I've made it my new mission to get out of Stillwater more often. I like living here, and have made tons of great friends, but there's only so much to do. This town really caters more towards families and college kids. And besides, OKC is really growing. Spending more time there the last couple months I have seen a lot of it, and it looks like fun. So from now on, outside of football season, I've got to get out of here and explore and do more.
This weekend I'm in Dallas. I hadn't seen Joni & Tony since the end of October...5 months. We never go that long without seeing each other, but they didn't come up for the Texas game, and then none of us went to the bowl. And I rarely get out of Stillwater in January & February. So it was high time for a trip down south.
I left Stillwater mid-morning, so by the time I got to Dallas I was really hungry. I had originally thought of just grabbing a quick fast food lunch on the way, but since I was stopping at Sam Moon to do a little shopping before getting to the house, I decided to find someplace good to eat with my restaurant.com certificates. And came across Tacon Madre. It got good reviews, and was inexpensive so I was sold.
Honestly, I probably wouldn't go there at night. It just doesn't look like it would be that safe, especially for me by myself. And that was confirmed when I saw that that restaurant windows have bars all the way around. But since it was the middle of the day, I saw no reason not to try it out.
It's a small place, with seating for maybe 25. There are 3 flat screen TV's on the walls, and I'm sure when soccer is on, they are all tuned in. It looks like they do a good happy hour business, because they have a lot of specials during that time. I saw a few people coming in to pick up carry-out orders, but there were also a few other tables occupied while I was there.
Chips and salsa come out first. The chips were warm, and I'm happy to say that they don't bring you a ton, and they also don't come around and refill. Because it's so easy to just mindlessly eat them.
The salsa was served warm, which I love. But what she didn't do was warn me that it's full of peppers. It doesn't hit you immediately, but about 30 seconds later your mouth is on fire. But it was really delicious.I decided to get some guacamole to help tone down the bite of the salsa
I've never seen guac with that many tomatoes before. It was almost half the dish. But it was still really good. And homemade. And I scooped up every bite.
For my lunch I had a hard time deciding, even though the menu isn't very big. I do like that you can choose from several different types of meat for tacos, burritos, etc. And the price is the same. I thought about the burrito, but my server said it's really big so I went with the taco platter. And even went with corn tortillas instead of flour. Unfortunately they didn't have borracho beans, so I went with refried.
This was delicious. I really like that they put cheese (I'm guessing cojito) on the beans. Added a very subtle creamy flavor. The rice had peas, carrots and corn in it. Never had rice like that in a Mexican restaurant, but it was really good. I like that they put the onions & cilantro on the side, rather than on the tacos, because you can get more that way. I also added guac and salsa on the tacos. The tacos were excellent. I got them with fajita meat, and they were so delicious and very flavorful. I'm slowly becoming a fan of corn tortillas.
Will I go back? Yes. The food was really good, the service was efficient, and the staff was very friendly. And I can't pass it up when they have Mexican coke on the menu!
