Plenty of Tastes with Share Menu at Barbakoa!

Image via Barbakoa

**Disclosure: No compensation was received for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.

The hubs and I went on a date night last week and we wanted to try somewhere new. From time to time, we are in the Downers Grove-Lombard-Oak Brook area. We have passed the newish Latin restaurant Barbakoa a few times, so we thought our free evening would be a great time to give it a try. Barbakoa blends various Latin flavors from Peruvian to Argentine to Mexican and Spanish for a bit of a fresh take on some of our favorite dishes. Sounds worth exploring!
A pretty cool sharing menu!

Barbakoa has a sharing menu that allows you to try a variety of dishes without breaking the bank. All of the servings are ample, so we found this to be a great value! There are various combinations of share menus, so you have even more variety. We chose tasting option Uno which gives you 2 salsas, 2 guacamoles, 4 types of tacos (2 tacos for each flavor), 2 sides and a dessert sampler. Needless to say, we did not leave with empty stomachs and brought plenty home for the next day.

I found Barbakoa's selection of guacamoles pretty intriguing. Normally, restaurants just have a basic guacamole. Barbakoa has three--a traditional, a pina with habanero, lime, cucumber and corn and a chicharon with chipotle, jicama, garlic and crispy pork. We tried the traditional and the chicharon. We did enjoy both guacamoles but found the chicharon a little salty. Neither one of us really salts our food, so I am sure others would enjoy it. As you can see, you get plenty of guac!

We also had two salsas, the morita with smokey, fire roasted tomatoes and the habanero with tomatillos. I really enjoyed the morita. The habanero truly had some nice heat but it felt more like a pepper sauce to us than a salsa.

A tale of four types of tacos!!!

The tacos--oh, tacos--they looked wonderful and were pretty tasty! I ordered the Hongos which was filled with mushrooms, poblanos and corn. Delicious! I probably could have eaten a stack of those! {However, I really did not want to buy a new pair of pants!} I also had the Pollo which had a pulled chicken with grilled tomato, onion and the morita salsa. The taco was FULL of chicken! I enjoyed the flavor but found it a little dry.

My husband had the Baja which had halibut, coleslaw, radishes and cilantro. My husband normally doesn't eat fish but has been branching out. So, the fact that he ate his fish taco says a lot! He also had the Carne Asada and enjoyed the flavor. However, he says that his socks were not knocked off.

A sweet dessert sampler!

The dessert sampler was a nice touch. Normally, we are hesitant to order dessert because the portions are WAY TOO BIG! I loved the platter idea because you could have little tastes without too much worry. Plus, we did not have to settle on one to share. The flourless chocolate cake was our FAVORITE part of this selection.

We enjoyed Barbakoa and love menus that provide you with a variety of noshing items for an affordable price. The sharing menu is definitely fun so we will enjoy returning to try something new!