East Coast Wings

I went to East Coast Wings the other day, which is already one of my favorite face-stuffing stops because of their delicious wings. Bone-in, extra hot, kentucky bourbon is my favorite combination: you gotta try them. For the first time, I got something other than wings from this restaurant! Were the nachos worth not getting wings?? (Dun dun DUN...)

Well I didn't really have to choose because my boyfriend got wings and I ate a couple of his. But the nachos were pretty good! For $8.99 I got a very good size plate full of fresh chips, ground beef, nacho cheese, green leaf lettuce, plenty of jalapeños, sliced black olives, pepperoncini, and diced tomatoes.

I was very impressed with the lettuce, which for the first time was not iceberg! I'm a big fan of lettuce so that was kind of a big deal to me. The pepperoncini were also a nice touch which I hadn't seen before on nachos. The ground beef was a little bland - I would have preferred chili. Also the menu said that the nachos would have melted sharp cheddar cheese, and so when these came out with nacho cheese I was a tad disappointed. I like nacho cheese, but I was expecting sharp cheddar. These were very good nachos, but they didn't out-shine East Coast's delicious wings. I give them 91.5 out of 100 green leaves of lettuce.

Taco Bell

Did you know that Taco Bell has three different kinds of nachos? I didn't until I went there and realized that judging Taco Bell would take multiple visits. Sure I probably could have eaten them all in one sitting due to my incredible gorging abilities, but I didn't want to be that weird kid who orders all the nachos on the menu and then sits down by herself and takes pictures of all of them... Heh heh.

On my first visit I ordered the Volcano Nachos and the Nachos Supreme. I ate the Volcano Nachos first.

Don't let their somewhat appealing appearance deceive you! They were pretty gross. At $3.89 they were the most expensive nachos on the menu, and came with tortilla chips, refried beans, ground beef, nacho cheese, sour cream, jalapeños, and some kind of horrible mysterious mayo-based spicy sauce to seal the deal. At first I thought the "volcano sauce" was part of the nacho cheese, so I ate a dab of that as my first bite. NOT CHEESE! Probably if I had known it was mayo-sauce it wouldn't have been quite as gross, but it still had no place on my nachos. Plus there was almost as much spicy mayo as there was nacho cheese! These get an abysmal 25 out of 100 volcanoes.

Then came the Nachos Supreme:

The Nachos Supreme came with chips, refried beans, ground beef, nacho cheese, sour cream, and diced tomatoes. I thought these were pretty decent- just what I would expect from nachos from a fast food joint. I thought they needed more flavor, so I smothered them in Taco Bell fire hot sauce. Delicious! At only $2.19, these are a great option for a cheap nacho snack. I give them 85 out of 100 squirts of nacho cheese.

A couple days later a got the Nachos Bell Grande to go. Sorry there's no dramatic lighting like in the other pics:

The Nachos Bell Grande had all the same components as the Nachos Supreme, but were a little bigger. This made me think they would be about as delicious... not so! I guess whoever was making my nachos that day just wasn't feelin' it, or maybe I got there right before they were going to throw out some old ingredients. The sour cream was runny, the beef greasy, and the tomatoes mushy. Altogether it was a pretty disappointing experience. :( I guess that's the risk I take for eating nachos from a fast food chain not exactly known for the quality of it's ingredients. Hey, at least I'm only out $3.39. I give these nachos 25 out of 100 mechanically separated cow-bits. (JK, I'm sure they're not mechanically separated...right?)

To recap, Taco Bell's nachos can be pretty good - especially considering the price and convenience - if you stay away from strange sauces. Buyer beware, however: the quality control is about as high as the prices. Enjoy!

T.G.I. Friday's

The other day I was going to go to Smokey Bones with my roommate and try their (allegedly) delicious nachos but was met with a 30-45 minute wait, thought about trying LongHorn's nachos but apparently they don't have any (crazy!) so we ended up near by at T.G.I. Friday's. Their nachos are made with tostados, although I didn't actually know what tostados were until the nachos showed up at the table!

