Date Night hits the second Atlanta location of the trendy Bartaco. The first ATL location on the Westside has drawn rave reviews, but we have not visited because we didn’t want to attempt to park in the “Bocado Triangle” downtown. Those who have tried to park there will understand. Recently, we found out that Bartaco has opened in the ‘burbs.

This location is near Chastain Park in “North Buckhead”. It has been open for about two months, and, most importantly, there is plenty of free parking. Bartaco has four locations in Connecticut and one in Virginia. We hear a third will open in Atlanta soon. The decor can be described as “airy”.

It’s a beautiful afternoon in the ATL and they have the garage doors open.

Those sitting inside are getting a nice breeze from the outside.

There’s a big bar, and plenty of seating space. Most of the wood looks “up cycled” from old barns and such. It’s a nice space.

We sit outside for our lunch date. To order, you fill out a card for the whole table and the server takes it away. We are told that the food comes out “family style”, or whenever it’s ready. Ours comes out more or less in the right order. First, guacamole along with salsa and chips.

This is good guac. It’s simple, just avocado, lemon juice, cilantro and a little bit of red pepper for a kick. Chips and salsa are not free at Bartaco. They will set you back three dollars. I wish they would charge 25 cents more for their tacos and give you free chips and salsa. We order a rice bowl with duck.

This one looks a little naked because we leave off the red and green peppers that come with it. You can get all sorts of exotic toppings on your rice like wild boar, pork belly, curry shrimp, or sesame ribeye. Ours is tasty, but it would have been better with some regular vegetables. They have cauliflower on the menu that would have been really good in there.

We order four tacos. The tacos are not huge. Plan on about four bites each.

What’s on the plate? From left to right, we have falafel taco, the pork belly taco, the fried oyster taco, and the baja fish taco. Eve likes the fish taco the best. My favorite is the fried oyster taco. All are good, and most are a bit spicy. Here’s another spicy number, the grilled corn:

Described as “Mexican street corn”, this comes with cotija cheese and gets its kick from cayenne pepper. We drain our carafe of water, which, unfortunately, never gets refilled.

An option you also have when ordering is the chef’s tray. For $26, they bring you a large selection of tacos, guac, tamales and sides. Our son has had this and says that you get a ton of food. This might be a good value as our lunch runs $29 and we get less food.

You can see more of the restaurant in our exclusive Tastemade video, which only runs 20 seconds. Watch the food come alive.

The bottom line on Bartaco: Totally tasty. We had a very enjoyable lunch. The food tastes nice and fresh and the wood decor is beautiful. And the free parking just north of Buckhead is so “old-school”. The service had some hiccups. We never got more water after we ran out and we waited forever for our check, even after asking for it. We had a good time and would visit again, especially to try that chef’s tray.