I don’t do many sponsored posts, but for Tex-Mex? Ummm… That’ll be a hard yes, por favor and gracias.

Taco Bueno has a new menu item available, and they are almost as excited for everyone to sample it as I was to do said sampling. Next to perfect coffee every morning, really sweet watermelon as often as possible during watermelon season, and homemade popcorn during movies, Tex-Mex is my favorite food. I mean… salads, really. But obviously there is so much overlap there! OB-viously.

Anyway, growing up in Oklahoma and traveling a lot to Texas has made my life pleasantly nourished by excellent Tex-Mex. I crave it constantly. Taco Bueno is my favorite fast-casual place to satisfy that craving, too.

So the nice folks at Taco Bueno sent me a generous gift card to try their new menu item. For our sampling fun I knew exactly who to invite: Brad & Mer, our Taco Tuesday power couple. We love being friends with them for lots of reasons, including the facts that they LOVE to eat and they LOVE to laugh and they LOVE to dress up for all sorts of fun occasions. A couple of years ago they showed up to a Cinco de Mayo double-dinner-date wearing the best costumes ever. Brad donned the biggest straw sombrero I have ever seen (outside of a birthday song attack), and Mer, well… See for yourself. I did not even have to ask her if she would wear the Taco again. It was just an understood.

On to the food! Taco Bueno already has a pretty legit fast-casual menu. Years ago I could inhale the “B.O.B..” which stood for “big ol’ burrito.” More recently my favorite menu item has been the grilled chicken taco salad bowl (it includes black beans and cilantro rice). When we eat in rather than take out, I thoroughly enjoy their salsa and relish bar. It almost always includes fresh pico de gallo, which is my jam. Pile it on!

The new menu item is big and designed to feed either a small crowd or one perpetually hungry runner (with possible crumbs left for her husband and costume-wearing buddies). It’s called the “Wholotta Box” and it is no joke.

What you get for just $10:

• 2 large side orders of rice (moist!)
• 2 large side orders of refried beans (made fresh in the store)
• 4 bags of fresh tortilla chips with SUCH great salsa
• Your choice of a mix of 12 items, tacos and/ or burritos

The four of us opted to mix it up between tacos and burritos, plus I ordered that salad you see above (so good!), we added an order of queso, and I think there were a few small items added on, too. We had way too much food. Everyone ate plenty and enjoyed every bite. We settled in at one of those long, high tables and laughed and laughed for about an hour.

A good time was had by all, and we left with food to spare. My husband kept saying, “All of this was only ten bucks?” The Wholatta Box is, indeed, only $10. That’s a pretty great deal, friends. I feel like mentioning that we noticed several people leaving the restaurant with their own Wholatta Boxes to go, and how nice it seemed to have all that food packaged neatly in pizza-style cardboard boxes. Great for carrying home, you know? Ours was served just as neatly but in Styrofoam boxes for eating in.

As if our fun with Brad and Mer wasn’t enough, Taco Bueno wants you to go try something delicious, too! Enter to win a $25 gift card then go feast.

I have no doubt that your delicious visit to Taco Bueno will be made even better by great service like what we enjoyed from Heather, the young woman pictured above. She was patient with our antics, friendly to the max, and even posed for photos at our childish insistence. When our order was ready, she called out “TACO!” and everyone laughed.

I mean, WE laughed. The other guests in the dining room who just wanted some food, man, looked around nervously. We heard someone stage-whisper, “That’s a real live taco!” Follow that train of thought at your own peril.

So enter to win a gift card! Comment below, and just for fun tell me your favorite Tex-Mex food. I will choose a winner at random on Tuesday, May 30th. TACO TUESDAY!

I hope you go try the Wholotta Box. Bonus points if you wear a taco costume like my friend does, literally every chance she gets.

XOXOXOXO