Nachos are Life

Mexican food has so many options that feel just so right. Everyone can discuss the many virtues of the humble taco, flautas and taquitos are great little, rolled up bites of food, and there is something so perfectly comforting about a plate of nachos. The great thing about Mexican food (especially the Americanized version of it) is that the ingredients pair so well together across so many different items, but they’re still so simple and delicious. It’s hard to complain when someone says they want to go out for Mexican food because, hell, it’s so easy to find something you’re going to like.

Taco Bamba is a chain of restaurants across Virginia, from up in Northern VA (Fairfax and Herndon and Dulles) and down to Richmond and beyond. It’s a series of taquerias, each with their own specialized menus. Yes, they all serve the same basic items, from soups and cups of corn, to nachos and tacos, but then they each have their individualized menus, certain specialty tacos that are specific to each menu at each store that you can’t get elsewhere. One store might have ahi tuna tacos, another could have a whole selection of Indian- and Middle Eastern-inspired taco options. You never know just what you’ll get at each place until you wander in.

Amusingly, I didn’t get their tacos which, yes, I know is a failing. I mention their variety because it’s a key selling point of the chain and I intend, eventually, to correct this failing on my part. But when I found the place it was because I was searching for nachos on Google while I was at SG Live and the store in Herndon came up. The location was close to the convention center and easy to get to, so off in my car I went and a plate of shredded chicken nachos I did grab. The goal was to have the nachos because, besides just really wanting them, I wanted to eat them on air for one of the Final Fantasy Randomizer races (like with the doughnuts I bought another time). Nachos, tasty and chunky and delicious, on air sounded very amusing (and it was).

As a bonus, though, the nachos were also hella good. The Herndon version (which, it looks like, are the standard Bamba nachos) are El Bacho Nacho, and they come served as “crispy nachos stacked with any tradicional meat, salsa morita, crema, nacho cheese, pickled onions, pico de gallo, pickled jalapeno”. It creates a very full, somewhat thick plate of nacho toppings that is, just as you can see from the list of ingredients, very full of flavor. I will also note that my plate had some green herbs on top that I think were chives or something similar but certainly didn’t look like cilantro. I actually didn’t taste cilantro anywhere in the dish, but then I’m not attuned to notice that herb (for better or worse) like some are.

Credit where it’s due, the nachos got back to the hotel without getting too soggy. There were still plenty of chips under all those toppings that were thick and crunchy. But even the chips that did get somewhat soggy under all that mass were still thick enough to hold up without tearing, and I actually didn’t mind the somewhat flaccid texture. Normally I hate a soggy chip, finding it to be rather unpalatable, but in this instance the chips were really tasty even when they started to lose their thick and crunchy texture.

The ingredients all work really well together. The sour cream and cheese sauce are both tasty but not too heavy in general. The cheese especially doesn’t feel too powerful, too fake, or too forward (unlike, say, Taco Bell cheese sauce), leading to a very nice, saucy experience. The salsa morta is, essentially, a tomato mole sauce, and it added some really deep note of umami and powerful flavor. I loved it on the nachos and, frankly, I think all nachos going forward need to have mole sauce on them. It is, in fact, a pity that this isn’t a default topping on all nachos across the country.

For the veggies we have pico, pickled onions, and pickled jalapenos. That is, essentially, three kinds of pickling on top of the nachos, but they’re all very lightly flavored. They contribute to the wetness of the nachos, yes, but not in a bad way. They had pop and flavor and it was a lot of brightness the nachos needed. Plus, the jalapenos gave some much needed heat for the overall dish. I actually grabbed a couple of cups of hot salsa from the restaurant to throw on top but, in the end, didn’t need them because there was so much flavor on the nachos that the salsa would have ruined the experience.

The first time I got the nachos I went with the shredded chicken and then, the next day (yes, I got them again instead of anything else from the place) my pals wanted Mexican so we went to Taco Bamba and I got the nachos with carne asada. I think I liked the shredded chicken over the beef. One, the beef was a stronger flavor, so it actually added too much to the nachos. But also, the shredded chicken was lighter and fell apart easier, adding more meat across the whole of the dish for a better spread. It was the better choice in context and, assuming I get their nachos again (a safe bet) I would go back to the chicken.

For the record, while I didn’t get tacos, everyone else around me did that second visit and they all agreed the various tacos they got were amazing. I didn’t think to get pictures of their food, mind you, nor did I grab an accounting of all they had, but it did all look and smell good so I’ll take their word for it. No one left food on their plates, and everyone seemed very satisfied with the whole experience. Count that as a win.

Overall, I think this place is a winner. I can only personally account for their nachos currently, but those were amazing. I plan to go again next time I see one of their locations, and I’ll get more adventurous when I do. But I’ll also get their nachos because these crispy guys really shine.