Taco Cowboy

The whole Tom and Leigh Catherall divorce was the kind of drama that you could make a show of it on Bravo, what was even a bigger drama was how abruptly the entire Here to Serve group of restos went dark one day under Leigh Catherall's ownership and left hundreds of people out of work...Which was a real shitty thing to do. She ran the entire empire into the ground... But some may say it's because of the lawsuit regarding the transfer of leases... Yeah, bullshit. No mall owner wants to close down long running tenants with proven revenue streams. There's things that happened behind the scenes that we will never be privy to and that's ok because I thought most of those restos sucked ass anyways... They were always catered towards women and the urban crowd... And we all know anyone who comes here for the food must have amazing palates. I felt bad for the employees but for all the discerning pouches of da ATL, it was a bitter sweet victory.
So, what to do with all the spaces that was left emptied... Hell, let's start up tomtom again by the one and only Tom Catherall himself to rub the shit in you know who's face when they're down... I fucking love it. But of course, no public bitter divorce ever ends nicely and he was forced to changed the name to Taco Cowboy... Yeah, I know what y'all are thinking because I'm thinking the same thing... Well, maybe not the exact same thing with my dirty mind. It's an awful name but is the menu as well?
Let's do a quick peek on this joint and see if it has the cojones to stick around and recapture the magic he once had in this town.  

Nashville/hot fried chicken, lettuce, pickles, ranch, white bread. What da fuk... If you have to hide the main ingredient, there's something wrong already... I shoveled off the low rent iceburg and it was a tiny piece of cheekan finga... It was the size of a frozen fish stick. And it had NOTHING on it... I had to ask for hot sauce, they didn't even have a hot sauce for this N'ville hot cheekan, they gave me Cholula... I'm like Jesus fuck, dude, are you kidding me? The kitchen whipped up some dark looking oil concoction that looked straight from the trap and it was all oil and no heat whatsoever. It was bland and even the kitchen agreed. This was such a joke... Basically, $5 for a children's portion of an unseasoned cheekan finga... What an insult.

Hawaiian Tuna Poke, mango, cucumber. Looked like they put some thought and effort into it... That was until you examined it closer. The tuna looked and tasted old, the color wasn't from any seasoning or dressing. If you ever had tuna sit in a fridge long enough it transforms into a gummy bear like appearance and texture. The rice underneath was supposed to be sushi rice but if you inspect it closely, it was instant rice... Yeah, like Uncle Ben's shit. You can always tell instant rice by their puffiness like a rice crispy. And that smear of sauce made the plate look like 8 plies of TP. The entire composition just tasted like old leftovers and borderline on going bad. If the ingredients were prepared fresh, it woulda been a totally different story. But I didn't expect them to make a proper poke anyways.

Korean Beef Taco, kimchi, cilantro, pickles. Oh, lookie here, a flour tortilla.. Why am I not surprised? Not like they specialize in tacos or anything. This corean beef was tough and chewy and that kimchi/pickles should be called toe-cheez, not a hint of fermentation at all. Squirting a little fake gochujang on top make not a Korean taco. $5 for this disappointment... Just add it to the other disappointments in my life... Like career choice, body image...

Grilled Octopus, cannellini beans. This looked great on the cute starfish dish... But we know gimmicks can't hide the taste of the food. While it looked pretty decent, the octopus itself was a bit dried out and chewy. It was also bland as fuck, totally unseasoned. It's not terrible but for the price you pay, you expect them to put a little effort into it... Like seasoning it.

Fried Springer Mountain Farms Chicken, chipotle mash taters, ancho chili sauce. Holy fuck, finally, something they had to cook to order... The fried cheekan was pretty good, hot, crispy and juicy.. But is it really a fried chicken when it's boneless? The mash taters were tepid and the ancho chili sauce tasty like rust... Jesus, can you just order the fried chicken on the side, alone... If you can, then it's a hit.

Macaroni + Cheese, three cheese sauce. Nothing special to write home about but it will do when all else sucked.

Maybe it was an off day or something, but I don't know how this place is gonna last with poor executions like this... I don't know maybe people around here don't really care about the food, it's about the socializing and to see and be seen in Va-Hi. The pouch can gave two fucks about being seen... Let me rephrase that, I don't want to be near anyone when I'm noshing... Look away, I'm hideous! I was still hungry after this slop... Time to go somewhere else to get something else to eat. And if you were me, go eat somewhere else and then come here for drinks and if you must, only order a couple of small plates to nibble on so you don't look like some hobo. But there's one thing here that still keeps me interested... They do a fried cheekan night on Mondays... Hmmm, I may be persuaded to try it, if I bathe in a tub of whiskey first..

1000 Virginia Ave NE
Atlanta, GA 30306
http://tacocowboy.com/