The Taco Project Opens in Stamford with Vibrant Mexican Fast Casual Fare

Beer battered Atlantic cod tacos, also available to be sautéed if fried isn’t your deal.

Tarrytown, Yonkers, Bronxville, Pleasantville, and now Stamford.

Since opening in 2014 in Tarrytown, The Taco Project’s popularity kept growing in Westchester, and now they’ve brought their vibrant Mexican-inspired fast casual brand across the state border to the busy High Ridge Shopping Center.

Co-owner Carmelo Milio—who’s one of The Taco Project’s head honchos with partners Sebastian Aliberti and Nicholas Mesce—mentioned that opening a fifth location in Stamford was a natural progression.

“Being that we’re all Westchester residents (Sebastian is in Pleasantville, I’m in Armonk, and Nick’s in Dobbs Ferry), we come to Stamford to hang out often,” he says. “We’ve always thought about opening here, but we didn’t necessarily want it to be Downtown, so we can cater to our fans in Pound Ridge and Bedford as well. We like to be in these type of neighborhoods where it’s a little more laid back, more families, but still keep a fun ambiance while getting your food to you quickly, like within 15 minutes or so.”

Pork belly tacos

Margaritas come classic or you can rock with a pineapple marg (pictured), mango, watermelon, passion fruit, or pomegranate.

For newbies of what The Taco Project is all about, here’s the deal. It’s conducive for those who prefer takeout, but if you’d rather dine-in for tacos, chips, burritos, bowls, and a Modelo, margarita, sangria, or mojito, you totally can.

Starters at The Taco Project should be familiar if you’ve been to any Mexican taqueria. Guac or salsa each comes with house made yellow corn tortilla chips, but there’s also street corn, rice and beans, and beer battered sidewinder cut fries that come with three different dipping sauces—chipotle aioli, jalapeño ketchup, and Mexican blue cheese.

Quesadillas here are substantial and filled with plenty of cheese and in this case, plenty of tender free range chicken.

From there it’s all taco duos, some of which are beer battered cod, tender skirt steak with guacamole-salsa and chimichurri, tempura shrimp, veggie, chorizo with potatoes, a nontraditional BBQ pulled pork taco, and their al pastor interpretation using braised pineapple glazed pork belly with pineapple salsa. 

The taco shells, both soft and hard, are 100% corn that come from a well-known Yonkers tortilleria. “We’ve used La Milpa De Rosa since day one,” Milio says. “But we do have future plans to make our own.”

Veggie burrito

Like mom used to make, only without the Old El Paso taco kit.

Burritos (rice, beans, cotija, sour cream) and burrito bowls (rice, beans, queso fresco, sour cream) come with your choice of steak, chicken, shrimp, or veggie, and are either wrapped, and in the case of the bowl, the toppings are piled onto a flour tortilla.

The rest of their savory menu rounds out with quesadillas—pressed in a flour tortilla—a smoked corn and field greens salad, and a honey habanero chicken salad.

The Taco Project’s High Ridge location follows the same model as the other four. The only difference is Stamford is a bit larger for dine-in and has a small bar. On nicer days they'll have 14 outdoor seats.

Churros and flan

Should you choose to go back up to the counter to order one of The Taco Project’s homemade desserts, you’d be doing something right. Coconut tres leches cake and caramel flan are two of the three choices, but don’t skip the churros here. These aren’t the dense carnival style cinna sticks, but rather a light, airy, cinnamon sugar crusted donut version.

By the time you read this, The Taco Project will have already had their soft and grand openings. Going forward, they’ll be open Monday – Thursday 11 – 9, Friday from 11 – 10, Saturday from 11:30 – 10, and Sunday from 11:30 – 9.

It’s tacos. You know what you have to do.

1111 High Ridge Road; Stamford
203.703.9495; thetacoproject.com