O K A Y - S O

Don’t Worry

my cheese fiendy folks.

OKAY-SO is not dead. It was just on an unannounced hiatus that you probably didn’t notice until now as I am typing this. I have tasted a plethora of a queso dish so great in the past year, but my blogging brain cell was rendered dormant from cheese overload. So there, my infatuation led to OKAY-SO’s almost demise.

I will update you on some good and terrible quesos soon.
Just so you know:

-Torchy’s is still the only trailer with good, nay - AMAZING, queso
-You can still dip anything in your queso and it will triple its flavor worth
-Sports bar queso is still out of the question
-Queso should not equal gravy. Ever.

Alright, more posts soon!

for all austinites

http://frugalfeaster.com/

el arroyo

oof. the day i mourned queso.

i’d like to think that el arroyo just never thought HEY MAYBE WE SHOULD DO SOMETHING TO THIS VAT OF CHEESE. LIKE. ANYTHING. i don’t know much about queso’s history and wikipedia provided a major fail in information, but! i gurarantee you that el arroyo figured just a plain, flavorless, stripped-of-everything mush of cheese to pay homage to first generation queso would do. imagine all the possibilities of queso nowadays! and what a tex-mex restaurant - filled to the brim with spices and seasonings and add-ons - could embellish a little bowl of cheese with! el arroyo simply could not fathom an idea so reasonable! they gave me a room temperature cup of liquid poison to my taste buds!

yet this still happened:

also, the website sucks.
and, i initially came just for the happy hour.
okay, the happy hour is actually great.
dollar margaritas, thursdays, 2 -6. so i can go to bed at 7 PM.

rio grande

oooooooooooof i have not posted in awhile. i bet your cheese deprived eyes have been waiting to soak up this review. the truth is i’ve been stricken with jobs and people and family and blah blah blah distractions from my mother mecca of righteous dip. i am so sorry.

so! between this review and the last, i’ve had queso at two different places that i couldn’t waste my fingertypin’s on. Just know these things: (1) Baby Acapulco’s may go apeshit with their margaritas but their queso might as well have been bathwater and (2) Guero’s queso has to be loaded with pico, quac, jalapenos, anything to thicken and spice that broth up. thumbs way down.

it was my birthday last week and since i no longer bother thinking up something bonkers to do for drinkypantsthrowupday, dinner and then a bar would suffice. ergo, a restaurant with queso! my preference was matt’s el rancho since kubies was telling me about this monstrous concoction of all things worthy ever but THEY ARE CLOSED ON TUESDAYS. which was my birthday. its probable that i wasn’t meant to become a complete butterball on my birthday.

we went to rio grande instead. its a tex mex restaurant downtown that used to be the real world austin house woooooooooooooo partyyyyyyyy munch munch munch. here take a look-see:

it was a typical bowl of queso. i’ve eaten too much at too many to cite some kind of difference in this queso! nothing bad, but nothing good. just MEH. to be fair, this is just the chile con queso. after i ordered it in a ravenous squeal, i realized i probably should’ve looked further down the menu and ordered the queso deluxe. for just a dollar more, you get black beans and guac! my friends! let’s buuuuuuuuuuuhreak it down:

• consistency = an adequate thickness and quite scoopy!
• flavor = typical queso flavor, nothing too special
• spiciness = no hint of spicy whatsoever, but please try their habanero salsa - thanks, kelly!
• price/size = $6.95/ there should be more!
• overall rating on a 10 scale = 6, MEH

oh, and the margaritas are very tasty. but the mahi mahi tacos i got were really small and not that great. why can’t this restaurant win! i will give it another chance - i will be back for you, queso deluxe!

this has nothing to do with queso

http://www.queso.com/

queso soon!

too busy to eat queso? i don’t want this life anymore.

torchy’s

torchy’s tacos is austin’s cinderella story “restaurant”. the original torchy’s is still the most popular - in a trailer on South First (alongside Shuggie’s burgers & shakes and La-Dee-Dah gifts & treats). now with two more locations (and as i recall, a great temporary spot on 6th street during last SXSW), it is becoming austin’s favorite taco spot if its not already.

BUT THE QUESO!!!!

when i first started this blog, the majority of my friends told me to post about torchy’s queso because it is just that good. within its first year of business, it was already voted best queso in the Austin Chronicle restaurant poll which in turn brought it loads of more business. i could eat a whole order of torchy’s green chile queso, and that’s exactly what i did two days ago.

i know what you’re thinking. is that blood? sriracha sauce? although sriracha sauce sounds good.

its called “diablo sauce”! opening a container of they’re queso is like looking at the inside of your guts. there is a thick layer of fat at the top, surrounding the cilantro, queso fresco, and guacamole mixture placed in the middle.

• consistency = a balanced runny-ness that stays on your chip
• flavor = absolutely addicting, so savory
• spiciness = spicy! i actually found a queso that is spicy! hits every nerve in your tongue
• price/size = $4.95/ its best to share this and feel half the shame
• overall rating on a 10 scale = 9, oh how the guilt sets in

torchy’s tacos are amazing as well - try the republican or the brushfire! and the grande burrito is massive and can probably count for two meals.