Bringing you the best places to get your Mexican food cravings on that special day of the week: Taco Tuesday. Whether there’s a special Tuesday deal, or the Mexican food deserves some special recognition, we’ve got you covered.
Casa Ramos
15363 Amberly Dr., Tampa, FL 33647; (813)977-2266
Monday – Sunday 11:00 AM – Midnight
| Quality | 6.75 |
| Quantity | 7 |
| Price | 9 |
| Value (Average of quality, quantity, price) | 7.5 |
| Ambient | 6 |
| Accessibility | 8 |
| Vegetarian Options | Yes |
| Tuesday Deal | Yes; $1.00 tacos and free chips & salsa |
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Let’s be upfront here… Our first visit to Casa Ramos wasn’t in-depth enough. Although our rating stayed pretty much the same–we gave a lower rating based on quality. We’ll get into specifics soon.
To start off, Casa Ramos is found in a pretty popular plaza in New Tampa where there are a lot of dining options, so you’ve gotta come visit on a Tuesday specifically! I’d say if you happen to be in the area for Tuesday’s dinner, definitely stop by at Casa Ramos since the deal is so great ($1.00 tacos). Other food joints are there if you happen to be in the mood for American, Thai, Asian fusion, and more. But hey, if you’re going to Taco Tuesday I’m sure you’ll enjoy the deal…
Don’t forget the HAPPY HOUR: margaritas, beers, sangrias, appetizers
HAPPY HOUR HAPPY HOUR HAPPY HOUR HAPPY HOUR HAPPY HOUR HAPPY HOUR HAPPY HOUR HAPPY HOUR HAPPY HOUR HAPPY HOUR HAPPY HOUR HAPPY HOUR HAPPY HOUR HAPPY HOUR HAPPY HOUR!
3:00 – 6:30 PM
10:00 PM – close
Walking up, Casa Ramos seems huge. It’s almost like you’re expecting a huge fiesta inside but in reality, the dim lightning and lack of patrons is what you’re faced with. Walking up to the host (or lack thereof), we waited around to be seated as groups of additional people walked in. Probably not the speediest service, but not impolite per se. Our group of 4 got seated in the booth (first time boothers–woohoo!) and got cozy real quick!
Technically we got there on time for happy hour, but we weren’t served by 6:30… Not that it stopped us from asking! And of course they were nice and flexible enough to allow the happy hour deals, but we were only in the mood for half off appetizers. When they say half off appetizers, they mean “half off any appetizer except for w, x, y, z.” Of course, the appetizer we wanted, was x in that list and x doesn’t get half off.
x = Spinach Queso Dip
It was cheap enough to still order on its own (~$6.00), but it was still disappointing to find out it wasn’t applicable for the happy hour discount. We just wanted to save any penny possible, silly-young-unemployed-adults. Ordering the queso was a great addition to endless chips and salsa.
The queso:
Pros: Great taste. The chunky spinach covered in queso was very flavorful.
Cons: LACK OF THICKNESS. When you think of delicious queso, part of the appeal is in the thick ooz. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the queso’s texture was thin as H2O. Another quirk in the dish? The queso wasn’t even filled to the brim! We were served a half filled bowl…!
Let’s take a look at that queso, though…
Moving onto the tacos…
My order included: Beef, chicken, and pico (some sort of combination of meats) with soft corn tortillas. Decently sized, the tacos are satisfyingly topped off with diverse ingredients–it didn’t seem like it was missing much. I started with the beef (which ended up being the tastiest!) and to my delight, there were no messy juices spilling down every limb. It didn’t meant the taco was dry, the moisture was just held together very nicely by the shell and all of the toppings. In 2nd place comes the chicken, which was slightly bland for me but good texture; there was still no mess on the plate afterwards! The moisture, again, was held together nicely. As for the third taco, I can’t even be sure what type of meat it was to be honest. I ate some sort of meat concoction that was pretty unappealing and tasted a bit like stale shredded cardboard. I want to guess it was a combination of pulled beef and chicken, but I really can’t say… for now we’ll just go with “mystery meat“. I should add that, with the extra queso from our appetizer, it was great to add to my tacos for added flavor (plus the spinach was scrumptious–can’t say no to that!).
To top it all off, if you’re a lover of all things hot and spicy, there were also hot sauces available upon request. Not wanting to change the flavor of my tacos, I opted out, but was able witness two table members try two different sauces. And beware of the green. I feel like it’s a universal law that the darker, and stranger the color of the hot sauce is, the spicier it is. And this law definitely applied to this batch here. So again, I say beware of the green.
Not being completely full, I had to take another stab at a taco. I mean, they’re just $1.00! So for my last taco, to top the night off, I went with a hard shell beef taco to switch things up. Not a hard shell taco lover myself, I thought I’d give it a go. And of course, I realized why I’m not a hard shell taco lover. The taco falls apart with every bite! Why! WHY?! I might as well order nachos! Personal preference aside, the hard shell tasted great with the beef, but not before I had to drain all of the oil from the meat… I didn’t seem to have this problem with the soft shell tacos… what happened, Ramos?!
This review, I basically ended up lowering the quality marks given to Casa Ramos from the previous review, simply because I had a more in depth look at the food. Sure it’s a good place for a Taco Tuesday deal (if you happen to be in the area) but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. Still better than Taco Bell tacos? Well they’re cheaper for the amount and type of taco you get, but we’ll get to Taco Bell’s tacos at some point… For now, we will taco on.
Taco Tuesday Tampa Bay 