Del Taco - Second Time's a Charm

For those that are Facebook friends with me, you may recall I tried to knock Del Taco off the list on Saturday and was foiled by an order mix up. I can say their spicy shrimp tacos are pretty solid, but the mistake almost nixxed them from the competition. However, after an emailed gripe to corporate (this is America after all, complain and you'll get free stuff) the store manager, Robert, got a hold of me and told me to stop back in and give them another try on him. He made good on that promise at lunch today, the order was indeed correct, so time to review these for real.

This is not my first time having these particular fish tacos. I tend to be a fan of Del Taco, especially their burritos. They are filling and unique and generally tastier than other Mexican (well, heavily Americanized Mexican) fast food. This time I stuck to my rules, just the tacos and the side they were offered with (fries), no burritos or other fanciness.

Presentation - Being fast food this was never going to be a 5. However I like what they do with the tin foil and a lime wedge tucked in with each taco, so this category had potential. But to be fair, I have to ding them for the order mistake somewhere. Sorry Robert, 2nd time was fine, but 1st was no bueno. 1/5

Aroma - Mild but pleasant, the lime helped a good bit. Both the pico and sauce are pretty tame without much of a smell. 3/5

Value - This would be a point higher as just tacos (2 for $4, really solid deal IMHO) but as a combo it's not quite as good ($6.79). Still a solid deal for a filling meal, $7.20 with tax which puts it well under half of 10 Barrels price and at the lowest overall price thus far. 7/10

Fish - Alaskan pollock according to their website. To be honest this was a bit of a let down. I recall the fish being crispy and crunchy when I last had these, this order didn't quite live up to that memory. Good flavor but not as crisp as I'd like and a bit greasy. Chock it up to a bad batch maybe? Or this location still working out the kinks (they are the newest Del Taco in the valley)? Either way, a tad underwhelming but not bad. 5/10

Not Fish - You'll notice they nail the recipe; A good sized piece of fish, cabbage, pico de gallo, and white sauce wrapped in two corn tortillas with a slice of lime. Bang on and it shows. They lost a few points because both the pico and white sauce were a bit bland. The spicy sauce I accidentally had on the shrimp tacos on Saturday would have bumped these up at least a point. 7/10

Overall Taste - Follow a recipe and you'll do alright. Comes together nicely, could do with a bit more flavor but mass appeal is understandably the goal, so I can live with it. 7/10

Bonus Points - I gave them their lumps in Presentation, so nothing negative here, however it's a pretty standard fast food joint, so no positive either. +0

Overall Overall - 30/50

Had it not been for the order problem that would have been 33/50, putting them in a solid 4th.  Oh well, so goes the Tour de Fish Tacos. Side note, this is one of two places you can get fish tacos 24 hours a day, so that's something.