The City That Feeds

While I normally wouldn’t be caught dead in Stalking Horse (26 E Cross St., Federal Hill) on a weekend evening, I have to admit they’ve got some pretty good bar food. Weeknights at Stalking Horse are quiet and usually feature CHEAAAAP specials, so I’d recommend it. At any rate, this is about nachos so let’s talk about nachos. The nachos at Stalking Horse are $6.99 and featured tri-colored chips, cheddar, salsa, guac, sour cream, jalapenos and black olives. For $2.99 more you can add chicken or beef, and for $3.99 more you can add steak or jumbo lump crab meat.

I guess if I had to use a term for the nachos at Stalking Horse it would be “totally adequate.” They have all of the toppings people want and/or like, at a very very reasonable price. They satisfy all of the requirements for a decent pile and deliver plenty of flavor and a generous helping, even for two people. This particular serving had just a little too much salsa and not enough cheese, but not so much out of the ordinary as to cause me to hate them uncontrollably.

But one thing sets these nachos apart in my mind that has nothing to do with NachoQuest simply due to the Nacho Manifesto’s first law; you can substitute waffle fries for nachos at no additional cost. I’m going to go right ahead and guess that in the event you order waffle fries instead you won’t be getting nearly as much, but considering this is an option you see almost nowhere else in the city, I thought it was pretty awesome. If anyone out there has tried them, let me know how they were!

Bottom line: The nachos at Stalking Horse are really good.

Four Golden Nachos out of Five
(view the NachoQuest map so far here)

I’ve always enjoyed the food at No Way Jose. I don’t care what anyone says, they’re mexican is pretty good stuff despite the fact that Blue Agave is practically right next door (not to mention Pop Tacos has awesome burritos etc. for much less) and the “upscale” Federales Cantina is on the horizon. And these nachos are, in short, pretty good stuff too. But not great.

The nachos have some good, fresh ingredients. Good pico, comes with guacamole and sour cream – and fresh jalapenos. Nice. Especially with a base price of $7.99. ($2 extra for meat) And the chips are light and crispy, in fact they’re some of the best tortilla chips I’ve had, unlike most of the heavily salted chips that most other places have. And it looks like a nice big plate of nachos, right? …not necessarily. Unfortunately for these nachos, they violate tenet #3 of the Nacho Manifesto. The toppings seen in the picture are hiding a huge pile of naked, dry, boring chips underneath. NOT RAD GUYS, NOT RAD.

I feel very strongly about tenet #3. Despite the fact that they include most of the ingredients I hope to see in a steaming pile of nachos, at a reasonable price, a big fat pile of naked chips underneath lowers the value substantially.

2 out of 5 golden nachos

(view the NachoQuest map so far here)

Iggi's Nachos - $5.00 (sat. only)

Iggi’s Nachos at Mother’s Grille (1113 S Charles St., Federal Hill). Normally in the $10 range, add $3 for chicken and ANOTHER $2 for guac if you want them. I was lucky enough to hangover-zombie shuffle my way into the place on a Saturday when nachos were half price (from 12-5pm), and they certainly turned out to be a nacho jackpot of sorts. They take the form of tri-colored tortilla chips with chili, chipotle and cheddar-jack cheese, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and a side of salsa and sour cream.

Mother’s made a very smart choice when giving their patrons the salsa and sour cream on the side – you can dip the chips, not use the stuff, or dump them all over the pile. I feel like not enough places do this, and it’s great. On the whole these nachos were pretty awesome, especially the novelty of the tricolor chips. There’s not much else I can say about it in that regard. However, if you’re going to have them on a day where the normal menu price is in effect, potentially spending a whopping $15 on “the works” seems ridiculously expensive, considering you can get virtually the same size serving – or bigger – for less elsewhere (more on that later). So at the end of the day, it’s kind of a ratio of quality/quantity/price; you get a big serving of nachos, they taste great, but they’re pretty expensive. But then, you are eating at Mother’s and most things there are fairly expensive.

5 out of 5 golden nachos ON SATURDAYS


4 out of 5 golden nachos EVERY OTHER DAY

(view the NachoQuest map so far here)