We checked out Garage, Binghamton’s hottest new taco bar

Binghamton students love their restaurants. Coming from the NYC area, I’m used to expensive restaurants with small dishes. I love going out to eat when I’m at school because everything is well priced and so good.

The latest buzz in town is all about the Garage, a taco bar on Washington Street. After hearing mixed reviews, I decided I had to check it out for myself and for all the taco lovers out there. I enlisted some friends who were happy to help because who would turn down tacos on Taco Tuesday?

My first impression is that it’s a cool and quirky place. There are picnic tables outdoors with string lights and inside there are regular tables. The overall feel is quirky and retro- a new look for Binghamton. The whole setting is very open so even though when you sit indoors there’s a roof over your head, you still get a nice breeze from outside. I’m curious to see what they’re going to do with that once Binghamton weather sets in. I like tacos but I don’t know if I like them enough to sit outside in my winter jacket…

This isn’t a fancy sit down taco place- it’s a garage. You order and pay at the counter and they give you a buzzer that goes off when your food is ready. There is also a bar (key words: TACO and BAR) there with a small cocktail menu but the drinks are cheaper than any NYC bar I’ve been to.

I ordered a fish taco, a tofurizo taco, and a frijoles y queso taco. Disclaimer: Fish tacos are only served on Tuesdays and Fridays. My friends ordered the pollo asado, carne molida, carnitas, and carne asada tacos. We got a taco salad and elote to share. We also ordered chips and pico de gallo to snack on while we waited for our food to be ready. The chips were warm and the pico de gallo was really fresh and delicious.

It took less than 10 minutes for all of our food to be ready. The fish taco had a good amount of fish, which was beer battered. The tofurizo taco was crumbled tofu seasoned with chorizo spices. It was really flavorful and is a great alternative to meat. The frijoles taco consisted of black beans, cabbage, radishes, cilantro, and lime aioli. It was good but nothing standout special.

The pollo asado taco included grilled chicken with salsa verde and a lime aioli. My friend said the combination of the grilled chicken with the refreshing toppings kept it light. The carne molida taco was really good mainly because of the chimichurri, but the taco was a little soggy from all the extra drippings.

Another friend said the pineapple pico de gallo topping on the carnitas taco was an interesting twist that actually worked. She also had the carne asada taco, which she called simple and delicious. The taco salad was really good and would have been filling as a meal on its own. Elote, a popular street food in Mexico, is roasted corn on the cob with butter, queso fresca, and chili seasoning. It was made to order and really tasty.

As for the bar, they had a great selection of beers as well as a small cocktail menu. I got a mojito for $6, which is less than half the price of a cocktail in NYC. It was nice and strong and quite good. The bar is separate from where you order the food so it really is a self serve type of place that keeps it casual.

Overall The Garage is a great place that I would definitely go back to. My meal cost less than $20 total but I left feeling happy and full.