Carolyn Fath Ashby
Taco toppings include the traditional Mexican chopped tomato, onion and cilantro.
Editor’s note: This review was written before coronavirus dining restrictions. But Migrants is still offering takeout, and delivery through EatStreet.
When chef Oscar Villarreal announced that he would open Migrants, a fast casual taco spot, in the latter half of 2019, he was still at the helm of the vegan/steakhouse/tapas joint Fuegos. But by the time Migrants was ready to open, Fuegos was about to close.
While Migrants, just off the Beltline next to Bonfyre American Grille in the Arbor Gate complex, doesn’t have as extensive a menu as Fuegos, Villareal does provide some special touches. The name pays homage to his family. They travel north from Texas yearly to work the harvests in Wisconsin and neighboring states. Both the corn and the flour tortillas are housemade. The website lists local sourcing from such farms as Hidden Valley and Alsum Farms.
The space’s former tenant was a Silver Mine Subs, and Migrants has utilized its assembly-line layout.
The centerpiece is the taco menu, with ample options for meat-eaters and those avoiding meat (there are seven vegetarian tacos). You choose the filling, you choose the topping — the American “lettuce, diced tomato, and shredded cheese” trio, or the traditional Mexican “onion, radish, cilantro, and a sprinkle of queso fresco” quartet.
Chorizo was the star filling, salty, but not too greasy. There’s also a quinoa-centric vegetarian version of chorizo, which was too paste-like but tasted about right. I enjoyed the duck adobo and the mildly acidic chicken tinga — these both defied the tendency to get waterlogged in this kind of setting, sitting in warming pans.
Similarly, a big but not huge burrito filled with spicy pork didn’t end up with the bottom blowing out with juice.
Both the broccoli adobo and roasted cauliflower fillings could have been more aggressively caramelized, but the flavor was good. The mix of papas y rajas (potatoes and peppers) was dominated by sweet potato and a little overcooked, with no browning.
The housemade tequila reaper cheese sauce is an excellent nacho base: spicy, but only just so. Ground beef, black beans, and optional guacamole — I embrace the “I know guac is extra” meme — did nachos right, and Migrants has 10 different salsas — the standard and the verde pico salsas particularly tickled me.
The presence of a breakfast menu at Migrants really had me excited, as Mexican breakfast is a special thing. Bless a culture that legitimizes eating chips for breakfast. The huevos rancheros is a glorious heap of chorizo, beans, eggs, and salsa served on a crisped tortilla, something like a tostada. Although the El Rancho Grande platter of three eggs plus meat, potatoes, and tortillas was a little wet from all the salsa spooned over the top, it was a grande portion indeed. The option of choosing lamb as a meat is a nice touch, even with the occasional bone fragment.
There’s also a breakfast burrito (available vegetarian) and a breakfast torta, as well as a basic American egg breakfast, pancakes and vegan pancakes.
There’s a little something for everybody at Migrants. The flavors tend toward understated, but the unexpected duck heart and chopped duck liver in my duck adobo taco speaks to Mexican food literacy.
There’s a lot of office space near Migrants, as well as retail and residential, so a quick-service spot for working lunches and on-the-way-home dinners makes sense. Villarreal and his team are warmly friendly. The deployment of crunchy tortillas is superb. And at right around $3 per taco, the prices are right.
Migrants
2601 West Beltline Hwy. #106; 608-630-8194;
migrantsmadison.com; 8 am-8 pm Mon.-Sat.; $3-$13
