Introduction

Big Taco, which opened on May 27, is located on East Mitchell Hammock. Since it is new to Oviedo, I was curious and went to see if it is a place worth eating at, or worth skipping altogether.

At the restaurant, I tried four different food platters, each of which I rated on a scale of one to 10 in this article. I will express my opinion and observations on the service as well, along with the price and atmosphere.

Overview of restaurant

The outside of the restaurant is a generally subtle image, with only a plain white sign displaying its name hanging above the entrance. If you have never seen it, or simply walked by it several times and failed to notice the restaurant (I wouldn’t blame you), it is located next to T-Jay’s Seafood Shack in Oviedo On The Park.

Compared to the outside, the interior is quite staggering. Colors of all kinds surround you, and at first it is a little overwhelming. You see splashes of pink, then swirls of black and white, then dots of blue. 

After hastily soaking in all of the colors, my attention automatically shifted to the paintings on the wall. Despite the vibrance of the restaurant, the company tried to go with a Southwest theme, and decorated the giant images as such. It was quite a shock to see Wild West Mona Lisa and Einstein with his suit and bright red bandana placed on the wall, along with other famous figures in the same theme. 

In the center of the restaurant are about a dozen tables, all small and fit a maximum of six people. 

Menu Items

Street fries–Carnitas Royale: 3/10

I want to start out by saying I have not liked fries for many, many years, so this might have affected my opinion a bit. 

When I asked an employee what I just had to order, this item was the first thing she pointed out. Known for the abundance of queso, steak and guacamole, it is by far Big Taco’s most popular appetizer. 

The dish is an explosion of flavoring and salt. My eyes started watering at the first bite, as the salt did not just coat the fries, but also the queso and steak. It did not take all that long for me to push the dish away, as there was little more in all of the food than salt and salt, and then more salt.

Steak burrito: 6/10

When you go to a Mexican restaurant, you know that you have to order a burrito. So I did.

At Big Taco, you can order a variety of different meats and toppings to put inside of your burrito, from beef to chicken, and guacamole to onions. I decided to make a safe choice and have steak with only lettuce, tomato, and cheese.

The steak, by far, was the best part. It was very juicy and flavorful, just like steak should be. However, after eating a couple bites, a bitter aftertaste stayed in my mouth. The lightness of the lettuce and cheese helped wash the aftertaste away, so I would totally recommend getting those two items to add on. The tortilla, surprisingly, was very light and flaky, yet thick enough to hold everything very well. Not once did any part of the burrito fall apart, which is very unlike any other I have tried.

I would recommend this dish, though I would choose a different meat and maybe, if you want more flavor, add guacamole or another topping. If I go back, I definitely will.

Quesadilla: 2/10

I will just start out by saying that I do not recommend this dish. There are so many things wrong with it, and I would advise you to stay clear of any of the quesadillas at the restaurant.

Instead of being light and soft like it should be, the tortilla was hard and crunchy, making it very difficult to bite into. It took me so long to actually try to eat it that after that, I really just gave up.

The rest of it had just about no flavor. I ordered cheese and chicken, something basic enough to hopefully give a good review on. How wrong I was. The chicken seemed to blend into the cheese, and the cheese blended into the tortilla. The dish is a cycle of doom before you even swallow it.

Two Big Tacos: 4/10

I got one beef and one chicken taco with simple cheese, lettuce and tomato for the toppings. Again, I had hoped going straightforward would make it better. Wrong again!

I have a high spice tolerance, and most things at restaurants don’t have that big of a kick as they’re supposed to. Yet this beef was flavorful enough that the spice coated my tongue for several minutes. It was not spicy in the way you would expect, but in a way that was mixed with the brutality of rich, fake-tasting seasoning. Its add-ins helped level out the flavor a bit, but even now, days later, I can still taste it…

The chicken on the other taco was a complete opposite to the beef. I felt the chicken there, but could not taste it. It was as if I was merely imagining the meat, but, in reality, there was only a hard shell of corn and lettuce, tomato, and cheese.

I would not recommend either taco. Don’t let it ruin your meal like it ruined mine.

Chips: 8/10

Though the chips were not an actual entree, I would like to highlight them since they came with each of my meals except for the street fries. 

I am the kind of person who likes a lot of salt on her chips, especially those at Mexican restaurants. To my absolute delight, salt covered the chips completely. To my absolute confusion, Big Taco decided to add pepper to the chips. There was more pepper than salt, for some odd, twisted reason, and though it did not ruin my spirit all together, it was definitely worth mentioning.

Service

No employee either seemed like they did not know what they were doing or was unkind in any way. As soon as I stepped into the restaurant, an employee saw my family (quite confused as we glanced at the menu and surveyed the empty restaurant), and seemed to know a lot about the menu, what was on it, and what was currently popular. 

Whether I was at the counter ordering the food or at my table, I could always count on someone being there to help me out. 

I would say the service is the best part of the restaurant, as everyone is trained and seems to have lots of experience with the place.

Price and value

The average price for an order of food at Big Taco is $10, and considering the size of each item, I would say that is a fair price. However, accounting for the actual value and condition of the food, it is way too expensive. I ordered all four dishes listed above with a tip, and it came to $50. In addition, I ordered a lemonade, which was about four dollars. This drink was overpriced, as you could go to a grocery store and get something triple its size for the same price. It would even be a better quality.

Overall, I would say that the place is more expensive than it should be.

Overall impression

I would not recommend the restaurant. Even from the beginning, just walking into the restaurant made me want to walk out and find food somewhere else. The vibe is crazy, confusing, and the food was even worse, and left me sick for the next day. If you want Mexican food, go somewhere else. This restaurant, though it might be new, is not worth your time.

Really, Big Taco was a big disappointment– 3/10.