Taco Bill Mexican Restaurant

Wednesday February the 8th 2006

375 Clarendon Street, South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Tonights plan is to walk to Clarendon Street, which goes past Melbournes biggest tourist attraction, the enormous crown casino. It also goes past the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, where an international motor show commences tomorrow, I plan to attend, more pictures of cars shortly.
Clarendon Street is a short strip of shops and restaurants, mainly italian but there are also 2 japanese places a number of pubs and...Taco BillS!

Now I have eaten at Taco Bills before, readers of my tour of South Eastern Australia may recall.
This sort of contradicts my policy of never eating at the same place twice, but at least I have never eaten at THIS taco bills before....now on with the review.

Heres what a mexican restaurant in Australia looks like from the outside.

View from across the street...fascinating


Close up of the sign, important because they were sued by Taco Bell, the bell lost, and soon after Taco Bell closed their 2 Australian stores, I dont know the whole story but it revolves around Taco Bell going public in 1969, 2 years after Taco Bill was established....on the other side of the world.


Next door is Melbournes Lamborghini showroom, I was pretty excited.


Look closely and you can see my wind swept reflection, holding the camera, looking cool

The place is pretty busy but I get a seat in a good location for taking pictures.
It is quite noisy and everyone seems happy, the waitresses are all asians, there are no mexicans/latinas/chollos anywhere in Australia, I wonder who the origianl Bill was who started Taco Bill.
I choose from the menu quickly, no entree is required, corn chips and salsa are provided upon arrival. For my main I choose Chile Colorado, and for a drink I chose a VIRGIN pineapple Margherita (laugh now).

Nearby theres some mexican tourists, 6 of them, I am late on picking up the drama, but they seem to want to pay in advance of the meal, $50 only, which wont be enough to pay for 2 people, especially considering one of them already has a 1 litre margherita...non virgin.
Unfortunately I have no idea what their issue is, they speak german most of the time, rudely to each other ignoring the waitress who stands there with the $50 in her hand not knowing what to do, eventually she turns and leaves with the money.

After no more than 3 minutes, my food arrives!

The free corn chips and salsa presented on arrival - a nice touch


My virgin Pineapple Margherita


Colorado Chile (slow cooked cubes of beef, texas style...mexican) with rice and frijoles. The black dish contains my tortillas.

Everything is very nice, the colorado chile is great for wrapping in tortillas, it has clearly been slow cooked all day, which explains why they were able to serve me so quickly.
The pineapple margherita is very refreshing, nice strong flavour, sometimes these things can taste like water...not this time.
Taco Bills gets big bonus points for their hot sauces, I asked for hot sauce and the waitress tells me to go choose, so I do, theres about 40 to choose from on 5 shelves from mild to extreme, I pick 2 from the extreme. Both of these are very nice, and have distinct flavours from one another, but neither come anywhere near my megadeath sauce I have at home.

It doesnt take too long to eat, it seems I have only been there a few minutes, however just as I finish a nearby table breaks into 'happy birthday' for about 3 people as when they get to the name part everyone is confused and laughs..so funny!

Still the whole meal was great, I recommend Taco Bills for good value, service and flavour...as the score shall hopefully show!

I took one picture of the street after leaving...

Clarendon Street, South Melbourne

My bill was,

Virgin Pineapple Margherita $4.00 - Well worth it, soft drinks were $3
Chile Colorado $18.00 - Good value, great flavour
Hot Sauces, Corn Chips, Tortillas, Salsa Free! - free is best