Toro Taco is located in Market Square in the uptown core of Saint John, New Brunswick. It is a mall food court restaurant that serves Mexican food with a variety of sauces and toppings to go with them. There are few places that I have not tried in Saint John when it comes to nachos, and this was one of the places I have always overlooked... normally when I go to Market Square I end up at Lemongrass for some Thai Food or to the Ale House. It was nacho week at the nearby Gahan House, but we ended up stopping by Market Square to meet a friend, so we took the risk of trying the unknown-to-us Toro Taco nachos rather than the familiar Gahan House nachos. Did the risk pay off?
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| Toro Taco Beef Nachos - November 2021 |
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| Toro Taco Beef Nachos - November 2021 |
Distribution of Toppings
These are different nachos from what I usually review. These nachos are not baked or broiled, which is probably the case with any food court nachos. There was very little shredded cheese, lots of queso, and a decent amount of the other toppings we asked for. Queso tends to spread everywhere when poured on, so not a big challenge to achieve distribution in that respect. The other toppings were present throughout.
Quality
I have to say the risk did not pay off. Gahan House's Nacho Week experience would have been superior to this experience. To sum up the quality: these are what you want the movie theatre nachos to be. I really appreciated the variety of toppings. For example, you can have the South American chimichurri added for a sauce, which is not an option anywhere else that I have gone for nachos. I liked that they use corn tortilla chips.
I do like some queso on nachos, but I'd rather not have them drenched in it. I'd rather the queso be a secondary cheese and the cheddar/jack blend be the primary cheese. However, with this type of nachos which are not baked, the use of queso is required and understandable. In addition, since you get to pick all your toppings at Toro Taco, and you have a lot of say in how you want your nachos (minus the option to have them oven baked), it makes it harder to rate the quality because, really, the customer has quite a part to play in the quality.
Value
The nachos are $12.75 and guacamole is $2.50 extra. You should see the menu online which describes all the options you can have for that price. I think the value is fair given the amount of toppings you can have, and the opportunity for customization by the customer.
Quantity
We shared this for lunch and we were satisfied; however, keep in mind that we had a huge breakfast at Cora's that morning! I think that it would have been good for one person for a meal.
Conclusion
Simply put: these are fancy food court nachos. They're not in the same league as what you get at a sit-down restaurant. That being said, we enjoyed them! We felt really satisfied having these for lunch. When I have food court or cafeteria type nachos, I normally go back to previous similar reviews and compare the experience. For some reason, these nachos made me think of the Grand Manan Adventure Ferry nachos, which was probably a pretty surprising review to read given how the picture looked. You never know what you're going to get when you order nachos in unfamiliar or unconventional settings.
I always look for the toast factor in nachos, which can't be a thing with these nachos which are not baked. Despite this, I cannot dock them too much for the lack of the toast factor because I loved the variety of toppings, the quality of toppings, and the value. These deserve to be higher than some other nachos I've rated, but they're not going to make the Hometown Top 10 unless they start using an oven.
Nacho Blog Rating: B-