You may or may not have noticed the new, pointlessly named, Chronic Tacos that now seems to be taking over Orange County? (if you don?t already live in the shiny, sparkly and sunny state, I?m talking about CA), with some spilling into Riverside County.? Ok, so first off, the restaurant is named Chronic Tacos.? Chronic Tacos?? Huh?? Wha?? Let?s take a? moment here and try to get into the heads of those who thought of this thick-witted restaurant name, shall we?? Oh yes!? Apparently the owners of this chain smoke a bit of the funny green stuff (kiddies, that?s marijuana).? So, during a smoke out session did they, while giggling, simply decide it was glorious to name their chain after their naughty, extracurricular activity?? Or am I not giving them enough credit?? Maybe they took it one creative step further and, assuming their demographic were pot smokers, cleverly thought Chronic Tacos would be an obvious spot for people to ease their munchies.? You know, being high equals munchies, which in turn equals eating at Chronic Tacos?? Both of these reasons are stupid.? Listen, the name Chronic Tacos is just stupid.? No, it?s not even worthy of dense, obtuse, senseless or even absurd?it?s just stupid.? Why would one pigeonhole their business to pot smokers?? Are their many pot smokers in So Cal? Sure!? Did any of the owners of Chronic Tacos consider the non-pot smoker to pot smoker ratio? Or how about the many families that hit up restaurants?? Being the genius that I am, I can promise you that a large percentage of those families are not smoking it up.

Alrighty, so we?ve established that the name is stupid.? Was there anything else about Chronic Tacos that, for months, kept me from checking out the restaurant?? The logo.? Chronic Tacos is bubbly and red and you know, I think I could have really dealt with that if their wasn?t a hip, nautical star right smack in the middle of Chronic Tacos.? Nowadays nautical stars are known for being a trendy tattoo that just won?t end.? Does the trend need to end?? I don?t know and I don?t care (now you see my underwear!) but the last thing I want to see when I?m looking for tasty treats is a nautical star or anything that doesn?t have to do with food.? I want to see, dare I say, a taco!? It?s a Mexican joint, maybe a Mexican (which they do have for one of their logos)? Or how about a chili pepper? Sombrero?? Or maybe a name that at least screams something yummy (yeah, yeah, I know I discussed that earlier).? I have just been annoyed for so long!? Being a lover of Mexican food (yes, I will marry you cheese enchilada!) I kept driving by different Chronic Tacos and almost desperately wanted to try out the up and coming taco chain but couldn?t bring myself to do it.

Chronic Tacos: Eat my Mexican food?I?m new!
Me: Oh!? New!? Coolio.? OH GOD, LOOK AT THAT STUPID NAME AND RETARDED (sorry, no room for PC here), NAUTICAL STAR! (yes, caps are necessary!)
Chronic Tacos: But I?m good, even people who smoke reefer like to eat me! You see? I?m good.
Me: You are very stupid.

I was a happy camper to never walk into a Chronic Tacos when one opened in my city.? Me and the hubby were driving by and, as always, I started complaining about the name and logo, ?Who the hell wants to eat at a place called ?Chronic Tacos??? Does that make me hungry?? No!? So stupid?.dumb nautical star.?? And then the hubby informed me that he recently heard that one of the guys from the band Korn is the owner of the taco chain.? Interesting enough for me, I?m in.? Yeah, sometimes it surprises me how easy I can be.? I thought let?s go see if the food is crap-o-la like their name and star logo.? From the outside Chronic Tacos looked tropical; palm trees, some tiki statues and the drive-thru sign looked like it was made for an island of some sort (I?m sure the greenest island of all).? When you enter you instantly notice that Chronic Tacos is a factory for bro employees; they were all fairly young, seemed new to working at restaurants and you could imagine that they all had massively large trucks parked in the back.? It seemed as if these boys were hired to up the cool factor but were almost a distraction to me since they were very different compared to the tropical feel of the place.? The boys were nice, however, I did have to go back for part of my order since I don?t believe they knew what really came with my order.

I ordered a cheese enchilada, rice/beans and chips/salsa and they were all really tasty.? I loved the cheese enchilada but the salsa actually stole the show.? Generally, when my order comes with chips/salsa at restaurants, I don?t pay much attention to it and focus on the main attraction.? I was exceedingly surprised by how good my whole plate that I was hopping around from one side to the other.? The cheese enchilada was cheesy and simple, the way it should be and the sauce had a slight kick.? The salsa was fresh (I saw that they make it fresh daily) and was not killed with having too much pizazz.? My hubby?s taco smelled like a yummy, Mexican kitchen and he says it was ?really, really good.?? I guess so since I wasn?t allowed a single bite.

As we were finishing up we sat around and looked at the cool tiki, as well as complained more about the name/logo and then we noticed the design on their cups.? Their cups are dark, have distressed looking type and design that doesn?t even close to match the tropical tiki design but sure the hell did match the stupid name, star and bro employees.? It?s almost as if their were 2 designers involved with putting Chronic Tacos together.

Chronic Tacos is clearly not hurting or the chain wouldn?t be growing rather quickly.? But I can?t help but wonder if they didn?t put so much focus on being rad, rebellious, bad-boy trendy, whatever, that it would attract all crowds and isn?t that what it?s all about?? On the same token, if they can just get you into Chronic Tacos for 1 time I bet they?ll make you a permanent customer; we?ve been back twice.

Extra Bonus for Chronic Tacos: They do have a super cool, taco mouse pointer on their website.? Yaaaay for taco mouse pointers!