Costa Vida is muy bueno!
NOT FOUND: restaurant review 2.jpgWe greet the fellow residents of the North Sacramento area with a great choice for tacos when you travel out of town.
By out of town we mean Roseville.
Yes, we all travel to Placer County - and so many of our readers go to the Galleria in Roseville, Nordstrom Rack and the many restaurants to the east. It can seem like a trek to get there - but it really isn’t too far when you avoid the rush of the freeway and roam the back country.
By back country, we mean Baseline Road, Fiddyment and Pleasant Grove.
It’s for shopping excursions and adventures such as these that one typically works up an appetite.
Costa Vida off of Eureka Rd. just North of Rocky Ridge is the perfect place to get fish tacos or any other Baja inspired, Chipoltle-esque, healthy Mexican cuisine.
When we walked in, comments like, “Oh, this is like that other Mexican place” started. You stand in a buffet line and choose your meats, cheese, flour or wheat. But that is where the Q-doba references end.
First off, Costa Vida’s tortillas are homemade. They taste like a little piece of heaven. Really.
NOT FOUND: restaurant review 3.jpgSecondly, they broil their fish. Their fish tacos are made fresh (no frying - no heavy oil, all good omega 3’s) with an avocado sauce served with lime slices. It’s the best thing in there and it’s their trademark. Driving all the way to Roseville just for lunch isn‘t outlandish and it’s rare that a fish taco at a fish place DOES’NT smell of fish. It is truly a perfect fish taco.
It’s great for families with children, teens, or that lunch bunch from work. It’s not a pretentious hang out, nor a “bar”. It’s just a casual, let’s go get some fresh-mex kind of place that truly makes you feel like you dipped into a San Diego or Newport Beach taco stand.
Some other nootable items on the menu include Rasberry Chipotle Chicken Quesadilla. (I may have added Chipotle on my own but it’s a sweet, not too spicy sauce they marinade the chicken in) It was terrific. Their pork is supposed to be very tender so on the next trip (especially for the Carnitas lovers in town) it may be worth a sample. The shrimp is also broiled to perfection served with a pineapple mango salsa.
One thing that you may notice is that the food isn’t over seasoned, over salted or over the top. They use very fresh ingredients and simple recipes while maintaining an authentic flavor. Let me emphasize that it was in no ways bland. With the use of MSG, high fructose corn syrup and additives and preservatives our taste buds can come to expect a bit more oomph in the sauce. (oomph a.k.a. high fructose corn syrup and MSG) It actually was a bit surprising and refreshing. Put it this way, better than a taco you could make at home - but as healthy as a taco you would make it home if you had the proper Baja schooling in the kitchen.
You can actually get some of that tortill-ication (yes another made up word that fits perfectly in this sentence) on the Costa Vide website. They have twitter, community photos and recipes for how their food is so healthy. Turns out it has a lot to do with how they season their food, using fresh ingredients and a lot of fruit and vegatable juices.
Costa Vida has only one other Northern California location in Yuba City! So even if you’re less inclined to go to the City of Roses (a.k.a. Roseville) it’s a short drive for a franchise that many may have overlooked until now! For more info check out Costavida.net and when you walk in -- tell them the North Sacramento News sent you!