Sunday, July 17, 2011

Nico's Mexican Food (Broadway and Park Place Mall-ish)

There are quite a few "Nico's" around Tucson. Some are "Nico's Mexican Food" and others are "Nico's Taco Shop." Is there a difference? I honestly have no idea, but I guess I will try to figure out this age-old mystery through my burrito travels. Or if you're one of my millions of readers and you know this information, please leave your wisdom in the comments section. For now, until I see a difference I will assume they are the same place but I'll put the actual store name in the title of my review.

I'm having an embarrassingly difficult time getting a decent burrito picture on each review. I'll keep trying but this blogging technology is confusing. I enjoy the olden days when I just had a directory full of pictures and dumped them in there.

Nico's is a staple around Tucson, be it from the quantity of locations or their late-night availability of green chili burritos. I'm trying to judge breakfast burritos, so let's see how they did. How about my usual ham?

The burrito is a great size - just a bit too much but the correct size if you're starving. To me, that's the perfect burrito size. Ingredients are good, not great, and the overall burrito falls on the dry side. That's not bad, as long as the joint offers good salsa. Unfortunately that's where Nico's lacks. The red salsa is vinegary and not chunky. A small amount of spice is added but also a bit of oiliness. I call this salsa, salsa water[1].

I was offered one tub of salsa for my burrito. My wife had a sausage burrito and enjoyed it. She has also had a chorizo burrito at one point in the past and didn't care for it. The chorizo completely dominates the burrito experience. We ended up putting our own salsa on the burrito and enjoyed it much more.

Final Verdict: A good but not great burrito. Good because of its size, not great because it needs salsa from an outside source.

Haiku!
Red salsa or green,
doesn't matter, it's water.
Vinegar is strong.

Burrito Thoughts and Other Comments
  • Cost: $4.53? I think that is the price. A little expensive.
  • Weight: 15.5 ounces
  • Ham, egg, potato, cheese. At least I didn't have to add this place to the potato mystery.
  • Monsoon in Tucson! However, I haven't decided if I like low-humidity mornings or cooler evenings due to rain.

Know Your Burrito Vocab
[1]Salsa water - an offering of salsa that contains no chunks.