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Business & Tech

Video: Keep Your Mexican Food Relationship Exciting with Taco Mesa

If your relationship with Mexican food has grown unexciting, skip counseling and head straight for Taco Mesa.

Living in Southern California, finding Mexican food is definitely something we rarely worry about. Attempting to keep your relationship with rice, beans and meats fresh, sexy and exciting is something we can all work on. Cut to: .

There's something to be said about an Orange County Mexican food experience so wonderfully different from the rest in Southern California. Here's a breakdown:

Want dollar tacos on Tuesday? Check. How about $1.50 Tecate bottles, delicious margaritas and sangria in a quick-serve environment? Triple booze check.

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History? First location opened in 1992 by Marco and Ivan Calderon.

Look? An exhibition-style kitchen so customers can peer over and watch their food being prepared. 

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Besides adult drinks and an ever-changing repertoire of day-by-day deals, Taco Mesa maintains its allure with an expansive list of menu items that ranges from delicious lobster burritos to an all-day breakfast. Photographer  Taylor and I took to "Mesa" (cool people drop the "Taco") in an effort to get our weekly Mexican-food fix and see if the Mission Viejo branch stood up to its three O.C. siblings.

The unit is neatly tucked away in a shopping center on the corner of Trabuco and Los Alisos, standing out among the rest of the local shop due to its vibrant logo hanging above the breezeway. The interior is similarly branded, playing off darker, moodier tones interspersed with vibrantly colored portraits and seating. 

We placed our orders and immediately took to the free appetizer ... err ... salsa bar. Getting to the know Taco Mesa's salsa bar is a frugal eater's dream. The escabeche (pickled carrots, garlic, serrano chilies and cauliflower) is one of the best free appetizers and meal compliments you'll find. The rest of our meal consisted of some extra-soft guacamole ($2.99), burrito de langosta ($9.99) and a scrambled egg torta ($4.99).

The highlight of the meal was the burrito de langosta, a wet burrito stuffed with sauteed lobster, spinach, mushrooms, tomato and red onion and topped with tequila lime cream sauce. With every bite, more and more of the burrito falls apart and finds its way running into the sides of black epazote beans and a cranberry rice mixture labeled "arroz del dia."

I decided to go with a lighter dish, opting for the scrambled egg torta, complete with chipotle mayo, Dijon mustard, romaine lettuce, tomato, avocado and grilled onions on a Mexican roll. The stock sandwich didn't have the spicy kick I'd hoped for, so I made my way back to the salsa bar, got some avocado sauce and roasted-tomato salsa and proceeded to mercilessly drown the torta in the new flavors.

Delicious food aside, our first visit to the Mission Viejo location was rather lonely, compared with the one to the Costa Mesa location on a Friday night. Our 4 p.m. visit must have landed during a transitional meal period, considering we were the only diners at the restaurant for the duration of our meal. I imagine the Taco Tuesdays see greater attendance, as they do at the other locations, with people lining up for a shot at their generously sized dollar taco selection and generously priced light alcohol selection.

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