Chubby’s Tacos – Three Triangle Locations

Storefront

Salsa bar

Lunch counter

Tilapia & barbacoa tacos

Chubby’s Tacos
Lake Boone: 2444 Wycliff Road, Raleigh, NC
Ninth Street: 748 Ninth Street, Durham, NC
Woodcroft: 4711 Hope Valley Road, Durham, NC
http://www.chubbystacos.com

I love Mexican and Latin food. I wish I lived in San Antonio. Can’t get enough of it. So I’ll frequent the local options like El Rodeo, Las Margaritas, Qdoba and yes, even Taco Bell, several times a week. But most of their offerings aren’t that close to authentic Mexican/Southwestern U.S. dishes. There are a couple options around that break through the cookie-cutter mold of local Mexican, but they’re not as obvious nor as prevalent.

Luckily Chubby’s Tacos second location opened in Raleigh’s Lake Boone Trail shopping center about a year ago. It took over the 19th Hole Bar & Grill spot, which creates a small, tucked away restaurant that is perfect for a taco joint. But the owners, also responsible for the local Bandido’s Mexican restaurants, offer so much more than the 17 different tacos on the menu. They have the usual burritos, quesadillas, taco salads and nachos, but also gorditas (mexican pita sandwiches as they put it), tamales, pupusas and tortas. They also have a salsa/condiment bar with lots of unique options to go with your meal.

With all the options on the menu, definitely take a few minutes to go over it before ordering on your first visit. Prices range from $2 for some of the tacos, up to $7 for some of the seafood burritos. Essentially, the same meat choices are available as fillings for the variety of items. Note that you have the options to “make it a meal” by adding rice, choice of beans and chips for another $2. So you can get a good-sized taco, beans, rice and chips for $4. Hard to beat that.

The tilapia tacos are great, and I really like the al pastor meat filling, which is shredded pork with pineapples. The barbacoa–shredded beef bbq–is ok, but with about a dozen different meat fillings, I plan to keep trying different ones until I find my favorites. Same plan with the salsas, but the early leader is the creamy arbol version. I haven’t tried the gorditas yet, but my fiancé gets them exclusively. They also have a couple offerings that you can get smothered in cheese and chili, so I’ll have to try that on a day where I have some post-lunch recovery time.

If you’re tired of the same old Mexican food (#73 with chicken and refried beans) do yourself a favor and check this place out. I’ve got some friends that live within a mile of Chubby’s, yet they seem to toss it aside when we’ve discussed nearby eating options. Y’all know who you are–quit hatin’. I mean, they season their chips, and have three hot sauces on each table (including my all time favorite Tapatio). How can you NOT like that?

Read the N&O article for another perspective on Chubby’s.

Explore posts in the same categories: "Dive" Restaurants

Tags: dinner, lunch, mexican, Raleigh

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