Condado Tacos

Condado is a Modern Mexican taqueria with fusion influences packaged in a nifty casual environment. The endless variations on build-your-own tacos give diners the option of customizing their perfect taco.

There are plenty of vegan and vegetarian options. Taco fillings include portobello mushrooms and Thai chili tofu. Taco shells include soft, hard and soft wrapped around a hard shell with guacamole and queso - obviously the wisest choice.

Overall, the best tip is to remember that less is more when selecting taco fillings. Scores of ingredients might score a messy taco.

The sweet Thai chili tofu is breaded and doused in a sweet-hot red sauce. It's a solid filling with more flexibility than the mushrooms. 

The bar is stocked with craft beers, top-shelf liquors and cocktails. There is an armada of margaritas that go great with everything. 

Service, like the atmosphere, is casual. Decor is heavy on the Day of the Dead. Vegetarian and vegan questions were answered effectively. The cards to order are located on each table, allowing diners to customize meals quickly and easily. 

Tacos Hass

Taco Hass is a Mexican gem secretly stashed in a Dublin strip mall. It is a casual spot with a wood-fired grill, and it is delightfully affordable. $10 buys a great meal here.

The bright space is located next to La Favorita Mexican Grocery. Taco Hass has a limited selection of alcoholic beverages a la Chipotle.

The vegetarian taco is the taco verde. Flour tortillas are filled with nopales - roasted prickly pear cactus - potatoes and melted white cheese. The soft cactus almost melts in your mouth, the potatoes add a nice texture and the salsa gives the taco a subtle spiciness. Four tacos is probably a reasonable lunch portion.

The quesadillas also pick up a nice flavor on the grill. They are a great vehicle for the different house-made salsas.

The menu is small, but the flavors are huge at Hass. Vegetarians only have a few options, but jt should be a main lunch destination for anybody withing a reasonable distance of this Sawmill Road delight.

Momocho Mod Mex

Momocho Mod Mex puts the modern spin on Mexican cuisine in the heart of Ohio City. Chef-owner Eric Williams, a two-time James Beard nominee, operates a restaurant that's fun, festive and flavorful.

The menu is chock full of vegetarian dishes, including the ever-popular flavors of guacamole. There is an extensive gluten-free menu. The chef whips up guacamole with traditional ingredients, and offers variations loaded with fresh ingredients that put a spin on the classic dip. Current options include goat cheese and roasted poblano guacamole, and a jicama, pineapple, habanero and mint guacamole.

The decor is fun. The darkly lit venue is covered in black and white photos of luchadors and unnamed figures in a style akin to the Day of the Dead, as well as some amazing looking low-rider bicycles over the kitchen and the entrance.

Servers did a good job handling a large party. There were minor issues with pacing and handling explicit instructions from diners when business picked up. Service was pretty good if short of outstanding.

The taquitos at Momocho are nothing like the ones endlessly spinning under the hot lamp at your local gas station, or buried in the back of your college fridge. Fillings included roasted beets, spinach, spicy peanuts and queso fresco, or roasted butternut squash, goat cheese and salted pepitas, both served with a chunky pico de gallo. The ingredients change with the seasons.

The bar offers excellent margaritas in a different flavors and formulations with an excellent menu of tequila and mezcal. Beers are mostly Mexican with a domestic beer made in a Latin American pilsner style.

Phatt Taco

Phatt Taco is a fast-casual lunch option in Downtown Columbus. It is located in the building that formerly housed Fresh 50 and Otero's Food Bar. It shares an owner with Phat Wraps on campus.

The dining room seats about 60. The menu features tacos and build-your-own tostadas. While vegetarian options are not plentiful, the counter service allows diners to customize dishes to order.

Topping options include vegetables like lettuce, tomato, onion, radish, stewed carrots, potato and hot peppers, rice, beans, salsas, sour cream, cilantro and sauces. 

There are also desserts available like cookies. They also eschew high-fructose corn syrup in beverages.

Bakersfield

Bakersfield Short North is the first local location of the Cincinnati hipster taqueria with a handful of locations. Much in the style of Chicago's Big Star, Bakersfield dishes up modern takes on classic Mexican tacos accompanied by a loud hillbilly/hard rock soundtrack and carefully crafted cocktails.

Although the meatless tacos on the menu list cheese as an ingredient, vegan items may be ordered on request. Taco fillings include rajas (poblano peppers cooked in cream) and huiltacoche (corn fungus - essentially the Mexican answer to truffles).

