Restaurant review: Rusty Taco gives consumers most bang for their buck

by Colette Copeland of Colette's Dallas Mexican Food Reviews

• Tweet
• Email
• Print
• 4 Comments

The $2 tacos are too good to pass up.

PLANO — Rusty Taco opened a couple of months ago near my house. Do we really need another taco joint in the neighborhood? According to the daily swarms, the answer is YES!

I have to admit that I was reluctant to visit. When I think of rusty, I think of tetanus shot. Who wants to think about tetanus in conjunction with their gastronomical experiences?

To be fair to Torchy’s, I also visited Rusty’s on three separate occasions. My son thinks Torchy’s is better, but that’s only because of their special soda machine. Given the large surrounding residential population and abundance of retail stores, as well as their 5 mile proximity, I don’t think they are in direct competition with one another. Their menu offerings are also different.

Torchy’s has an edge in terms of marketing (catchy names like The Republican or The Democrat, as well as a Devil icon as a logo), but Rusty’s is cheaper and has friendlier service.

On my three visits, I sampled the chipotle black bean taco, the fish taco, the fajita chicken taco and a breakfast taco with eggs, cheese and chorizo. All were good and priced at $2. Hands down the best is the black bean taco sprinkled with cojita cheese and pico de gallo salsa. The chipotle flavor was pronounced, but not overpowering. My egg taco had cheap cheddar cheese—not the best choice to balance the dominant chorizo flavor.

There’s a margarita machine that boasts $5 margs made with cheap tequila. I haven’t been brave enough to try one. Cheap tequila today produces powerful headache tomorrow. Guac is nothing to write home about, but it was edible.

Best part—kitchen is open and you can see the folks make your food. This ensures that no one is spitting in your food or putting rust granules in your tortillas. Thus tetanus is avoided.

Tweet