taco Trail entries so far are on my business website at http://www.tucsonindustrialrealty.com/ and will be transferred over to the blog site soon. They are located at the end of my profile. We have had 7 taco trips including the "ringer" that I am about to write about.

Every taco eater, taco maker and taco expert has an ace in the hole for tacos. A hidden treasure that no one can visit or knows where it is. It's called a ringer. Mine showed up at the house with all of the fixins for fish tacos, one of my favorites. The only thing my young pal Brian did not bring was the fish............I got the call to rush home from work and that future Chef, Brian was making sea bass tacos. My son's friend Brian knows I am a food snob and taco worshipper. He still remembers several years ago when I returned from southern Mexico with 200#s of fresh yellowtail and cabrilla and fish tacos at our house were a regular weekly deal. I know Brian through my son Connor (another taco worshipper). Brian wants to go to Chef's school some day and is currently working under the tutelage of Chef Albert Hall, the owner of Acacia Restaurant here in Tucson. Brian made a killer avocado sauce with fresco cream and cilantro and jalapenos that was over the top. He pan seared the chunks of sea bass with different peppers in a little olive oil. We heated up some corn tortillas and added some cabbage, radishes, and onions. While the tortillas were store bought, Brian did a good job of heating them up a special way. How do you lightly deep fry a tortilla? I don't know but he did. The bottom line was that these were some of the best fish tacos I have ever had and Brian secured a spot within the top taco category for the Taco Trail of 2009. Brian, you are the man. Thanks. If you want to sample some of Brian's handiwork I imagine you can find a fish taco at Acacia. Chef Albert is crazy if he doesn't give the kid a Taco Night shot. Make it Sea Bass!

Tucson Taco Tour Summer 2009

We decided to have some fun this summer with a whirlwind tour for Tucson's finest tacos. While we certainly enjoy practicing industrial real estate brokerage in Tucson for 25 years, we really like to break up the summer duldrums by chasing the best tacos in Tucson. We decided to share this experience because many of my pals know me as a foodie and a southside taco expert. I have also been known as Chorizo Dave in my earlier years before cholesterol checks. A good taco is defined by the tasty meat option and most important is the condition of the taco shell, flour or corn. The store bought hard shell stuff does not cut it and will result in a very low rating by this afficionado. I worked for about 40 years on Tucson's southside and have enjoyed eating off of trucks and vans and visited Tucson's southside 4th avenue restaurant district. I can't keep track of all the taco joints I have frequented during this time but I do have some favorites and I continue to find more new ones each week. I also like to cook my own and have some great recipes. So, off we go. Hopefully, by the middle of September we will have covered 15 different spots. If you have any questions about tacos, we would like to hear from you.