The guacamole is fresh and bright with hints of garlic, citrus and cilantro as well as a nice crunch from the radish garnish. The tortilla chips are dusted with red and black pepper, which gives them a nice punch.

The rajas tacos have a hint of roasted pepper that is fattened up by cheese. The huitlacoche is subtly rich. Umami explodes from the taco shell.

The margaritas are excellent. They are a great value with the right balance of tartness and sweetness. They are a great deal, particularly the house margarita at $6.

Service was very good. The staff answered all vegetarian questions, even quickly double checking with the kitchen on some inquiries. 

The word is out about Bakersfield, and the wait at night, especially on weekends, can be long. The line at lunchtime is typically shorter.

Lopez SouthWest Kitchen

Lopez is a Southwestern restaurant in Cleveland's suburbs with an interesting back story. It originally was envisioned as a huge international chain. While multinational domination was not achieved by the restaurants, there are still locations in Palm Beach, Beverly Hills, Mexico City and Cleveland Heights. Rick Bayless, a chef you might have heard of at some point with his heralded restaurants, television appearances, cookbooks and grocery store foodstuffs, was the first executive chef in the Cleveland Heights kitchen almost 30 years ago.

Dishes run the gamut from Tex Mex and regional Mexican to those that reflect the American South. The bar has a nice selection of tequilas, beer and wine, and makes adequate margaritas that are a touch expensive outside of happy hour.

There are many vegetarian dishes on the menu. Seasonal items, like the Mexican corn cake with mushrooms and arugula in a balsamic reduction, also come in meatless versions.

The guacamole is excellent. The delicious house-made chips were served in adorable little paper bags.

The tacos are massive. With a side dish, two mushroom tacos are a complete meal. The jalepeño cheese grits are excellent, as was the cornbread pudding.

The restaurant decor is fun. One picture puts Cleveland more than one thousand miles from Mexico, though the kitchen makes it feel much closer. Service was friendly and capable with only a few minor pacing hiccups in serving a large party. The attention to vegetarian concerns was excellent. 

Tortilla Street Food

Tortilla Street Food is a new food truck that brings the Chipotle approach to Mexican street food. They whip up the usual tacos, burritos, quesadillas and bowls, and all of the ingredients are pictured on the side of the truck, allowing diners to customize their meal.

All of the ingredients from Tortilla with the exception of meats are vegetarian. Toppings include white rice, Mexican rice, black beans, refried beans, fajita veggies, cold veggies like peppers and onions, queso dip, cheeses, a variety of sauces and sour cream.

Overall, the fare at Tortilla is closest in character to California Mexican. It is a good stand in for Chipotle.

Dishes are prepared in the assembly line fashion of fast-casual eateries. The burrito is large enough to be a very hungry person's lunch.

Side dishes include chips and dips such as salsa and guacamole. Tortilla also offers churros with strawberry filling, dusted with cinnamon sugar with chocolate and caramel dipping sauces as dessert.

Local Cantina

Local Cantina operates on the Grandview strip, preparing stylized interpretations of taco truck fare paired with beer, margaritas and other cocktails. The concept is reminiscent of Big Star in Chicago - a kitschy dive bar replete with inexpensive Mexican dishes.

The decor echoes this ethos. The walls are adorned with Mexican knick knacks and mustache artwork. 

Bar patrons and tables are sated by the endless self-serve well of chips and salsa on the floor.   While bottomless tortilla chips and roasted tomatillo salsa are tempting, my inner mysophobe thinks that this could become a breeding ground for germs during flu season. Consider this a warning for hypochondriacs.

The margaritas are made in a variety of formulations. Most are very good, but the drinks with agave nectar are overly sweet and lack finesse. The beer selection is good enough to keep craft enthusiasts as well as the Miller/Bud crowd happy.

The other appetizer dips are excellent. The guacamole has a great flavor with layers of lime, garlic and cilantro. The queso looks bland, but actually has a spicy base that lingers perfectly. The bottomless chips come in handy with these appetizers.

There are two vegetarian tacos on the menu at Local Cantina. The refried beans are vegetarian, and they are the base of a soft taco that also has cheese and the typical veggies. The rajas taco is a Central Mexican classic made with roasted poblano peppers, onions, cream and spices. The tacos pick up a richness that supports the smoky peppers. 

Dessert was a deep-fried chocolate chip cookie that failed on every level. The texture was tough to the point of being inedible. 

Service was uneven on multiple visits. Orders were delivered at inexact intervals, making it seem as if courses should be ordered in steps rather than all at once. Servers were not knowledgeable about vegetarian dining options, but also did not hesitate to ask the kitchen when requested.

