There are few genres of food that have the versatility of tacos. They can be basic, cheap and simply prepared, or they can feature the most delicate, exquisite combinations of exotic ingredients prepared in intricate and complex ways. Either way, deliciousness has the potential to occur. And either way, a taco is a taco is a taco.
The Metzger family has done many things well with food in Tucson and I’m glad to report that Gio Taco is yet another of its successes, joining the ranks of The Abbey and (the now closed) Jax Kitchen. The family’s latest endeavor, Poppy Kitchen, hasn’t been open long enough to give an official opinion.
Gio meshes perfectly with the chic new downtown vibe that we’re cultivating, tucked neatly away at the Broadway/Congress/Toole/Fourth Avenue interchange, with a huge outdoor patio space. During nice weather, the entire building is an indoor/outdoor dining concept. Gio’s hours are split between the dining room and take-away window. The take-away window features breakfast tacos and burritos from 8:30 to 11:00 a.m. Monday through Friday; then the dining room opens until 10:30 p.m. Take-away service resumes from 10:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.
Tacos are street-vendor style and size, and tend toward the “exotic” end of the taco spectrum (no ground beef and shredded orange cheddar here, folks), but they were all prepared well and were quite tasty. Most of the tacos are $3 (three specialty tacos were $4 each), and I found that between one appetizer and two tacos, I was pleasantly full. We tried almost all of the tacos on the menu during two visits, and there were none that I wouldn’t order again. However, a few were definitely standouts.
• The Fishy Pig ($4)—bacon-wrapped albacore, avocado, picked onion and grilled corn. Bacon. Seared rare albacore. In taco form! Awesome.
• The Chipper Fish ($3)—beer-battered, deep-fried cod with lemon and herbs, malted cabbage and yucca chips. This one is absolutely excellent and the way the fish is battered, shaped and fried makes up the “shell” of the taco.
• The Tarheel ($3)—brown sugar-and-vinegar braised shredded pork, watermelon and pickled rind, celery seed slaw. The pork had outstanding flavor, salty and sweet, which combined perfectly with the tang of the pickled watermelon rind.
• The Metzger Dip ($4)—shaved prime rib, horseradish aioli, crispy mushrooms, mozzarella and an au jus dip. This is how you do a nontraditional taco. Great ingredients, well balanced.
Gio Taco also has some outstanding appetizers—the crispy duck skin chicharrones ($3) are sinfully fatty deliciousness and the squash-and-goat cheese-stuffed Brazilian hushpuppies ($5) are a delightful take on a Southern classic. And if you go with the yucca tots ($3.50), it’s well worth it to spend the extra $2.50 and get them Luchador style, with mozzarella curds and duck cracklins.
Slightly less spectacular, but still very tasty, are the burrito/burrito bowl options. They’re a little more standard as far as nonexotic fare goes, where $8.50 gets you a choice of a main item (chicken, steak, smoked pork, veggie mix) mixed with avocado, tomato, pickled onion, grilled corn and house-made salsa. You also can add items a la carte (meats $3; guacamole $3; cheese $1). The burritos come with plentiful portions of fresh ingredients and really good flavors.
Cocktails are available during dining room hours, and they are a bit on the steep side at $8.50 (though they are large and pack a nice punch). There are six premixed cocktails to choose from or you can have a custom cocktail mixed for you for the same price (or $12 for top-shelf choices). There is one beer tap and three wine taps (red, white, rose), and a small but well-selected range of bottled beers from $3 to $6.
The only complaint I have about Gio Taco is that it would behoove the restaurant to allow patrons to run a drink tab rather than have them purchase each round separately, especially when dealing with larger parties and patrons without cash (which is pretty much everyone under 35). Otherwise, the service was friendly, the food was tasty and I’ll definitely be back for more.
This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2014.
I give Gio Taco a “meh”. I love the Metzger family’s restaurant history in Tucson and Jax Kitchen was my favorite restaurant for years (major bummer that it is closed). That said, Gio Taco was interesting to visit once but there is nothing compelling me to come back. The home made tortillas get an E for effort but little else. I’d much prefer a quality tortilla from Anita Street Market to wrap around the tasty fillings. The tortilla is a critical part of a taco and should be perfect.
Call me curmudgeonly but I’ll take my street tacos a little less avant-garde, please. Battering and frying the entire fish taco is a case in point. Tacos have a long history but this mutation is an evolutionary dead end.
