You'll Go Crazy for Taco Asylum's New Menu - CLOSED

Taco Asylum

2937 Bristol St., Suite B102

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Sometimes, you just have to start all over with a clean slate. That's the feeling I got returning to Taco Asylum. A new head chef, a new general manager, a new menu, and a new owner. Before May of this year, Taco Asylum was part of the Haven Collective, which included Haven Gastropub and Provisions Market. Former partial owner of Taco Asylum, Ace Patel, has now taken over the entire reign of this restaurant and brought in his own people, including new Executive Chef Carlos Anthony.

Chef Carlos has quite the restaurant pedigree. He's worked at the critically acclaimed Searsucker in San Diego and at Michelin-starred Redd's in Northern California. He takes over the kitchen at Taco Asylum with a lot of energy. We had the privilege of speaking with him at this new menu preview at Taco Asylum, and his personality is definitely infectious. Katie and I could sense his excitement for the tacos here, and he assured us that he had many taco ideas running around in his head. He excited both of us about what was coming out of the kitchen shortly.

One big thing they have changed here at Taco Asylum is doing away with the small, street-sized tacos. All tacos are served on a 6-inch tortilla. The menu features 11 specialty, four vegetarian, and four classic tacos. I'm glad they included classic tacos, including carnitas, chicken, carne asada, and a fish taco. When we were here before, we saw two parties looking at the old menu and walking out. This new menu allows less adventurous eaters to eat here and be more comfortable with the food. I was also pleased to see they got away from their sides of lentils and quinoa, which they amusingly called "beans and rice." Not sad to see those items go. If you'd like to see our old review of Taco Asylum and how far they have come, click here. 

Back to the present day, though. For those of you who are not aware, Taco Asylum is located on Bristol in Costa Mesa, inside the Camp shopping center. For all the changes to the menu and staff here, the inside of Taco Asylum is the same. In a small space, a tiny bar seats four or so, facing a large HD TV above their six rotating craft beer tap handles. Let's see if all these changes are positively impacting Taco Asylum.

While waiting for the other food media to arrive (slackers), we munched on some Chili-Lime Tortilla Chips ($3.50). These were served with salsa verde and salsa rojo. I'm always a little more partial to red salsa, and that was the case here at Taco Asylum. The chips were crisp, and they had just the right amount of seasoning on them to not overpower the chip. I managed to eat these sparingly, as I knew there were tacos in my future.

I know I promised you tacos, but the beverage program at Taco Asylum is definitely worth mentioning first. They, of course, have their six rotating taps, but they also have a great selection of canned beers, which range in price from $6 to $8, and $2 off of those during happy hour, which is Monday through Friday, 3PM to 5PM, and a late night happy hour from 9PM til closing. I was impressed with the beer selection, and I liked that they were listed on the menu from light to dark, so even a beer novice like myself could act like I knew what I was doing. Sydney runs the beverage program here and does a great job. She steered me to this Bikini Blonde Lager by the Maui Brewing Company. It was a lighter beer but still had plenty of taste. A perfect pairing with the tacos that were coming up next.

With 20 tacos on the menu, it was hard for me to pick three to try at Taco Asylum. I went with the Carnitas, Bacon PB and J, and Duck Mole. Let's examine each of these tacos closer.

The first one was what others called Chef Carlos's "baby," the Duck Mole Taco ($7.50). He got his mole recipe from his grandmother, and he has definitely made her proud with this. This is an Oaxacan mole with braised duck leg, queso fresco, and salsa crudo. It was not as sweet as other moles I have had, but it was a great compliment to the very tender duck. They definitely did not skimp on the amount of duck they used in this, either. An excellent taco, and it's easy to see why the staff here has such an affinity for it.

I was happy that they had some classic tacos on their new menu, so I had to try one of them. Carnitas Tacos ($3.75) is my usual barometer for judging Mexican restaurants, and this taco passed with flying colors. They use bone-in braised pork, salsa rojo, and pico, garnished with a lime wedge. A straightforward take on a pork taco. The carnitas were moist and flavorful, the pico was fresh, and the hint of citrus the lime added gave this taco a pop of flavor. Nicely done.

When I saw Bacon PB and J Taco ($4) on the menu, I had to try it. You might not think this would work like Slater's Peanut Butter and Jealousy Burger, but you'd be wrong. Included in the flour tortilla were roasted peanut butter, a carrot-ginger jam, greens, a strip of sweet and spicy bacon, and pickled Fresno chili. This was a very balanced taco. The carrot and ginger jam added a nice sweetness, while the plentiful amount of bacon here added a smokiness. It was all evened out by the smooth peanut butter. This is a taco I can see myself getting on every trip to Taco Asylum.

