Knoxville, especially the downtown area, is growing exponentially. Babalu is one of the trendy downtown restaurants contributing to the growth of Knoxville. I ventured out to Babalu with my roommate, who should have a frequent flyer card there – that’s how much she loves it. She had built it up a lot so it had a lot to live up to.
First impression: I’m not sure what I imagined the interior would look like, but it was not a at all how I imagined it. One of the walls had exposed brick and there was vintage Coca-Cola memorabilia throughout the entire restaurant – which is super cute, but seems to be more representative of a burger or barbecue place rather than a mexican restaurant.
We started off the meal with tableside guacamole and Oh. My. Word. It was incredible. They add sun-dried tomatoes to their guacamole, which adds so much to it. I’m not even a big guacamole fan and I couldn’t get enough of it.
For my dinner, I had a pollo (chicken) taco, a camarones (grilled shrimp) taco and mexican street corn. The tacos are small, so I recommend going for “social hour” from 4-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, when they’re $2/each. The mexican street corn was incredible. Out of the tacos, the grilled shrimp was my favorite. I also accompanied my meal with their seasonal margarita, which was a blackberry margarita and woo-wee! It packed a punch. I would’ve been a goner had I not had any food.
Would I go back? Yes. Is it my favorite place to eat in Knoxville? No.
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