Review: Tacos & Tequila for taco lovers everywhere

It wasn’t a Tuesday, but it was definitely taco night for me, as this foodie-for-hire made his way to Tacos & Tequila with two Naples locations (Davis Blvd., and the Pavilion), and soon-to-be, three locations (Estero). For the record, I was at the Davis location.  

So do you have friends who crave authentic Mexican tacos? How about friends who prefer the Americanized version best? Did you answer yes to both? Well, now there’s a place where all your Mexican food loving friends can come together.

I live in both worlds. That’s why I had the carnitas (seasoned jerked pork) on a corn-soft tortilla and the “Mom’s Taco,” which features ground beef on a hard-corn shell, just like your Mom made (and if she wasn’t Latina).

Each of the authentic tacos comes with a pile of meat and two soft tortillas, topped with cotija cheese, sliced radishes, cilantro, a lime wedge and specialty salsas. To be honest, I make two tacos out of each of these. The only thing to warn you about here if you are a lover of “real” tacos, there is one important diversion from the norm, the pork is extra lean. Lovers of fat look elsewhere.    

The hard taco come with the traditional toppings – lettuce, diced tomatoes, shredded cheese – but beware, the sour cream costs extra. Yet this still may stand above your moms, because they make the shell in house, they didn’t take it out of an Old El Paso cardboard box. Just saying.

My partner-in-dine got the chorizo tacos on a soft corn tortilla, with the same toppings and trimmings as my carnitas. For those who are hearing chorizo for the first time, it’s ground up sausage with a Latin flare or “ground beefs spicy pork cousin from ‘south of the border.’ ”

Almost forgot to mention, while you’re waiting on your entree, you get chips and salsa. It falls more toward the Americanized side, but it’s still great salsa without the extra spicy pitfalls some restaurants employ to sell more drinks.   

Yes, you can take issue with what I call authentic or Americanized; but one thing’s for sure, you won’t take issue with the taste, no matter what you order.   

If you go

Tacos & Tequila

4834 Davis Blvd., Naples

tacosandtequilanaples.com