The first vs. the fad. A review of Ciccio Restaurant Group’s Competing Mexican Cuisine.

Amidst a long list of popular food destinations in Tampa, the Ciccio Restaurant Group claims many of the bigger names. The SOHO dominant restaurant supergroup oversees such restaurants as Ciccio Water, Green Lemon, Sweet Soul, Daily Eats and more. The group has even branched off into recently opening a second location for their wildly popular “healthy living” self serve restaurant, Fresh Kitchen. As well as a new age people-focused gym that acts as an interactive hub for fitness lovers alike. Though apart from these particular escapade, the groups most recent conquest was their opening of Taco Dirty in the spring of last year. While the location has been seemingly prosperous since its open, reviews seem scarce, and people are unsure as to whether or not the new location has lived up to its hype.

Green Lemon Instagram

New tacos aside, Ciccio has already impressed me with their Mexican style capabilities with their flagship Mexican restaurant Green Lemon, located on South Howard, sharing a parking lot with their breakfast style diner Daily Eats. The restaurant offers a healthy list of tacos, bowls, burritos and drinks on their extensive menu. Upon my first visit to Taco Dirty I was curious to see what the menu would offer in reference to Green Lemon’s. Two Mexican

style restaurants owned by the same company and located a mere walk from one another seems like a poor business decision, though it had me wondering whether or not the two locations would have many similarities at all. As it would turn out, Taco Dirty was an almost exact replica of the set up and functionality of Fresh Kitchen. You get in line, choose to dine in or out, choose all of your own ingredients and then pay at the register in a conveyor belt system, much like a chipotle or subway functions. So the question arose, which was going to be better, Taco Dirty, the new modernized and “quick” style Mexican food, or Green Lemon, the sit down, traditional service style Mexican dishes.

Taco Dirty Instagram

I decided to ask the worker what to order. I believe strongly that in order to recognize a restaurants true potential it is important to order their “best” or “most popular” dish, therefore guaranteeing top quality. I had known from past experience which dish Green Lemon considered their highest ranked which was their Gigante Taco, a soft corn taco with buffalo Chicken, bleu cheese, avocado buffalo sauce, celery and a string of jalapeno. The supposed “best” taco at Taco Dirty, recommended unanimously by the staff, was their shrimp taco with cilantro pesto and “a topping of my choice” which immediately threw me off considering their “best” dish shouldn’t be much of a build-your-own, and more of an already-built.

Essentially, I tried both tacos. And to save any reader of this blog the agony of hearing every detail of my meals, the Gigante chicken taco from Green Lemon was without a doubt astronomically better than the strangely undecided, unanimously “best,” unfinished taco from Taco Dirty. In order to confirm my findings I went back to both restaurants and ordered a bowl to decide if the tacos were simply a fluke, and my review stands. Green Lemon, Ciccio’s first Mexican style restaurant, blows Taco Dirty out of the water. Oh and if you’re looking for advice from the staff on what to get at Taco Dirty, give up.

Taco Dirty: 6.3 Green Lemon 7.8