Saturday, February 23, 2019

Guy Fieri's Dive & Taco Joint "Peace, love and taco grease!" -Guy Fieri

On Wednesday, Mitch and I were talking on my way home from work and he reminded me that Guy Fieri's restaurant was opening the next night and he wanted to take me, on that night. We didn't know about the VIP at that time, or he would have gotten the tickets for that. I can say without a doubt that this man loves me so much. We knew it would be busy so we went early. Wow. Busy, that was an understatement.

I'm glad it wasn't colder than it was. We was able to get in line around 5:30PM and we finally made it inside around 7:20PM.  Then we waited in line to order our food until 8:15PM and the food came so fast we was done eating around 8:30PM and we left around 9PM. This will not always be the case, so please don't let the lines keep you from going. Remember this was the first night they were open. 

For people that don't know, Mitch broke his ankle a few weeks ago and is in a walking boot. I'm sure it was torture for him to stand all that time, and of course I didn't think we would find a table to sit, but we did. All for me, my love for food, trying new things, my love for the Chefs on Food Network, and dreaming of just maybe a glimpse of Guy, whom was not there, but I sure was hoping. :)




The restaurant is called Guy Fieri's Dive and Taco Joint. This is located down in the Power & Light District, 1333 Walnut Street, Kansas City, MO. To quote Guy, this food is "funkalicious." He is known for his colorful and funny quotes on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. He is the one that started the Flavortown, he is the Mayor of Flavortown, after all.

This is a dive bar, neon signs everywhere, live music, the ceiling fans had neon lights on them, and a full bar. He definitely shows his collector side. The open shelving over the bar, that looks like a cage to me (pictures below) it was full of mason jars filled with (looked like) white lighting (moonshine) on the top shelf and different liqueurs on the bottom shelf, and the TVs were on sport channels. We loved reading all the neon signs, if you have a wonderful sense of humor you will love this. They also had a patio with glass accordion doors this gives a nice flow between the inside and the patio. The other side looked like garage doors that they can roll open on a nice evening.










The menu is a simple one, it's a bar. Love me some bar food. Especially tacos. Who doesn't love a good taco? These are what I call street tacos, with soft shells. I was impressed of how fast our food came out. You order at the bar, and give your name, you go sit down enjoy your cocktail, a waitress will come yelling your name you let her know where you are and she will deliver your food. 

 You get 3 tacos to an order, the con is you can't mix and match. All the tacos are $10. Three for 10. Mitch thought the portions were small especially for the price. I do see his point, however this is a bar, and everyone is used to restaurants with big portions on over feeding us. I thought the portions were just right, we were full, not stuffed. We ordered two different types of tacos and a quesadilla with pork, off the signature bites portion of the menu. This was around $31 without drinks.
  
We ordered the Fajita Rajas Taco, the Diablo Shrimp Taco and the Real Cheesy Quesadilla with a small up-charge to add pork. The Fajita Rajas Taco is a grilled chicken, poblano rajas, jack cheese, pico de gallo, crispy onions, and salsa rojo.  The chicken was cooked perfect and this was the spicier taco. Just enough bite that you knew the heat was there, but not call the Fire Department hot.

The Diablo Shrimp Taco this is grilled tequila-lime shrimp, avocado, pico de gallo, chipotle-aioli. This was less spicy than the Fajita Rajos Taco. I was little surprised with that being other places the word Diablo being in the food description means it's usually spicy. This was amazing. The shrimp was grilled to perfection. It was juicy and not rubbery, like an eraser when shrimp is overcooked. The avocado provided a nice creaminess that it was needing. Maybe this is why it wasn't so hot.  Every bite was like a party in Flavortown. I was surprised that Mitch ate two of these, since it had avocado in them. Mitch had a good point, each ingredient is needed to add that bust of flavor in each bite. The Real Cheesy Quesadilla (with pork) was just as good as Jazzy B's quesadillas. (I have eaten there several times and will do a review also.) This had cheddar, Oaxaco cheese, Cotija, some super melty cheese. The pork was an up-charge of $2, you also can add chicken if you want. This also came with slaw and guacamole. The quesadilla was extremely cheesy and gooey that you would want if it was real cheesy. The pork was a nice touch, I didn't think it was needed, but Mitch is a meat eater. :) The slaw was creamy and wonderful. I was able to sneak one bite. The guacamole to me was bland. I'm extremely picky with my guacamole. I never liked it before until I made it homemade. Maybe I'm partial to mine, well not maybe, I am.  It could have at least had some salt and a squeeze of a lime to help with the blandness.


Fajita Rajas Taco

The Diablo Shrimp Taco

Real Cheesy Quesadilla with added Pork


I have checked Yelp. There is a lot of mixed reviews already. I would definitely recommend this place. I will be going back to try other things, like the Cheeseburger Tacos, Carne Asada Tacos, Trash Can Nachos and the Carne Asada Fries and to try the cocktails, since I didn't get anything from the bar that night. 

I'm thinking that this has mixed reviews because people think it should be one thing and when it's not that way, they are disappointed with what they see and/or taste. You have to remember to always keep in open mind about trying new places. Everyone's opinion is different, what taste good to one will not taste good to the next person. We have to remember this is Guy Fieri, a big time chef. He will have unusual foods with big time flavors, and he will combine ingredients that we won't think of. That is what I love. He states in every Triple D episode, if it's funky, he will find it. This place is just that. This is exactly what I would expect his dive would be.

Please leave any comments, especially if you go try these places. Pro or con, I love to hear what others think. In closing I'm quoting Guy Fieri “Peace, love and Taco grease!"





My cat Bella who co-authored this.:)



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