My daughter and I were out on a holiday shopping run to World Market on Camelback and we were looking for a quick meal that wasn’t your every day fast food chain, simply because lately we’d had too much of that. And as we weren’t looking for the full sit-down experience of a traditional restaurant, normally you’d think we’d be out of luck, but as it happens we saw this very unassuming place at the street end of a strip mall in the Best Buy and Michael’s parking lot.
It has an outdoor patio of sorts, clean and tidy enough, but didn’t seem like this was the time of day when people were eager to sit outside, and honestly it looked like their front door belonged to the store next door, which it didn’t look like was opening any time soon, but with the confirmation of the logo’s forks on the door handle, my daughter led the way into what turned out to be one of our best food adventures recently.
There was a little awkwardness as this was our first time and instead of an order taker opposite us at the counter, we got to introduce ourselves to the automated ordering system sitting on the counter. That honestly wasn’t my favorite part of the experience, especially as first timers with no way of knowing if what we were ordering was the right amount, the right menu selections, or how to edit our order, but after a little bit we figured most of it out fairly easily, placed our order, and found a seat.
Almost immediately someone came out with our drinks, despite us having an electronic beeper instead of a table flag, and then immediately thereafter someone else came out with our chips and dip, something that as we found our seats passing other tables, we had seen was absolutely emptied out at every table we passed. While we waited for our order, we obviously got started on that, and I think it’s fair to say that my daughter hogged most of that order all to herself, though I did get a few bites in, at least the ones she thought she needed to leave out of respect. And to say she Hoovered them like Electrolux and Dyson were going out of business really wouldn’t be much of an overstatement.
It was surprisingly quickly though that our actual orders came out, and the smells were fantastic. Clearly fresh food, freshly cooked, decent portions, and stuffed with ingredients to the point that picking up my tacos meant that something was going to fall off.
Bite after bite, we didn’t have a bad bite between us. I had the chicken and steak tacos, and my daughter had a burrito, and both orders were excellent, to the point that we both wanted second helpings but we also knew that neither of us had room for them.
With a very casual dining look, they had a separate bar area for alcohol and some great tvs for watching sports, and the staff clearly know their roles and how to make the most of the experience for the customers, to the point that if you can get past the fact that it’s elevated fast food, it really would be close to a date night favorite in the Mexican food category. It’s not very expensive, the service is great, and the food quality is definitely there so anyone can actually have a great experience there, but it’s not going to be your fine dining haunt, if that’s what you’re looking for.
Torchy’s Tacos is a place I’ll definitely come back to when I’m in the area and I’m pretty sure if I go without my daughter I will regret mentioning it to her for quite some time afterwards. It left an impression for sure.
Unassuming, surprisingly good food, and a great experience when we needed one.
If you want to visit them yourselves, they’re located at 1935 E Camelback Road#C-130, Phoenix, AZ. P. 602.855.9992
