Hi I’m Marcie Billen with Rüya Team Realty and Keller Williams Mulinix here in Norman, Oklahoma, and if you’ve been following our blog for a while, you may know that my husband, Hansom, and I are foodies! Today we want to talk about two of our favorite taco places in Norman: a taco truck and then a restaurant, so stay tuned!
For this review, we ordered tacos from Torchy’s Tacos and tacos from our local taco truck and will be discussing the different atmospheres of each restaurant, how each compare price wise, and of course, a taste test for each taco! For the comparison (and because, quarantine) we brought our tacos to the park for the taste test and to share our thoughts of the overall experience and values for the two different taco joints.
Atmosphere
One of the reasons that we like Torchy’s is because first of all, it’s really nice to be inside there. They have a pretty great indoor space, and their patio is even better. However, Torchy’s really haven’t perfected the art of takeaway, so a lot of times their tacos are kind of smooshed together and they may be missing some ingredients – just something we’ve noticed whenever we do take away with them. Torchy’s does really have a great bar, as well and have some pretty good drinks if you do decide to eat in. On the other hand, at the taco truck, they really don’t have that great of a space to eat at, so we do have to end up taking our taco truck tacos to the park, typically.
Price
We often drive across town just for the taco truck tacos – not only because they are delicious, but because you can’t beat the price! The taco truck tacos are really affordable. I mean, it cost only $3.50 for two taco truck tacos versus $9.50 I paid for the two at Torchy’s! So, yeah, you can see a big difference in price there, even though the tacos from Torchy’s are a bit bigger. The other reason we end up driving across town for the taco truck tacos is because it’s got some really fresh ingredients. The meat is like cooked to perfection, and it just tastes really fresh, and combined with the low prices, it just makes sense to make the trip when you’re craving tacos!
Taste Test!
A fun thing about Torchy’s is that they have some pretty interesting ingredients – so the one I tried during this review was shrimp and it’s got some like feta cheese, and cilantro, and then pickled onions on it. The other ones I tried were the Baja shrimp, and vegetarian. On the vegetarian, it’s a fried avocado, but they kind of smother it in their cheese, and add the beans and the fried avocado. It’s pretty good! And then of course at Torchy’s we do really, really like their queso! In this review, I didn’t end up getting any queso because I was eating lunch and if I had queso for lunch, then I probably want to take a nap after!
So Torchy’s has a flour tortilla. Now, you can choose corn or flour there; and I like the flour ones at Torchy’s because I kind of feel like the corn ones are a little bit stale a lot of times when I go there. What I like about the Baja is the pickled vegetables and the sauce, which is one of my favorites. It the chipotle ranch to put on top of it – I really like to eat this with the chips though too. Those pickled vegetables though, is what makes that taco, or one of the reasons that I order it. In Torchy’s vegetarian taco, the avocado tends to be really heavy. And depending on how fresh their avocado was, it can be really mushy.
I tried the carnitas taco at the taco truck, which is a pork taco. They also give you a choice of sauces with the taco truck tacos and I went with the red sauce; it’s kind of spicy. At both places, you can get lime, but I tend to use the lime more with these taco truck tacos. The taco truck tacos are a bit smaller and they have onions and some cilantro in them as well and taste SO fresh! The tortillas, you can tell they didn’t come from a bag, like they typically do at Torchy’s. It’s just a totally different, it’s a totally different taco.
What’s the verdict?
It’s hard for me to say which one I would choose if I could only pick one. I love each restaurant for different reasons! So it totally depends on what you want in your taco experience for a taco Tuesday, right? Whether you want to go sit in and have a good time at Torchy’s and get a drink and some queso, or if you want a great afternoon in the park with your taco truck tacos. Totally depends on what you’re looking for and you have to weigh the pros and cons. What will you decide?
