Nacho Hippo

Nacho Hippo is one our favorite places to go in Myrtle Beach.  And we sort of have a tradition of going there for dinner our first night in town. This year was no different.

this is our hotel, The Anderson. We are waiting in the parking lot for the rain to die down.

We had arrived in Myrtle earlier that afternoon and were welcomed by a torrential rainstorm.  Great start to our week at the beach. A little rain (ok, a lot of rain) wasn't going to stop us from enjoying our vacation though. After we got settled into our room and unpacked, it was off to Nacho Hippo at the Market Common.

Obviously nachos are their signature dish and there is a wide variety of toppings for the nachos.  Some have queso and chili, or jerk chicken with mango salsa, chorizo with jalepenos, taco beef and pico de gallo, one even has lobster and shrimp! And be prepared to share your plate of nachos with someone because they are huge!!

this is from last year's trip

also last year's trip

But aside from nachos, their tacos are really good as well. Just like my earlier post I wrote about going to Taco Boy in Charleston, the tacos at Nacho Hippo are also by the piece so you can mix and match as many as you want.  I had the Thai One On taco with red curry chicken, spring roll slaw, toasted coconut, and Thai peanut sauce. And also the Bangin' Shrimp taco with spicy sweet chili sauce, lettuce, and mango salsa. Both of which had a little bit of heat and a little bit of sweet.

Left: bangin shrimp; Right: curry chicken

Hubby got one of his favorite Mexican dishes...a steak quesadilla, otherwise known as the Good Stuff quesadilla. Grilled steak, blend of cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses, sautéed peppers and onions, served with lettuce, sour cream, and pico de gallo on the side.  Nothing super adventurous but delicious nonetheless.

And to top off the evening, churros for dessert!! Warm and crispy, sugary, cinnamony goodness...so good in fact, I think I forgot to take a picture of them before I scarfed them down! Sorry! Trust me, they were good!

Pablo gave Nacho Hippo 3.5 stars! Pablo approved!

Failed BBQ and a Nacho Hippo

Superking and I just came back from a week's vacation in our beloved Myrtle Beach. We've been to that area so many times its like a second home to us. But one thing about Myrtle Beach that I must find fault in is that its virtually a foodie wasteland.  It reeks of boring chain restaurants and cheap buffets all of which produce mediocre food at best.  However there are a few gems in the area to be had if you're willing to search for them and take a little risk to try something new.  These next several blog posts will take you through our journey to locate some of these rare Myrtle Beach restaurant gems. A few of them I've blogged about before but they were written in retrospect as I hadn't started my food blog yet when we visited them last. Now you'll get to see a few of those in their full glory.

The Nacho Hippo...he is very hungry hungry.

We begin with our arrival to Myrtle Beach Saturday September 3rd. We got settled into our hotel room shortly after 3:00pm and headed straight out to the Market Common, a newer shopping area there reminiscent of our own Reston Town Center or the Village at Leesburg. We heard rumors that the weekend we were arriving there was to be a big BBQ festival there with over 60 BBQ vendors and you could purchase a wristband ticket for only $10 to sample any or all of these 60 vendors.  However when we arrived at the festival we quickly learned that it was not very organized as we had to walk all the way to the back of the event area before we reached the ticket table.  There were no signs with directions at all.  When we finally reached the ticket table we were told they had sold out of the tickets and the sample BBQ just about 2:45pm.

We were beyond disappointed and irritated at the poor planning of this event to run out of BBQ only three hours into a nine hour BBQ event. And even though the festival continued to the next day, the sampling was only for Saturday and on Sunday there were only about 4 of the said 60 vendors that were supposed to be there.  It was the BBQ festival that was not.

lots of people...

and lots of cars...no bbq.

However our disappointment quickly turned to hope as we looked for other dinner options for our first night in Myrtle Beach. Also located at the Market Common was a new restaurant we were already looking forward to trying called Nacho Hippo.

all the chairs were different and painted many bright colors

Nacho Hippo is a Mexican bar/restaurant with an open air eclectic them.  While they do serve burritos and tacos and quesadillas, nachos are their claim to fame.  So of course we both had different kinds of nachos. There are eight varieties of nacho plates (some with titles rated PG) plus the option to create your own.

very clever menu

I chose the Day After nachos.A huge pile of chips layered with chili, seasoned taco beef, black beans, jalapenos (though I opted to skip those), melted cheese, crema (which is a fresh cream similar to creme fraiche), queso fresco (similar to a white farmers cheese), lettuce, and pico de gallo. It was super tasty and super filling!

Superking chose the Fire in the Hole nachos. Crispy chips covered with chili, pepperjack cheese, jalapenos, mango habanero salsa, lettuce and pico de gallo. Talk about spicy! Though we all know by now how much Superking likes the hot stuff so it didn't even phase him.  Both of these nachos plates could've easily been shared they were so huge!