Nom Nom Tacos & Tequila — Restaurant in Lafayette

I have been to Nom Nom many times while living in West Lafayette. The service has always been okay, but the food has never disappointed. With that said, my recent trip was one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had.

There were three people total in my party. When we arrived, we approached the hostess, who asked us if we had a reservation. We did not, and she proceeded to noticeably grimace at this response. Mind you, I have never had to have a reservation in the past. The manager quickly approached us saying that he would find us a table in the next 15 minutes in the bar area. While we waited, the manager was trying to manage multiple large parties, was stealing chairs from other occupied tables, and was trying to find more menus as they had none to give to customers coming in. We ended up waiting an additional 15 minutes, and were seated at the bar.

Our waitress was nice enough, but clearly bouncing between too many tables. We went ahead and ordered, each member of my party getting a few tacos and an appetizer of queso dip. Our queso dip and chips came out cold, and the chips tasted stale. We waited about 30 more minutes for our food to come out. It came out cold as well. The vegetarian taco also had a "sour" taste.

The atmosphere, which is usually chill, added to our feelings of distress. There was a formal event happening above the restaurant. They were playing extremely loud music with the bass thumping the walls of the restaurant. So, not only was the music and noise from the restaurant loud, but the bass made the ambience that much worse.

The tl;dr: Nom Nom has greatly disappointed me. I was okay with the recent increase in prices, but I am not okay with a drop in service and food quality. I will not be back...

After hearing positive reviews, I decided to come here for dinner and drinks with my girlfriend and cousin.

We started with margaritas and street corn (esquites). My cousin substituted the tequila in her margarita with the casamigos, but was charged for the shot as a separate drink. Most places have a reasonable upgrade charge policy instead. The drinks were okay, but their upgrade policy made for a bad start to the dining experience.

The esquite was decent, and at least had the grilled corn flavor, which is lacking at other places. It was good and reasonably priced.

The tacos were a whole other story. I really wanted to like the food, but was severely underwhelmed. First, their birria tacos lacked a good consome on the side. The birria tacos were not terrible, but without a rich consome to pair, it just wasn't a good birria taco.

The problem with the consome seemed to have come from a lack of fat in the broth. It was too watery and turned wet the tacos into a mushy mess without retaining the broth flavor in each bite. Consome is made from the thickened broth the meat is marinated in with its spices, and provide the rich flavor. This taco needs a rework for sure.

The other tacos were even less satisfying. The asada taco was dry and the al pastor taco was also off. The pork bits at least had the pineapple staple included, but it won't help the marinade save the taco from dry meats.

Overall, I'd say the price does not justify the flavor. The vibe is actually great, but their price gouging with drink upgrades and without the food quality to support the price and hype, I'm not...

We brought our son and his roommates here for dinner on a Saturday night, not really knowing what it would be like. After entering the front door from the sidewalk, we then went to a door to the right as they are essentially a restaurant within a downtown building. There is a host stand when you enter with a adequate sized bar to the right as well as a decent sized main dining space. It is somewhat dark, but very well decorated with their Mexican theme along with very cool walls and ceiling.

They said they were pretty booked for the night and that it might take 20-30 minutes for a table, but I don't believe it took more than 5-10 minutes. Our server, Aryssa, was new but she was attentive and very personable.

Their entrees lean more toward the higher-priced side of $15-30 while individual tacos are $4-7. We ordered the chips and salsa trio ($8 - salsa verde, chipotle, & white habanero) and guacamole ($12 - avocado, onion, cilantro, lime, pomegranate seeds, radishes) for appetizers. The chips were good, the salsas were OK, and the guac was well mashed, but I didn't love the seeds and radishes.

They do have a variety of non-meat options on their menu. My wife ordered the Vegetarian ($5) and Rajas Poblanas ($4) tacos, which she enjoyed. I chose the Chile Relleno ($21), which was not a typical cheesy dish but was filled with a sort of ratatouille that was OK but I wouldn't order it again necessarily.

Overall, like the atmosphere and service is good. Willing to give it another chance to wow me on the food on a...