I'm now seriously hunting for a good local taco place. Admittedly, I'm biased in favor of fresh, hand-made tortillas, but I'm willing to settle. I'm slightly biased towards corn-tortillas and "soft" tacos, but I'm willing to try other options. If I can find a place with good, fresh tacos, and Mexican Coca-Cola, I'll be ecstatic.

My first attempt at finding a good local taco was atTaco del Mar is a taco chain, with locally owned franchises. They began as a Seattle business, but have opened franchises elsewhere. They offer burritos, tacos, and quesadillas, with fish, beef, ground beef, chicken, pork or veggie fillings. Since it's a franchise, the local operation may be quite different from franchise to franchise. The Taco Del Mar we tried was staffed by a single worker, working from a steam table and a taco press. You'd think, from the name, that they featured fish and sea food. Not so much. They did have fish on the menu, but didn't exactly have pride of place. We had a beef taco, and a pork taco. The beef was ground beef, slightly seasoned and fairly salty; the pork was roasted, seasoned, shredded pork, and was, of the two, much better. The tacos were both corn hard-shell tacos—we weren't asked what we wanted. The hot sauce was in fact pleasantly hot, and not for the mild palate; the medium was quite mild. Both tacos came with pico de gallo, and though we asked for guacamole and sour cream, those were not included (we weren't charged for them, either).

This is my first vist to a Taco Del Mar. My general verdict was that—well it wan't awful, but it wasn't exactly memorable, either. Would I go there again? Possibly, if I wanted inexpensive tacos and it was convenient. It wasn't particularly speedy however, and, well, I'd rather get a taco from a food truck. This was a little too close to generic chain tacos than I'd like, while it cost about twice as much. I think I'll keep looking for a local fresh taco place; I can't imagine not finding a good local taqueria.