TACO MAMA (265 N. Lumpkin St., 762-728-4675): Usually when people complain about the fact that this town has a lot of Mexican restaurants, I ignore their griping. Who could possibly be annoyed about our wealth of delicious food from one of the world’s great food cultures, especially given that it’s quite varied? We have excellent taquerias, chef-crafted barbecue and tacos (if you think Taqueria del Sol isn’t Mexican, I have news for you), hearty soups, an array of sandwiches, marisquerias, ceviches and aguachiles, and more. We have restaurants that people think are Mexican that aren’t or aren’t primarily, like Cali ‘n Tito’s (Peruvian), Punta Cana (Dominican), Sabor Latino (Uruguayan) and Cantaritos Cafe (stuff from Colombia, El Salvador and Peru). But did we need Taco Mama, a chain out of Auburn, AL, that moved into the location vacated by Fuzzy’s Tacos, on the ground floor of the West Washington Deck downtown? The name has less innuendo than Fuzzy’s, and the atmosphere is more family friendly and less “undergrads who know IDs aren’t being checked very carefully,” but when it comes to what’s on the plate, they aren’t that different: Mexican food for people who associate it primarily with margaritas and consider pico de gallo spicy. Tex-Mex is fine. Cali-Mex is fine. I eat at Taco Stand on a regular basis, and I appreciate it for what it is. But Taco Mama is a special kind of aggressively mid in its product, down to its underthought motto: “Be Happy. Stay Local.” (Do you mean eat elsewhere rather than at a chain based in a different state?) It wouldn’t even matter if the food were inexpensive, but $15 for two shrimp tacos, a small side and a big serving of thin, undersalted chips with salsa is not what I’d consider a good deal. Try to track down prices on the restaurant’s website, and you’ll find it fruitless. Likewise for the huge, nearly unreadable chalked menu above the ordering counter, which has descriptions but no dollar figures. Maybe it’s to preserve flexibility on the restaurant’s part in a time of ingredient price instability, but it leaves the customer spending a lot more than she had intended. Your best bet for taste and value are the quesadillas. Fill one with cilantro-lime-marinated tofu, cheese and a huge array of add-ins that are included in the price (e.g., avocado, jalapeños, beans, rice, ancho chile slaw, onions, tomatoes, lettuce), and you’ll find yourself well fed, perhaps carrying leftovers home in the pizza box-shaped containers Taco Mama offers up. The chips are still weaksauce, and the salsa unremarkable at best, but the central item is pretty OK. The fish tacos sound like they might have some flavor (flounder grilled or fried with ancho chile slaw, avocado, tomatoes, roasted poblano tartar sauce), but the result is boring. The sauces and salad dressings are thick and sweet rather than savory. The street corn is the same. The staff is friendly and enthusiastic, there’s a nice patio outside, and a kids menu could be welcome, but it feels like there are abundant better options. Taco Mama is open for lunch and dinner every day and has a full bar.
CAFE RACER (2343 W. Broad St.): Does the long-awaited Athens location of the teeny charmer out in a field in Arnoldsville recapture the magic? Kinda. Like the above, it is sometimes a little more than one wants to remove from one’s wallet, but the food is mostly consistent and quite good. The skinny building set up on a hill of its own making in a weird, steep parking lot doesn’t have the same vibe as the original, but the drive-through runs smoothly, even with burgers and tacos that get made to order. You can walk up and order at the window should you choose, but the area is car-centric. Mostly, Cafe Racer is still a breakfast place, open 6 a.m.–2 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, although dinner now operates at 5 p.m. Friday nights. You might think $3.50 is expensive for a donut, but it’s a nice one, not laden with oversweet frosting or topped with ridiculousness. My children still prefer Dunkin’, but you should take that as a vote for Cafe Racer. Both the tacos and the burritos are maximalist, and I’d go so far as to call the $12 burrito a pretty good value, hefty and packed with stuff as it is. You could eat half for breakfast and half for lunch. A word of warning: The This Lil’ Piggy includes a fried plantain that comes off a lot more banana-y than expected, a shock of sweet in the middle of the savory. Dinner is fun, too, with burgers notable for their messy array of strongly flavored, drippy toppings: pepper jack, jalapeño cream cheese, pickled jalapeños, habanero hot sauce. You might should get a bib or at least some wet wipes with your order. For a topping-reliant burger, it’s among the best around. The chicken sandwich is good but not at the same level by its nature. The fries remain stellar. It’s worth the wait.
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