Planning your Super Bowl feast for Sunday? Preordering all the regular football accoutrements? At Street, we anticipated your need for Super Bowl staples: wings, pizza and… nachos. So we did a trial run. The Nacho Taste Test of 2011: two different delivery services, three different restaurants, five different nacho dishes, eight hungry Penn students.
“Prize Winning Nachos, with Melted Cheese and Salsa” were not worth the $7.99. You can eat the same dish by following these steps: buy some off–brand tortilla chips, sprinkle some shredded cheddar cheese and stick the combination in the oven for a few minutes. You’ll save money and can probably find better cheese at FroGro than our neighborhood bar used. We splurged for the “Prize Winning Nachos with Melted Cheese, Vegetarian Black Bean Chili and Salsa” ($8.99). The addition of the chili made the nachos look particularly unappetizing in their styrofoam container, but at least the chili gave the dish some much needed flavor.
Our judges described the “Nachos Grande” ($10.20 with your choice of meat) as “melancholy” and “bleak.” The nachos had cheese, black beans and sliced jalapenos on top. Although the cheese was of higher quality than Copa’s, Mad Mex skimped on the nacho’s staple ingredient. We tried both steak and chicken, but neither meat made us want more. The nachos were “top heavy,” leaving the bottom chips untouched by any cheese or beans. A major downside: the delivery charge was $6.99.
“Nacho Mamma” ($9) and “Macho Nachos” ($11) far surpassed the other nacho dishes. We all could have predicted that Stephen Starr would do nachos better than restaurants that serve “Big Azz Margaritas.” Both nacho dishes had melted Monterey jack and white cheddar cheeses, black beans, smoked chili salsa and crema fresca drizzled on top. The Macho Nachos had the added bonus of shredded steak. The toppings were evenly distributed and presented beautifully. The cheesy chips were very greasy and messy (as any respecting nacho should be), so make sure to have napkins or plates for your Super Bowl guests. The $4.99 delivery charge was well spent, but DiningIn was over 30 minutes late, so plan accordingly.
However, when it comes down to it, you could easily make your own nachos in the same amount of time as it takes for either Campusfood or DiningIn to deliver.
