Taconooga

Best Mexican in Chattanooga! I us ally get the Mexican dip and the tacos El pastor! It’s really good and the service is good as well. The serve beer and coke products but not tequila which would be the only con. It’s authentic and not your typical American Mexican food. Give it a go!

Came here from NC expecting some good authentic Mexican food, whenever we came in they greeted us pretty good. They never handed us chips and salsa like they do in every other Mexican restaurant? But anyways prices were of the roof. And their waitresses were being smartasses and from going to other Mexican restaurants I know a taco is no more than 2.50 but these guys charge 3.00 for theirs I’m no cheap fuck but danggg. Anyways don’t recommend this place!

I’ve been here probably more than 10 times — I like most things about it but see a fair amount of room for improvement (but not so much to warrant only 3 stars).
What I like: their basic onions/​cilantro/​meat tacos and some of their specialty tacos too, chips are usually hot and crunchy, chunky mex-​avocado and chorizo/​queso dips are pretty amazing, and the variety of menu items. I feel that they do the basic tacos better than everything else they offer though, and I use that as a benchmark for comparing with other Mexican places. Taconooga is about on par or maybe a just a touch above the same taco at Taqueria Jalisoco — I love both regardless but find both slightly more expensive than they should be for basic Mexican in a city this size.
What I think could be better: reducing the cost of all tacos by $ 1 – 2 and entrees by $ 1 – 3, providing chips and salsa for free, and serving hard liquor (i.e. margaritas). Not having margaritas is the main reason I pick Las Mas every time I get Mexican on a weeknight, which is guaranteed at least weekly. I want a marg after a day of work and will settle for their slightly lower in quality al pastor tacos to get that. It’s the main reason I treat Taconooga as a lunch place.
Overall, I really like it and go about every other week. Would recommend to anyone wanting dependable Mexican food, but their tacos don’t compete with the best I’ve had in the Southeast: Tacos La Villa in Smyrna outside of ATL. I miss not having that as a regular lunch spot dearly.

We loved it. Guacamole was very good except it needed more salt. The chips were thick and fresh: Shrimp tacos were excellent as were the bean and cheese. We also had the Mexican corn. It is served off the cob. Tad bit too much mayo for my taste but still pretty good. Definitely going back. Excellent prices too.

Um, so good! If you’re looking for authentic, fresh, and mouthwatering awesomeness, then this is the place.
It is very low key and casual. So, maybe not the place for a fine dining night, but definitely a great lunch spot!

Delicious! The service was great, and the food as well. Will definitely be returning. Nooga taco was delicious, Mexican street corn was awesome!

The Taconooga taco was incredible. The guac was fresh and delicious. My wife had the carnitas and she gave them two thumbs and a nub way up!

One of the best options in the neighborhood for good Mexican food. The guacamole is some of the best I have had anywhere… real avocado cut up with tomato and spices. Very casual and popular place with excellent food. The vegetable taco is excellent.

This place is phenomenal!
The Great
— chips and salsa were out of this world. Chips were thick and made to order. Salsas were made in house with ingredients plucked from the Garden of Eden. I had there standard salsa and habanero. So much flavor I could of left satisfied just from that. Big portion of chips and salsa!
— Tacos were full of delicious morsels of perfection. I ordered the chorizo, pastor, and chunked beef one. All on fresh corn tortillas. So fresh and full of flavor.
— Service was fantastic and knowledgeable
The Bad
— I will never experience that state of happiness again in life
— All other Mexican restaraunts are deaden to me than my dead cat

My new fav Mexican restaurant. This place is legit and delish. Reasonably priced. I had the Taconooga taco, chicken taco, Mexican st corn and mexguac. Everything was very, very tasty! The meat was not dry and was well seasoned. Mmmm the Taconooga taco… Mmmmmmm. The tacos are not skimpy and rather filling, so next time I’ll probably just get the Taconooga with mexguac even though the chicken taco was really good. This atmosphere is nice and welcoming. Great service. Try this place, you won’t regret it!

This place has really good Mexican food. When I say Mexican, I mean Mexican! They use authentic methods to cook the food and use the right ingredients as well. They have a friendly staff and a great atmosphere. The prices are a little over what typical Mexican food should cost, but the quality of the food surpasses it. One of the bigger issues especially if you are trying to go there for lunch is the lack of parking around that time.

Fast, fresh, delicious! Our order of chorizo tacos was on the table less than five minutes after ordering. Flavorful and spicy, but not overwhelming — with cilantro and onions. Great taco sauce, salsas and chips, too. Lots of options on menu. Most tacos $ 3 or 3 for $ 8. Looking forward to next time. Bonus — original art decorating all the walls.

Authentically good. (Not great) Genuine Mexican Coke! (Which I love) Decent variety and large portions, and I do get full every time. The chips are fresh, and the salsas are tasty. However, it’s not on the house so be prepared to pay extra.
Honestly though if you’re looking for GREAT Mexican foods go to the south side and try Taqueria Jalisco. 100% my favorite and not a bad review to be found. Seriously.