These 8 giant nacho semi-circles are covered in refried beans, ground beef, lots of cheese, and a single jalapeño slice each. In the middle is a condiment sampler of sour cream, salsa, and guacamole on top of a bed of lettuce. These were the first nachos I've blogged about that came with guacamole, but they lacked the diced tomatoes that I enjoyed on all the other nachos. It was fun assembling each nacho by putting bits of the salsa/sour cream/guacamole on each bite, but I still like the messy cheesy mountain of traditional nachos better. Also, because the cheese and meat cover every inch of each chip, there wasn't much of the nice crispiness like the outside chips on regular nachos. At $9.39, these were my most expensive nachos so far. I give them 75 out of 100 black beans.

History of Nachos

I just read the Wiki page about nachos and am even more impressed with the dish! Apparently the first nachos were made in 1943 by a guy named Ignacio Anaya (his friends just called him nacio, or nacho.) One day a group of Americans were shopping in a town right across the border in Mexico and got to Nacho's restaurant after it had already closed. He made them a snack with what he had available: fried tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, and jalapeños. He called them Nacho's Especiales. Thus nachos were invented by a Mexican, for Americans - the ultimate Tex-Mex food was born!


October 21st is now the INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE NACHO! On this day each year there is a nacho competition - judged by Anaya Jr., Nacho's son - in the border town where the legendary dish was created. I need to go this year!

Carolina Diner

I had nachos for breakfast today! They were delicious, after I got over the look the waitress gave me for ordering nachos for breakfast and then taking a picture of them. For $4.99 I got a plastic skillet full of (round!) chips, chili, melty cheddar cheese, diced tomato, pico de gallo, and a double dose of sour cream on the side. The chili was definitely more greasy than the chili at Pour House, I don't even know what I was complaining about that time. This chili was a liiiittle overly greasy for me, as it soaked several of the chips at the bottom through with grease. In contrast to that, the pico was very refreshing and added so much to the nachos! I can't believe I had never had nachos with pico de gallo on them before today, it complements them so nicely. This was a smaller thing of nachos than the other two, but has a lower price tag to match. As an added bonus, you can get these nachos at any time, day or night! I give them 90 out of 100 globs of melted cheese.

Also: I love how this food quest has brought nachos into so many of my conversations! It turns out that many of my friends have a serious love of nachos, as well as some definite opinions on the matter. Just yesterday I had my roommate invite me out to get some nachos and my neighbors invite me in for some nachos they made. After my waitress this morning saw my nachos, she told me she was totally having nachos for dinner! I'm so glad I'm not the only obsessed one out there.

Bender's Tavern

For $6.75 I got a generous serving of tri-color chips, ground beef, melted cheese, diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, pickled jalapenos, black olives, salsa on the side, and a cute scoop of sour cream on top. The chips were not fresh-fried, but nice and salty (the way I like it.) The Benders nachos were lighter on the cheese and meat than the Pour House nachos, and consequently I had too many chips at the end and nothing to scoop on them. A slightly smaller plate of nachos than at the pour house, but for $6.75 it was a solid deal. I give these 88 out of 100 scoops of chili.

The Pour House

First stop on our nacho adventure is The Pour House! For $7.75, I got a BIG thing of nachos with chili, pools of melted cheese, diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, pickled jalapeños and sour cream and salsa on the side. I’m a fan of chili on nachos and this chili was especially tasty, though a bit greasy at times. The only real complaint I could make is that I ran out of chips at the end, which is still preferable to having the opposite problem of too many chips left and nothing to put on them. I actually couldn’t quite finish it, so it was definitely a good amount of nachos for a decent price. I give these 93 out of 100 tortilla chips.

The Noble Quest for Nachos

For the past few months I've been seriously loving on the nachos. And who doesn't love nachos, honestly? Surely these classic texmex munchies have won over the hearts of everyone who have ever crunched on their tantalizing cheesy triangles. OK maybe I'm more obsessed than most - lately I've been ordering nachos at least a couple times a week. 

Eating an irresponsible amount of nachos isn't enough! I need to document my nacho binge, and find out who has the BEST NACHOS OF ALL TIME!!!* (in Greensboro*) I will go to lots of different restaurants and bars and order nachos every chance I get. I'll get a picture and then give a nice little summary of my delicious, cheesy experience. I think I'll come up with some kind of rating scale to judge the nachos, or maybe I'll just slap an arbitrary letter grade on each. And of course when I feel the nacho supply of Greensboro is exhausted, I'll move on to one of my other food loves, like... Hotdogs! Or hot wings! Or pizza! Or biscuits! Or reuben sandwiches! Or Greek salads! Or fried chicken!