Yabo's Tacos

Yabos' Tacos is a Mexican-American taqueria. Service is brisk at this new fast-casual Mexican operation.

Yabo's is located in the Delaware County portion of Westerville in the old Giammarco's Pizza location. The menu has interesting international accents. This works more as a frame than a limitation, and the vegetarian items at Yabo's are flavorful if not exactly authentic.

Tacos come with a choice of soft corn or flour tortilla for $2. The grilled veggie taco had a great smoky flavor that was nicely complemented by the burst of fresh, cold vegetables. The feta cheese in the taco acts much like cojita cheese in traditional Mexican preparations. The tacos can easily have their flavor augmented by the great house hot sauces (I like the serrano lime, a sauce with spicy citrus accents).

Lime was also a main flavor component of the guacamole in addition to cilantro, garlic and delicious avocado. Although it tasted excellent, the dish would have benefitted from more guacamole or less chips.

The beans are vegetarian. The refried beans are served with melted cheese.

Yabo's has a full bar with a focus on cheap beers. The plan for the restaurant is to expand to multiple locations in the next few years.

Mojo Tago

Mojo Tago is a taco truck that pops up at various locations around the Columbus area. I caught it this week at State and Third, but Mojo also has regularly been found on campus during Ohio State game day and in Westerville.

Owner Brian Reed's truck is big and well-appointed. It has a T-Shirt display rack and a tortilla chip window, placing its amenities at a slightly different level than those of the outer belt taco trucks. Its concept pays homage to the L.A. food truck scene that has garnered national media attention, but it also shares a common thread with Columbus' other mobile food impresarios like Rad Dog and Foodie Cart with a fun image not obscuring its focus on fresh ingredients.

The vegetarian taco is black beans, cabbage, cheese, avocado salsa and pico de gallo on a soft corn tortilla (2 for $5). It is messy, but delicious enough to clean up the fallout with tortilla chips.

Side orders include chips and dips, including avocado salsa or roasted tomatillo. The truck also offers a rotating special item.

Mojo Tago is Downtown through Friday for lunch. Check Facebook or Twitter for the location of the truck.

Mojo Tago

Mexica

The heart of Downtown Columbus seems to suffer from a shortage of options for those who enjoy Mission style burritos. There are West Coast burrito outlets like Cinco, but the quality is less than spectacular. There are also places like Chipotle in the Brewery District or the Arena District, but these establishments are not convenient for Downtown worker bees.

Mexica should easily be able to overcome both of these issues.

Located in the old Ah Chihuahua spot, Mexica features football-sized burritos as well as other favorites like tacos, fajitas, quesadillas, chimichangas and nachos. The food is made fresh in house daily.

The interior of Mexica is far more tastefully appointed than that of its predecessor. The store looks clean, and the wood-accented interior adds a nice ambiance to the restaurant.

The big caveat for vegetarians is that while the pinto beans are vegetarian safe, the Mexican rice which is included as an ingredient or a side in a few dishes is made with chicken stock. The staff was able to answer my vegetarian questions, and they quickly alerted me to the animal products on the menu.

Although the Mexican rice is part of a number of dishes, Mexica is happy to substitute ingredients into orders or to create items based upon dietary restrictions.

An added bonus at Mexica is that those who eat on site get free chips and salsa with their order. The salsa bar includes hot and mild salsa, a green chile salsa, pico de gallo, corn salsa and a creamy cilantro sauce akin to the highly addictive El Arepazo condiment.

Despite how delicious the other vegetarian options looked, I had to order the burrito. While the traditional burrito is made with Mexican rice, the regular burrito is made with lime-flavored white rice. It is stuffed with cilantro, pinto beans, lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream and grilled veggies including peppers, squash and onions. The notes of cilantro and lime complement the smoky vegetables nicely, and the fresh flavor is outstanding.

Mexica features a few authentic beverage choices, including Jarritos and horchata, a delicious drink made with rice, cinnamon, vanilla and sugar.

Calorie counters have the option of ordering their burrito in a bowl to eliminate the carbohydrates in the tortilla. Other safe options for vegetarians include guacamole, veggie tortas, and queso dip.

Mexica has $1 off specials Monday through Friday. In order, burritos, nachos, fajitas, taco salads and bowls are $1 on a given day of the week (check out the photos for details).

Although its a crowded marketplace for Downtown restaurants, Mexica should stand out. The combination of fresh flavors and fair prices should be buzzing along when the wheels really get rolling.

Mexica