7 pax rolled in for the Aug 7 edition of uptown #TacoTuesday at 204 North Kitchen. In addition to the above listed pax, we had Wegmans and (making his first appearance) Bonsai, both from F3 Fort Mill. Wegmans has been EHing his fellow Fort Mill pax for a few weeks now, and a number have indicated that they will be joining us soon. Welcome, Bonsai, and looking forward to meeting more of our Fort Mill brethren.
I believe this may have been the pax's fourth trip to 204 (although YHC could only locate two #bbs – this one and this one). While YHC always enjoys hitting new spots, and there are several options outside the I-277 perimeter that the pax have not yet visited, there are also some advantages to making return trips to spots we've already hit.
For one, some of the taco establishments have had more taco options on their menu than could be ordered in a single trip, unless your name is Mona Lisa (who was notably absent this week). Also, returning a second or third (or even fourth) time to the same spot gives the pax a chance to review their notes from the prior trip, consider other pax's notes from the prior trip, re-evaluate some of the previously consumed tacos to determine whether one's initial assessment was correct, revise one's order based on the prior determination as to which taco was the best, etc. In addition, the pax are afforded an opportunity to observe changes that may have been made since the prior trip.
Prior to placing an order this week, YHC scrambled to pull up notes from the last trip to 204 but could not find them quickly enough, and had to go on memory and gut. YHC went with 4 tacos – steak x 2, pork belly, and carnitas. In hindsight, this turned out to be a good order. YHC's last assessment of the 204 tacos (which I've since located) found pork belly to be the best of the 204 taco offerings, followed by steak. Having re-tried both of these tacos during this most recent trip, however, YHC now believes that steak is the better of the two (although pork belly is definitely a solid taco). The steak tacos were on point this week.
Another observation – whereas in the past 204's tacos have come in double corn tortillas, this week's tacos were in single corn tortillas. Don't know if 204 is trying to cut costs with this move, whether it was a temporary, supply-related move, or what the deal was, but YHC wasn't particularly bothered by it. The single corn tortillas were formidable enough and didn't collapse like some corn tortillas tend to do when saturated with taco juices.
Unfortunately, 204 doesn't provide free chips/salsa (or even have them on the menu, it appears), so it's tough to rank 204 up there with the Que Ondas and Hot Tacos, but the tacos were pretty tasty. Overall score 7.5 / 10.
What did the pax think about 204 this week? Sound off below….