Checking out the New Kids on the Block in Jersey City New Jersey on the first Taco Tuesday of June. First off, a great location next to Jersey City landmark Torico Ice Cream, stop in there after or hell…before your tacos. Friendly faces and amazing ice cream can be found across the street.
So the new taco spot in Jersey City is Tacoria, while the brand has been established in Montclair, New Brunswick, and Princeton…we’ve been waiting for them in Jersey City.
To start off it’s a pretty cool atmosphere interestingly crafted furniture; from sitting on refurbished stadium seats, stools, and tables that look like vintage luggage. There’s a wall of hot sauce to gaze upon – with everything from Tapatio, El Yucateco, right to their four house sauces. I found all of the staff to be very friendly and welcoming. They could have gone for a different choice in music, most of it coming from the mid 2000’s, never been big on eating tacos to Soulja Boy, not an ideal soundtrack, that’s just me though.
So we went with a pretty good spread for our order. Two orders of the Mexican Street corn is always a must when its on the menu. We ordered three tacos: the Golden Avocado, a pretty good vegetarian option, its a fried avocado, an al pastor taco, and a Tinga de Pollo (shredded chipotle chicken). On top of the tacos we also ordered a chicken burrito box that came with a side of fresh pico de gallo and guacamole.
Alright let’s get down to the Nitty-gritty on these tacos, Tacoria seems to take a good stance on vegan, vegetarian, and healthy options. Well try and discuss all the options here.
Golden Avocado – I was intrigued by the golden avocado taco it was everywhere in the restaurant, drawn on the sign out front and even on the shirts of the staff. It was fried avocado, I was expecting a literal piece of golden fried avocado, while different, interesting and somewhat tasty, it didn’t seem to be up to the hype. I didn’t really taste any texture of it being fried and the inside was room temperature. There also wasn’t any complexity or balance of flavor, it led this one to be quite bland. All of the tacos were topped with the traditional toppings (cilantro, onions) some crema, and queso fresco. The chipotle aioli could be found on the street corn and Golden Avocado Taco. Their tortillas were also a very standard 4.5 inch diameter. Just a small amount of salt would have helped here.
On to the Al Pastor – my favorite thing about al pastor is that it varies so much from place to place. I enjoyed the small pieces of pineapple on this taco. (I know not everyone is a fan of that) I really hoped for a different quality of meat on this one I found it to be a bit chewy and dry. It also lacked a flavor balance with very little heat. We tried out their four sauces, a nice mild verde sauce, a red sauce similar to Frank’s (Valentina), a decently hot and tasty habanero and my favorite a sweet/spicy chilli sauce (smokey Roja).
The Tinga de pollo – or the shredded chipotle chicken taco had the best flavor here, in terms of heat and flavor balance. It was fairly good but again the meat played on the dryer/chewier side. For the shredded part I would say the chicken needs to be pulled apart a little better. I will say I enjoyed having the slice of radish with each taco to help cleanse the palate.
Sides
The Guacamole – the guacamole is done really well here as is the pico de gallo, both fresh and delicious. As for the street corn there’s room for improvement, the corn itself was very delicious sweet corn, however it was boiled more and maybe roasted for a few seconds. The street corn in my opinion really wasn’t roasted it was boiled then slathered with the ingredients.
To be fair I’ve heard nothing but good things from friends that Tacoria’s Montclair location, and this all might simply be due to growing pains at a new location. I think in time Tacoria in Jersey City will be worth another visit. As for now the food honestly is very bland, Tacoria also has some stiff competition in the area. Jersey City Taco spots.
- Solid Taco Review Score: 6/10
- Taco Price: $8.75 for three, $2.95 for one
- Location(s): Jersey City, NJ – Montclair, NJ – Princeton, NJ – New Brunswick, NJ
Solid Taco Review 