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Welcome to Haute-N-Ready, in which John Locanthi, Willamette Week's trencherman of leisure, tastes the hastily made, modestly priced food of the common man.
Fish tacos have been popular for as far back as I can remember. They're an excellent change of pace from the red meat and heavily seasoned pork that dominates the taco scene. It doesn't have much to do with the fish itself so much as the batter, different sauces and overall lightness in the flavor. Where most tacos are a bed of meat dusted with onions, cilantro and a squeeze of lime, fish tacos are like fish sticks covered in Mexican-inspired tartar sauce and dusted with cabbage. And yet, the shrimp taco has lagged behind for some reason. Shrimp is better than white fish. It even comes in sizes perfectly proportioned for taco meat. Thankfully, Del Taco has filled this hole in the fast food taco world with the new Beer-Battered Shrimp.
Battered and fried shrimp are good. Appallingly good. The only way to make it less good is to screw up the sauces but, hell, fried shrimp even tastes fine dipped in ketchup. And, as we all know, every meat becomes better when put in a taco. Fried shrimp in a taco is a no-brainer. It's also a no-brainer in a burrito. Del Taco is offering the new shrimp in two different tacos and jammed into a surf and turf burrito with some steak.
To experience Beer-Battered Shrimp, I made the trek out to Hillsboro to visit my nearest Del Taco. In the previous entry about the Carne Asada fries, I briefly touched on the history of this weird combination burger-taco joint from California, but today I want to touch on something more important: there needs to be one closer to Portland. There's one in Hillsboro. There's one in Gresham. There's one in Vancouver. I've heard there's also one in like Salem or something. This is a problem not just for your humble, car-less fast food critic, but for everyone who has felt a hunger that can only be sated by 59-cent tacos.
Del Taco is offering two different takes on the beer-battered shrimp tacos: Original and Del Fuego. At two for $4.50, I ordered one of each and tossed in an Epic Surf & Turf Burrito ($6.29) for good measure. The tacos were smaller than I expected—I wouldn't consider two to be a proper meal—but the burrito was roughly Chipotle or Qdoba-sized.
Original
These shrimps are joined with cabbage and pico de gallo and soaking in an indeterminate "secret sauce." As a youngling, I always avoided any kind of secret sauce—when Thousand Island dressing is likely the best outcome, why would anyone order it?—but this wasn't too bad. It was white and creamy. My guess is a mild tartar sauce. It worked well with the lime and it was easy enough to dump in the delicious house salsa anyways. Not bad, but the least of the new menu additions. (Del Taco is also offering beer battered fish tacos with presumably this same sauce.)
Del Fuego
The general makeup remains the same, except the secret sauce has been replaced by a bright orange "Del Fuego" sauce. It has a more pronounced flavor. A pleasant little burn but not remotely spicy, the Del Fuego tastes much more like something I'd dip fried shrimp into. The sauce in both of these tacos takes a nice backseat to the shrimp itself.
Epic Surf and Turf Burrito
Now here is the real star of the tasting. The beer-battered shrimp is joined with the solid house carne asada, cabbage, pico, lime rice and some of the Del Fuego sauce (which I overpowered with the house hot salsa). This is a tasty ass burrito. The shrimp themselves proved large and difficult to fold for the servers, but a battered shrimp tail sticking out of a stuffed burrito is a minor quibble indeed. Between the steak, shrimp and cabbage, you have a crisp, chunky burrito large enough to feel like you got your money's worth.
This past week, both Del Taco and Taco Bell released exciting new menu items. I honestly waffled back and forth between the Beer-Battered Shrimp and the Quesalupa after trying both yesterday. The pepperjack-stuffed Quesalupa is the best thing Taco Bell has added to the menu since the Crunchwrap Sliders, but Del Taco is on a different level in the inexpensive Mexican-inspired fast food world. Where I'm genuinely surprised if a new Taco Bell item is solid, I've never had a bad meal from Del Taco. It's a shame there isn't one within city limits.
Willamette Week