A Taco Can Be Good for You In Ocho Many Ways

Fresh Pico de Gallo at Taco Ocho in Richardson, TX

Taco Shop Goes Gourmet

One of the growing trends in restaurants is the upscaling of fast food - a concept known as Fast Casual - like they're doing at Taco Ocho in Richardson, Texas. Kind of like the Jeffersons, fast food is moving on up to the East Side – providing high-society quality within an average person’s budget.

This new style of dining means you don’t have to wear a tie or a fancy dress to eat gourmet flavors. You don’t need to make reservations to have authentic and fresh ingredients. It also means there’s no need to eat pre-prepared food when you escape from the office for lunch. You don’t have to feed your kids a tub of fat or an ocean of salt because you’re rushing from school to practice to games. And it means it’s perfectly acceptable to rush in for food that takes you on a mini-vacation through flavor and quality.

That’s what upscale fast food is all about.

This trend is pretty cool. It’s pushing restaurants to think of new ways to serve you by:

• Making your meal better than good with carefully developed recipes from multiple influences
• Spoiling you with fresh ingredients that are hand-chopped, roasted and grilled each day
• Surprising you with layers of ethnic spices, creams, and vegetables -- flavors unified with care and pride
• Ensuring your paycheck doesn’t force you to settle for less taste and more fat
• Satisfying the time-crunch you face between work, home, activities and just living life

Pricing that isn't Fancy

Ingredients prepared daily and meals prepared to order aren't necessarily red-flags to make your wallet worry. In fact, the concept of upscaling fast food is about upscaling the flavor and quality and not the price. Places like Taco Ocho develop recipes that give you the gourmet experience and portions that are satisfying without the high-end cost. It flips the notion of "you get what you pay for" on its ear. In the case of upscale fast food, you get better than what you pay for.

Restaurants can do this by incorporating efficiencies and techniques that limit waste in their preparation. And, frankly, they don't have fancy table cloths that cost a lot to clean when juicy tacos drip all over them. There's no need for fancy silverware or champagne glasses. And the staff aren't in tuxedos.

Your Health Goes High-Class

And, finally, this trend is coming as Americans are finally addressing obesity. There are many factors to our country’s weight gain and we know that we need to do something about it. One of the factors is simply time. Americans cram too much into a day and are in such a hurry to get stuff done. So we grab food. We need food to survive but we make the quality of that food a lower priority than the urgency.

It’s the habit of feeding fast rather than eating well that is the first habit we can break. On the days when we can’t make lunch or dinner ourselves, there are inventive choices coming on the scene. Choices that are good for the clock and better for our bodies.

And this may be the surprising and welcome benefit of the upscaling of our fast food.