Taco Box - Buenos Aires

I knew if I scoured the streets of Palermo Hollywood I would eventually find a place serving up (or at least claiming to serve up) some Mexican cuisine. And sure enough while walking Fitz Roy one day I spotted Taco Box. This place is really more of a bar than a restaurant but they serve up some Mexican style finger foods to satisfy those late night munchies while you're imbibing a few frozen margaritas or cold Coronas.

The bar is located in a nice building and they've retained the antique look and feel of the place and thrown in a little bit of green and red here and there to give the place a Mexican mood and ambiance. The waiters and waitresses are all very young and about my only complaint was that they seemed more interested in swiping away at their cell phones and chatting with each other than they did to taking care of customers. Since it wasn't busy this approach to customer service didn't affect me all that much but it was still a bit annoying seeing them all sitting at the bar (that's the waiters in white in the slider photo at the bar.)

Taco Box offers a variety of tacos, burritos and quesadillas, including a "Tacos Set" which is combo-priced (six for the price of four) at $148 (about US$12) which is enough for three to six nibblers and possibly two or three normal appetites as each of the tacos was a fairly good size. That's a pretty good price for food enough for two or possibly even three. Now this was nothing really close to authentic Mexican but it did have some of the familiar Mexican flavors and was at a minimum tasty and satisfying. They didn't cinch on the sour cream and other goodies loaded into the tacos. So despite the lack of variety of typical Mexican dishes on the menu, what they did serve up was pretty darn good.

They have Corona beer and frozen margaritas on tap at really reasonable prices too ($65 for the Corona and $60 for the Margarita). As you can see from slider photo the Margarita I ordered was in a fairly substantial glass and was filled to the salted brim (I had already slurped half of it down when I decided to take the photo). And you could taste the tequila. This was not a watered down frozen drink. If you're feeling really adventurous you can try the Mexican Bulldog (a huge Margarita glass with enough of the frozen concoction for two and two inverted Coronas for good measure (check out the photo in the slider). At $159 the Margarita for 2 was a deal. With the two Coronas adding to the bulk of the drink this one can get you dizzy for pocket change. A real value if getting a buzz is on the agenda.

A nice, trendy atmosphere, with a young and energetic staff (if they would just direct the energy into their work), unique and tasty food and drinks at really reasonable prices, make Taco Box a great spot for having a drink with one or few friends and munching down on some satisfying grub. With a "cubierto" of only $12 per person, two people can make a night of it for just over $300 ($24 USD). The meal alone would cost that at most restaurants.

So how does Taco Box match up against similar casual dining, bar and bistro-pubs? We're giving them a 3.5 for execution, a 3.5 for service, a 4 for ambiance, a 4 for creativity (at least it wasn't a boring, overcooked steak) and whopping 4.5 on the value scale. That gives Taco Box a 3.9 stars overall. I repeat. This is not a place to go for an authentic Mexican meal. It doesn't even try to make that claim. It's a great resto-bar for eating and drinking at a price that won't break make you break the piggy bank. Worth a visit if that's you're evening objective. Oh by the way. They aren't open for lunch which considering the impact that Bulldog could make on office productivity, is probably a good thing.