Imaginative, healthful dishes bursting with Tex-Mex flavors
Folks who dine out frequently are often appreciative of an eatery that’s a bit eccentric.
This certainly describes me, but I would add that I prefer a business that’s genuinely eccentric rather than one that’s eccentric in a calculated fashion that says, "Look how purportedly fun our menu and decor are!”
At first, I assumed Tostadalicious was a fairly conventional Chipotle-stye operation. But I soon discovered that the fast-casual establishment can’t help being a little eccentric.
Prospective diners must walk down what’s basically a blind alley in uptown Westerville to find the cute, tidy and friendly restaurant. From its playful names — I use the plural because Tostadalicious was previously known as “Phatt Taco” — it’s hardly apparent that, in addition to making money like every other business, this place's raison d’etre is to offer healthful spins on quick and inexpensive Tex-Mex dishes.
This aesthetic stems from owner Jose Becerra, a transplant from northern California. Becerra’s resume includes planning nutritious meals for tech companies in the Silicon Valley and, after that, for Abercrombie & Fitch in New Albany. Lately, he has been applying his culinary knowledge to his own restaurants.
At Tostadalicious, he has applied an interesting sense of style to the interior. Above a smooth, blond wooden floor are wooden tables that provide limited seating — nothing eccentric about that. But the room also contains what amounts to a hot-sauce altar, numerous plants (some might be real) and mango-color walls decorated with tree branches, a surfboard, mirrors, masks, framed surrealistic images, photos of Mesoamerican art and multiple allusions to the sun and moon.
Largely because the whole is greater than the sum of its A tostada at Tostadalicious