RESTAURANT NEWS | ASHEVILLE
Knock Knock, Asheville. There Are Tacos Downstairs
Xico Chico turns a hidden taco window downtown into the city’s most exciting new place for pastor, carne asada, and mushroom-huitlacoche tacos.
XICO CHICO | MAP | INSTAGRAM
By Eric Barton
4:15 p.m. ET, July 8, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
Down below Xico restaurant on Asheville’s South Slope, just off the parking lot, there’s a door striped purple and yellow with a wood-framed window in the center. Ring the bell, and somebody opens it to take your taco order, which is a fairly dramatic way to begin what may be Asheville’s best new lunch.
It’s from chef Scott Linquist, who’s behind Xico, which quickly landed on our list of Asheville’s best restaurants. On July 1, he added the new taco concept, Taqueria Xico Chico, serving hand-pressed tortillas, charcoal-grilled meats, pork shaved from a trompo, and masa treated with the seriousness usually reserved for tasting menus.
The idea is part taqueria, part street-food stand, part Asheville scavenger hunt. Xico Chico shares a kitchen with Xico, and the new operation takes some of that same technique and pushes it into a more casual format: two-taco baskets, loaded quesadillas, burritos, made-to-order guacamole, margaritas, Mexican beers, Jarritos, Topo Chico, and a 25-seat patio.
I went for lunch and tried nearly everything from the new menu. Linquist plated most of the dishes the way they’ll also be served upstairs at Xico during happy hour. We started with the pollo al carbon, citrus-marinated chicken tacos with jicama-orange salsa and pickled onions, deeply flavored and brighter than they had any right to be. Then came our favorite, the hongos con huitlacoche, roasted mushroom tacos with Mexican corn truffle, crispy cheese, and cotija. They had the sort of savory depth that makes you briefly forget there are other proteins available, which is risky, because the other proteins are very much worth remembering.
The carne asada tacos came with charcoal-grilled Certified Angus skirt steak, chiles toreados, and pico de gallo, and carried a distinct smoke from Xico’s Josper charcoal oven. The pastor al trompo had crispy bits of pork shaved from the spit downstairs, with roasted pineapple, onion, and cilantro doing exactly what they’re supposed to do. We also tried a quesadilla loaded with the mushrooms, a burrito stuffed with chicken, cheese, and maybe the best refried beans I’ve had, and churros filled with cajeta, tossed in cinnamon sugar, and served with Mexican chocolate sauce.
The tacos are $10.50 or $11.50 for two, depending on the filling, which is a good deal considering the quality of the tortillas, the cooking, and the general feeling that somebody with a serious restaurant CV is making your casual lunch. For two people, I’d order three baskets of tacos, then decide whether you can make it to the churros. The correct answer, of course, is yes.
Xico Chico is built for walk-ins and takeout, and delivery through the usual third-party apps starts soon. It’s open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. except Tuesdays, with late-night hours expected to follow, especially considering how close it is to the Orange Peel and the Tourists stadium.
Asheville has never lacked for tacos. There are the traditional places like Taqueria Fast and Taqueria Molina, the reliably good Taco Temple, and the fusion tacos of White Duck. What we haven’t really had is this: a taco window attached to an esteemed chef’s kitchen, where the pastor is cut from a trompo, the steak comes off charcoal, the mushroom tacos could make vegetarians smug, and the whole thing arrives through a hidden door downtown. Xico Chico feels new for Asheville, and the tacos might already be the best in town.