Overall comment: Meh. Waited too long for a mediocre to not-​so-​good Mexican food. If you’re a vegetarian, look somewhere else, because everything we ate tasted the same. Bland. We even witnessed one of the waitresses abusing that salt shaker for her food. I can’t say too much for meat related items since that’s not what we ordered. But if you’re not looking to eat meat, look elsewhere. We ordered pupusas, tostadas, empanadas, tamales (not as bad — served in banana leaf), and lastly, taquitos. Honestly they all tasted pretty bland which made them all similar. Only difference was the texture. I probably wouldn’t come back to eat here again.
Cost:
— main entrees: around $ 8 — 10
— tacos/​individual items: around $ 3 — 5
— sides: $ 2 – 6
Pros:
— Friendly service
— Guacamole Salsa (still somewhat bland)
— Good serving size
Cons:
— Wait time for food: approx. 30+ minutes. They literally have only one person cooking in the kitchen.
— Taste: Very bland, dry, somewhat stale, oily
— The rice they serve is not appetizing at all (again, bland. And overcooked)
— Boring interior/​décor
— Mexican street corn was a bit disappointing
— So-​so ‘authentic’ Mexican food quality
Places to eat instead:
–Taco Mamacita (Cali-​style)
–Taqueria Jalisco (authentic)

I have seen this place the other day while stopped at the light. Tonight I was wanting something different so Mexican was in order. The place is small and pretty quite. The service was pretty good the young lady was nice and spoken good English. The menu looks pretty authentic and I was after the torta. I ordered the steak and it was cooked well. The meat was tender and seasoned just right. I really did like the fact that they toasted the bread on the flat top too. I love a descent crunch to my bread. I will say that this was the best Mexican food that I have had here kin Chattanooga.

We heard this place had ‘authentic’ Mexican food. So authentic usually means no combo plates and everything covered in some type of red, green, or white sauce. We saw some of the plates people had and what we heard was correct, very authentic and delicious.
The place is pretty basic in it’s décor, you don’t feel like you’re walking into every Mexican restaurant you have ever seen.
The staff was pleasant and didn’t hover.
I had a chorizo torta and it was awesome. So awesome in fact that there wasn’t a need for the Alka Seltzer intervention and hour or so later!
The parking is street parking with a very small lot behind the restaurant.
We’ll definitely go back and try something else.

My girlfriend and I stopped in for a late lunch. We had three tacos… carnitas, picadillo and taconooga. They were about as big as the tortilla could handle, which was cool. Lots of red onion and cilantro.
Carnitas had a great crunch, a little underseasoned. 3 stars
Picadillo was flavorful, not mind blowing though. 3 ½ stars
Taconooga was ridiculous. Steak was tender and every component was well seasoned. And it was a monster. 5 stars
Also liked the hot sauce they served with the tacos. Normally in taquerias the hot sauce burns my face off. Their sauce was mildish and flavorful.
Can’t wait to try their other offerings

So my first trip to the newly established Taconooga was quite an experience. The place is small, almost cramped, but fun. I also enjoyed the art on the walls. By they way owners, is that rooster for sale?
About the food — There were a lot of really great sounding items on the menu, and I had a hard time deciding what to get. Being I was with my usual group of trouble makers, we all decided to get each get an appetizer to split with the table. And let me tell you, I had a really hard time sharing that huge fried nopal (cactus) once it hit the table. It was awesome! The guaca-​mex was tasty, but served in overly large chunks. We had to mash it down with our forks a little to keep everything on the chips. I enjoyed the flavor of the salsa, but it was a bit thin. We also had an order of the duritos, which were great! Really crispy and really fun to eat.
The chips were alright, a little thick for my taste. But the biggest issue was that we were served a basket of crumbs. There were very few that we could actually use as scoops for a salsa and guaca-​mex.
As far as the rest — Between our group we managed to get an order of tamales, fish tacos special (pescado especial), lengua, taco poblano, and a few taconoogas. I will say this: this place has some of the best homemade tortillas I’ve ever had. Soft, great flavor, and they held their own and didn’t fall apart. Overall, I think I enjoyed my apps better that I did the tacos. One taco was so full of goodies, I had to eat most of the middle before I could fold it. (I know, first world problems!) But I nearly forgot that it was a taco. The fish taco was huge, too! I enjoyed watching the Hubbs try to wrap his mouth around it. He really enjoyed the flavors and crispy batter. The tamales smelled divine and they come wrapped in banana leaves instead of chef paper or corn husks.
The service was a bit slow, there was only one person working the floor on a Saturday night. But other than that, we enjoyed ourselves. I’ll definitely be back to try the street corn!

