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    #4 Best New Restaurant of 2018: Tio’s Tacos and Tequila

    Tio’s Tacos and Tequila opened up in De Novo’s original High Street digs. The debut typically inspires the following response from seasoned Downtown diners: “Weird. That’s right across from Condado.” Right, Condado is pretty much the local go-to for tacos: competing in the same zone seems suicidal.

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    But outside of the fact that both operations serve Mexican food, the two joints couldn’t be more different. Condado is light and airy with a funky sugar-candy-skull-carnival theme. Tio’s is more on the dark and cozy side, the decor merges traditional with a little edge: golden walls decorated with an assortment of things, including upside-down chairs.

    The menu at the new joint follows a familiar path for fans of Mexican food. There are appetizers, tacos, and entree platters. It’s all displayed on an oversized, laminated page of options: pretty manageable. Chips are not free, so if you like to start your meal with munchies, you’ll need to order some. Locals have grown to expect free stuff from Mexican restaurants in particular, so the absence of free chips could be an occasional source of outrage. In general, personal preference runs towards eating food that costs money. But for those who need to pack on some pounds of starch and fat, free chips are a great way to do that.

    For $4.25, though, you can score a good drippy Queso and chips. The cheese sauce is briny, but with a defined delicate cheese flavor that sets it well above melted CheezWiz.

    In the taco department, there are choices to be made. Predictably, they come in several flavors. The favorite so far is the Jicama Shrimp Taco ($4): each sizable shrimp is curled into a perfect circle, engulfed in a fresh sweater of fried crunchies, and served with a jicama tortilla (soft, like a regular tortilla), chipotle sauce, lime and a sweet pico de gallo. It’s the best of the tacos tried. The Pollo and Pastor ($3.50 each) versions are both ordinary offerings with corn tortillas, cilantro and onions.

    Enchiladas De Lechuga ($11.75) is an option that substitutes lettuce (“lechuga”) for tortillas in traditional Mexican enchiladas. The jury’s still out on the results. It’s different, with a big leaf of romaine working to enclose small chunks of chicken swimming in melted cheese and traditional enchilada sauce topped with long avocado slices. The cheese, avocados, and savory sauce can carry just about anything, and they certainly do that job here. The option doesn’t really market itself as being for the low-carb people, but that’s the crew that would probably go nuts for this.

    For those of us that prefer real tortillas, something like the Steak Fajitas ($13.49) are a better bet. An order yields a sizzling mix of tender beef with peppers and and onion. You maintain creative control in building your dinner with an epic platter of refried beans, rice, lettuce, pico de gallo and sour cream.

    Or, better yet, forget the labor intensive assembly of fajitas. Do a Burrito Mexicano ($10.99). It is huge and filled with a fantastic mess of steak, chicken chorizo, bean, rice sour cream, and then (yes more) covered in cheese, green sauce and burrito sauce. The sauces merge together and after a few bites, so also do the elements in the burrito. It’s a good merger.

    As for tequila, there’s a bar, and it has a tequila selection that includes the likes of Hornitos and Casa Noble. The bar serves a variety of Margaritas too, in great big mason jars. If you want to go off-theme, Tio’s has cocktails, wine and beer.

    Overall, pretty good value for Downtown dining, even without the free chips. You can find it at 201 S. High St.

    For more information, visit tiostacostequila.business.site

    Photos by Lauren Sega.

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    Miriam Bowers Abbott
    Miriam Bowers Abbotthttps://columbusunderground.com
    Miriam Bowers Abbott is a freelancer contributor to Columbus Underground who reviews restaurants, writes food-centric featurettes and occasionally pens other community journalism pieces.
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