Inside and out, Nixtaco is very unassuming for a restaurant with a Michelin star. It’s not in some special or even “nice” location either. I almost thought we had come to the wrong place.    

Underwhelmed, I held out my judgment until I tried the food- which was a good decision on my part.

Octopus taco: 

Octopus can be very dodgy. But, it is one of the “creative and classic tacos” Nixtaco is known for.

I was ready to have my expectations from haunting past experiences subverted; luckily for me, Nixtaco smashed it.

After a look through I decided to order an octopus taco and a fried chicken taco; when they came out, I immediately went for the octopus. Instead of chewing rubber, the octopus was similar to shrimp in texture and taste-wise was like the white meat on chicken with spicy sauce and fresh toppings. 

Fried chicken taco:

Quality fried chicken. Crispy, juicy, tender, spicy. It has grilled cheese on it –  good grilled cheese, and I don’t like cheese much, actually. 

 The only thing that wasn’t great is that the shape of a whole piece of fried chicken doesn’t fit well in a taco as opposed to small pieces of meat.        

 Try playing Jenga with a piece of chicken and your mouth – rough.

Churros:

The churros have a good crunch without being too hard, and they’re soft on the inside (they look soft too). They’re good for a couple bites with minimum sauce on the top. The thing with the carmel sauce is that it tastes sickly sweet and getting a bite full of it means that’s all you can taste. 

I am anti-caramel sauce, better to just have plain slightly sweet crunchy churro.

Chips & salsa:

Before anything else on this list was ready, we had complimentary chips and salsa for the table, four different kinds from mildest to hottest. All my love goes to the peanut chipotle salsa; it’s very peanutty, a little spicy, and a great consistency for scooping with a chip.

Price point and wait time compared to other restaurants: Chandos

Nixtaco’s top 3 popular items average out to about $5.80, while Chando’s tacos cost $4.20. For a difference of $1.60, Nixtaco is definitely worth it for the taste and experience.    

Chandos has the vibe of a mall food court, and the tacos don’t have much of a taste besides the onion on top. 

Wait time is no concern either; at Nixtaco, our wait time for three people and five items in a half-full restaurant was about 17 minutes. Chando’s wait time for the same amount of items and people while it was completely empty was eight minutes.

 Great food, great service; Nixtaco is up to Michelin-star standard.