Katie also selected three tacos this evening. The Paneer ($4.25) was listed under vegetarian tacos, so I had a bias against this one even before it hit the table. I can admit I was wrong. This Indian-inspired taco contained a curried paneer, raita, and a crispy herb salad. I almost did not miss the exclusion of meat in this taco. The paneer was very well made, and the raita, which I learned is a yogurt-based Indian condiment, helped smooth out the flavors of this taco. The Banh Mi Taco ($5.75) takes the whole fusion thing from India to Vietnam in a few time zones. This one is stuffed with spiced pork, mint, cucumber, cilantro, carrot, radish and ponzu sauce. This was probably my least favorite of the night, but one of Katie's favorites. I expected a little more from this. The pork got lost here, and I would have liked a little more ponzu sauce. The third taco on Katie's metal tray was the Shrimp Pad Thai ($6.75), but she's no fan of shrimp, so she substituted chicken. The chicken was pan-fried with Thai basil, crushed peanuts, onion, sprouts, crispy rice noodles, and red Thai chili. Katie felt this taco lost its way by not getting the pad Thai experience. Maybe because she changed it up from shrimp to chicken. She still liked this taco, as the contents were fresh, but she just expected a slightly different experience with this one.

I lied earlier when I said I only had three tacos. Chef Carlos has a rotating taco, which he has dubbed The Chef's Prescription. That night, it was a Pork Head Cheese Taco (Market Price). Many people have a squeamish reaction to head cheese, but this is not like the head cheese you have seen in the lunch meat section of your local grocery store. They took all the delicious parts of the pig's head and threw it in a taco with some blackberry Cabernet salsa, Stilton cheese, and a little Dijon. The result was a delicious pork that was a little more dense than normal carnitas and flavorful. The blackberries were an excellent add-on, giving this taco a Thanksgiving feel.

On our first visit to Taco Asylum, I lamented that they did not have traditional sides here; instead, they served lentils and quinoa as their version of beans and rice. Yeah, I didn't get it either. Anyway, I am happy that they have expanded their menu's side items area to include black beans and rice and other offerings like Brave Potatoes ($3) and Corn Off the Cob ($3). Both of these were much better than the old sides. The potatoes were fork-tender, with plenty of flavoring from the garlic, mint, lemon, and fantastic fire-roasted aioli topping. The corn was also a favorite, with bits of bell pepper, onion, garlic, and a corn crema. Big improvement.

I would be remiss if I did not mention their awesome hot sauces at Taco Asylum. Honestly, I only tried one this time because it was so good, the Roasted Ghost Chili. During this visit, this bottle was my best friend and did not leave my side during my meal. It had a good amount of heat, but it was tempered a bit by the smokiness, which was definitely evident. This allowed for a slow buildup of heat to accumulate, which grew during my use. I planned to sneak this out of the building when I was given a bottle to take home. Thanks so much, Sydney. You saved me from a life on the lam of being a hot sauce thief. Since I got this home, I have used it almost daily for everything.

Another new addition to the Taco Asylum menu is dessert, which is always a nice thing to add. The first of the two desserts was these Dessert Nachos ($7). These tortilla chips are dusted with cinnamon, orange zest, sugar, and chili, then drizzled with Mexican chocolate and topped with red chili anglaise. This was not a sweet dessert nacho. The sugar and cinnamon provided enough sweetness, but the chocolate was not as sweet as American chocolate, and the chili added a bit of spice to this, which woke up the taste buds. Really a well-done dessert.

As much as I liked the dessert nachos, the Churro Bites ($7) fell flat. These are described on the menu as Mexican donuts rolled in cinnamon and sugar, then drizzled with a dulce de leche. I would have liked these better, but the insides were too dense and needed to be lighter, with more sweetness. It was not exactly what I had expected when I heard churro bites.

All of the changes at Taco Asylum have made this an even better restaurant than it was before. They are more mainstream for less adventurous eaters but still have some wild, over-the-top tacos for people who want to step outside their comfort zone. We loved Chef Carlos's exuberance, and his passion is shown in the tacos he created. We look forward to seeing the other hundreds of tacos he said he has in his head. Owner Ace Patel says they want people to eat here every day, and with the variety on this menu, that will be easy to do.

We thank everyone at Taco Asylum for sharing their new menu with us. General Manager Jenelle, Beverage Coordinator Sydney, and Chef Carlos could not have been nicer and answered our crazy questions without hesitation. Thanks also to the man behind Taco Asylum, Ace Patel. You have something special here, and we look forward to returning many times. Lastly, we thank Bryn Mohr at Food For Thought PR for inviting us. We had a great time, Bryn, and it was fantastic meeting you.

For more information about Taco Asylum, go to their newly launched website here: http://www.tacoasylum.com/