Margs Taco Bistro delivers a global take on tacos
Serious taco lovers turn a skeptical eye upon attempts to fiddle with or improve this already perfect item. Margs Taco Bistro dismisses the skeptics and gives the taco an international makeover—and manages to do it well, too.
At the outset, Margs looks a little too slick to dish out decent tacos. With its tall ceilings, minimalist furniture, and huge, LoDo-appropriate bar, Margs could be serving almost anything trendy. Jaded diners will wearily expect overpriced “street tacos” and frou-frou drinks.
Margs doesn’t skimp on the prissy beverages, with upscale margarita flavors and a brief cocktail menu, but the tacos are a tantalizing surprise. These aren’t street tacos and they don’t pretend to be. Instead, Margs goes jet-set on a menu of globe-spanning taco-style treats.
The blank canvas is the restaurant’s homemade flour tortillas. Impossibly soft and oven-hot, they’re like snuggly blankets for tiny angels. On their own, they’re not very flavorful—almost like plain, white bread—but that makes them an excellent starting point for whatever experiments come next.
Except for a few appetizers, Margs serves tacos, and tacos alone. They call them “world tacos”—and they mean it. Margs doesn’t just offer a couple Asian-fusion tacos, throw in ground beef and chicken options, and call it multicultural. These tacos are all over the atlas, from Italy and Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas.
Let’s start with “The Moroccan”: chicken, curry yogurt, and jicama, topped with slaw and pineapple habanero salsa. It tastes like an especially exotic chicken-salad wrap, the sweet salsa dancing alongside the curry spice.
The “Caprese” taco is a smidge more intimidating, filled with chicken, asiago and mozzarella cheeses, and tomatoes, plus basil and a citrus-basil spread. An Italian taco—gross, right? Not gross. It’s actually astoundingly tasty, kind of like a rolled-up slice of bruschetta. The citrus spread is a key element, zinging through the heavy cheese and seasoned chicken.
The traditional taco, called the “Calle,” is a fine rendition for those who want to stay in the Mexican vein—choice of meat, cheese, pico de gallo, and guacamole. The Caribbean jerk taco is juicy, but somewhat mediocre, and demonstrates one of the Margs minuses: You must be mindful of your salsas. The same ones appear on different tacos, so if all of your tacos come with, say, the pineapple habanero salsa, you may feel like you’re eating a fruit cup instead of a savory taco platter. It’s good salsa, to be sure, it’s just a little too much if you’re not paying close attention, or if it overwhelms the main ingredients.
And now, maybe the best thing about Margs: the prices. Initially, they seem predictably steep. $2.75 for a single taco. $4.50 for a chips-and-salsa appetizer. Eyerolls and sighs everywhere. But the chips-and-salsa sampler is massive, with chips bursting festively out of the basket and three salsas. The tacos are gigantic, too, tucked up like mini-burritos and spilling over with fillings. A medium-sized appetite is easily squashed with chips, salsa, and two plump tacos.
Margs is doing a brave thing in a town facing ever-increasing numbers of food snobs and a wealth of good Mexican food. That’s as good a reason as any to raise a Margs taco in salute. Just use both hands.