My husband and I came here Saturday night for dinner and ended up with mixed feelings about the place.
First off, we didn’t realize they have parking around back (according to a sign in the restaurant) so we parked at Coolidge Park. It was free since it was after 4:30, though, so no big deal. Anyway, if you come here, maybe try their parking lot first if you don’t want to pay for parking.
It’s a small establishment, but when we walked in (around 7 p.m.) there were about four tables open and we were told to sit anywhere. Since it was just two of us, we chose the remaining two-​seater by the window. After about 10 minutes, we were greeted, asked what we wanted to drink and given menus (but not drink menus, which we didn’t realize they had until halfway through our meal when we saw a waitress give another table one). After several more minutes, our beer was brought to us (we peeked in the cooler to see what they had) and we placed our orders.
We ordered the Guaca-​Mex as an appetizer, my husband ordered three chorizo tacos, and I ordered one Al Pastor and one carne asada taco. After about 20 minutes, when we were considering asking about our appetizer, all of our food was brought out together. Annoying, but whatever.
The Guaca-​Mex was a giant bowl of guacamole – although it’s really more like pico de gallo mixed with gigantic chunks of avocado. Seriously, we actually had to use our forks to eat the avocado because they were too big to scoop up using the chips. It tasted good, though, so we decided we’d just take it home with us and throw it in the food processor.
I realized that while I got the carne asada taco, I didn’t get the Al Pastor. Instead, they gave me a chorizo taco. I knew this because my husband had three of them, and they looked and tasted (I checked) exactly the same.
The chorizo taco was good, but it wasn’t what I ordered. However, it had taken so long to get our food in the first place that I didn’t want to say anything. Plus, I never send anything back in a restaurant because, well, you know.
At one point we had been sitting for several minutes with nothing to drink, so we flagged our waiter down to get a couple more beers so we could continue our meal (they don’t give you water, so if you run out of your beverage you’re out of luck). Thankfully, he brought them by quickly and we finished up our food. Except for the Guaca-​Mex, which we took home and chopped up so it was able to be eaten more easily.
The tacos were good, so I’m hoping the bad service was just a symptom of a new-​ish business. Or a bad day, which we all have. I’ll likely go back and try them again… I just hope I get what I order next time.

Let me start by saying… they have the best tag line in the world…“Not just another pinche taco.” ChattTowners, if you don’t know what pinche means, look it up in Urban Dictionary, it’s common Mexican Slang and if you get the joke, you’re a Mexican or from a Border State (me being from So Calif, aka Baja Mexico).
Suffice to say, I was very excited to experience Taconooga… great tag line, great name… great food, right? Not so much. I love, love, love to support local business. I’d rather eat in a small local place than a chain type restaurant any day, so when a new business opens up, I’m there and ready to be their biggest fan. Sadly, I can’t say I” be Taconooga’s fan.
The location is good, right on Frazier in North Shore, across the street from Subway. It’s a cute space and the restaurant that was there before didn’t make it either. Hmmmmm. The space hasn’t changed much, same furniture, just different wall décor, from Southern to Mexican. This was Cinco de Mayo so what more perfect time to try it out than that? My BF and I walked in and say a few people that looked like they worked there sitting around tables. There was on other customer in the place and yet no one greeted us. I guessed we could just seat ourselves and that’s when the server came up and said we could sit anywhere.
We were handed menus and asked what we wanted to drink. I asked for chips and salsa, noting in my head that they charge for it but at least give you a choice of salsa. The server just said ok, and then came back with whatever kind he wanted to give us. LOL. Now my hopes were up because the chips and salsa were good. Chips were thick and warm and the salsa was thick with a little bite to it. I’m guessing this was the mild salsa.
Looking over the menu, they have lots of choices of tacos, which you would expect from the name. They also had combo dishes of burritos, enchiladas, etc. Even tortas, which are great Mexican sandwiches. I was there for the taco’s though. I ordered 4 — to try a good variety of them… bean & cheese, carne asada, al pastor and carnitas.
My favorite taco is an al pastor… they are supposed to be tender, juicy, flavorful, a little spice with pineapple. Taconooga’s version? Dry, bland, no pineapple… just nothing. The tortillas were decent, nice soft corn like they should be. Lots of cilantro and onion. Sadly, the carnitas and carne asada were about the same… dried out and bland. No spice or flavor whatsoever. I think the meat had been sitting out all day. Even the lime that came with the dish to squeeze over the tacos was dry as a bone. I kind of liked the bean and cheese taco but seriously, you’re not going to make a business out of that.
My BF ordered the steak nachos. Now when you have nachos as an entrée and it costs over $ 7.00 you expect it to have lots of everything on it, right? Ummmmm… not here. Steak nachos = more dry carne asada, chips and cheese… that’s it… tomatoes, nada… lettuce…nada…sour cream… nada. I did notice you could add extras, like lettuce, for $ 1.50??? WTF? As a matter of fact, everything that would be on a nacho entrée was an «extra.» Completely ridiculous.
I was so disappointed and sad, actually. They have potential… I hope they can turn it around. ChattTown deserves more good Mexican food places.