Tampico Kitchen + Lounge

Game night! The Santa Cruz Warriors were playing last Saturday night in town, so we needed food close to the arena. Tampico Kitchen, located at Pacific and Maple Avenue, fit the bill. It's been around forever and I've been a few times, but not for awhile. Let's try it out and write it up!

Tampico Kitchen + Lounge

Alan and I were looking for a filling, hot meal since it was like 40 degrees outside. Not typical Santa Cruz weather! Some rice and beans in our bellies should keep us happy as we watched the game.

We sat in the main dining room as opposed to the bar lounge area. The place was packed for a Saturday night and I didn't see an empty table. And they didn't have the playoffs on, so the dining room was it for us.

Our chips and salsa came quick, which was great. Not a full basket, but they offered free refills. The salsa was thin, but packed a punch. I'd rate it a 6 out of 10 since it did spice up the food, but not spectacularly. And why so little in the bowl?

Alan got the Killer Quesadilla (($12.95) - he had heard it was pretty good from others. His pint of Negra Modela draft was $4.50. Well, I thought quesadillas were flat with two tortillas and everything squeezed in between. Not here! He said it looked more like a big soft taco. The chicken inside was good-sized and plentiful. But he was sad the rice and beans were cold.

I got the Chicken Mole ($12.95), which also came with rice and beans. My domestic bottle of beer was $3.50. The chicken was tender and had a mix of breast and thigh meat. A few bits of gristle didn't deter me from enjoying the dish. The mole sauce was decent, but not amazing. I did like the flour tortillas that came with it to roll my own.

So if you said "Mexican food downtown", I'd still pick El Palomar over Tampico, but it's a decent second place. And it's a shorter walk to the Arena.

Scores out of 10:
Food: 6
Service: 6
Atmosphere: 7
Value for the price: 6
Overall: 6.25