This review had me rolling in the isles….I mean I know advertisers get a shout out in the Best of Tucson Issue every year. In fact, you just gave a shout out to all your culinary advertisers in the Issue two weeks ago. Now we have this glorifying review that point on point tries to make amends for all the criticism you find of this Nue Taco Joint over at Social Media sites like Yelp. Props to the Homemade tortillas, but in no way is two Tacos and some chips filling enough for a meal. Maybe if I was a waif-child hipster, living on $75 a week allowance for mum and da? My tacos looked nothing like the photos in this article, in fact it was laughable how small they looked on those cold metal pizza pans. Speaking of which, by the time you get your tacos, that are ice cold just liked the over-iced, premixed drinks. I’ve topped a better buzz off a diet coke then their $9 premixed punch. I did like one of the tacos but would have needed it served to me sooner, on a warm plate and three or four to fill a dinner appetite. That would have totaled my tab well over $25 and I can think of many other ‘less-hip’ joints where I could have order for two of us for the same tab total?
I won’t even go into the cluster-f*ck our waitress got our tab into when ordered our meal and fib after fib she told when she came to the table and realized she messed up two meals and forget a third? The Manager was right behind her when serving the food and none of them tried to make amends for the waitress’s mistake. One action that would easily had been forgotten if they made up for it, instead we got tiny cold tacos!
Don’t fool yourself Urbanites and Hipsters, there are so many other Taco eateries that have way more tasty and filling tacos in a far less hip, Target-like College Dorm Interior look?
These two reviews are like they read my mind, spot on, i’m wondering where The Weekly ate, certainly not Gio. Tiny cold tacos, bad service, pre mixed watered down drinks, we wanted so badly to like it but my party of six won’t be back.
The comments are actually spot on.
Kevin, get over your idea that advertisers get preference during BOT. You don’t know the mechanics behind it.
The same for the 100 Essential Dishes. I have never in all the years that I’ve written the BOT been asked to favor any advertiser.
Kevin: Gio Taco has never advertised with us, so that kind of blows that theory out of the water, no?
Fair enough Dan, but the BOT has many flaws as the categories are limited and the results are limited as well… like how many toys stores do we really have in Tucson to vote for?, or bookstores?, etc…. Then how many of those stores advertise in your publication currently and in the past?and when I flip thru that issue I’m amazed at the winners and the similarites in ads through the year… I however stand my ground on the review and find it amusing that the reviewer gave props to Gio on many points that have been criticized of the place thus far on social media sites?
Kevin: When I went through the categories this year to decide which ones to keep and which ones to drop, the standard I went by was this…how many votes were cast and was there competitiveness in that category. I honestly have no idea who is going to advertise in most issues, especially Best of Tucson and frankly, I don’t really care (other than my general hope that we have advertisers, I suppose). My integrity is worth more than whatever dollars end up in the bottom line.
We’ve written some tough stuff about advertisers and we’ve written really great stuff about places that haven’t given us a dollar, but if we don’t operate the editorial side above-board, I think we’d probably have more trouble selling ads. We have to work hard to distinguish ourselves from publications like AZ Weekly, the Explorer and Desert Leaf (all of which promise positive editorial coverage with the purchase of ads), and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
As far as Yelp goes, I never read the reviews over there, so I wouldn’t really have much of a sense of what they’re saying about Gio or elsewhere, but I’ve had consistently great food each time I’ve been. It’s not cheap, but I think the ingredients and recipes make it worthwhile for a lunch here and there. Your mileage, as they say, may vary.
I love human nature.. “If you disagree with me, it must be a conspiracy”
Yeah Burnie Mak, they’re hiding around every corner.
Well, here’s something to consider: over on Yelp, two Gio Taco staff members “accidentally” posted on the Talk thread about all of Gio’s specials for the Final Four and oh, isn’t the food yummy and bring your friends — then feigned ignorance when users pointed out at Yelp has their own section for “event” items and that Talk shouldn’t be used.
I have a friend of mine who also noticed that one of those staff members reviewed Gio Taco and gave it 5 stars. Well, duh. Like you’re going to give your employer a less-than-glowing review. Even funnier — the guy claimed that it wasn’t a breach of ethics because he was “off the clock” and could separate work from personal. Uh…right.
So…all that aside, I’m with the thumbs-down crowd. The last time I was there, the food was cold, my drink was watered down and the server was more focused on trying to get into the pants of this woman at another table. They should call this Metzger’s Folly.
One common thread…fat asses always want their fat ass filled for $4.
Gio Taco is fun. Portions small, service…confusing??? But great food and fun. We will endure some of the rest when the food is the best. Just be careful not to get any further out of balance.
I have ordered from there numerous times, the last time (10/1/2014) they provided no salsa, no silverware, no chips, the food was cold, and had very little taste. The last time the food was not good, no flavor, no chips included. We would not order from there again. Poor quality!!!!