Tico has been open for quite a while, but first, it’s always packed with people and second, if you know me you know I already have my favorite mexican/tex-mex/taco/latin food places allllll picked out. But, I’m on a “let’s try something new” thing right now, so off we went to Tico a few weeks ago.
One of their signature items is a hibiscus margarita. I don’t even like margaritas–really not a fan–and I thought this one was relatively tasty. It’s also bright pink (DH loves fruity drinks). The hibiscus margarita and the rose sangria (which I had) were both $9-10, tasted good, but were mostly ice. Really unnecessary for cocktails “on draft”. I haven’t had that much ice in something since I had a snow cone at the carnival. Seriously.
In addition to the cocktails, we had 4-5 appetizers/small plates and 2 sets of tacos. We started with a decent crab tostada (not pictured), and some scallops. The scallops were dressed with some tasty piquillo peppers, and were fine. They were cut in half, which always annoys me a bit with scallops since it ‘looks’ like you are getting more, but you’re really just getting half a scallop when you pull them out of the sauce. Can’t really go wrong with some paprika, oil, peppers, and scallops!
In addition to being on a try something new kick, I’m on a eat octopus whenever possible binge. I’m obsessed with octopus. This octopus was quite tasty–it had chickpeas, vinaigrette, and pickled shallots. The combination was a wee bit too much if you got everything in your mouth at once, but individually they were delicious and the octopus was cooked to perfection. Tender tender tender.
The tacos were probably some of the best we’ve had recently–the pork tacos has a little bit of fried rind on top and just enough habanero to give it some pop. These were really good. We also ordered the beef two ways–those had been shortrib, and were also flavorful, well-balanced, and the meat was perfectly cooked. The beef tacos weren’t spicy like the pork.
Verdict? If we went back, it would be for happy hour ($6 cocktails) and we’d order tacos ($4 tacos). That would definitely be the way to go at Tico. Just beware, it can get really crowded during happy hour, so go early if you want to snag a seat. Not complaining to have another reasonable option with good food in the neighborhood, but for the price, we can definitely get tacos elsewhere.
