A bacon-wrapped chile stuffed with cheese and rock shrimp is not the opening move most people expect from a taco restaurant near the Jersey Shore. Neither are Brussels sprouts seasoned with cranberries, balsamic vinegar, and fish sauce.
Yet those are exactly the kinds of left turns that make Beach Tacos and Tequila in Toms River more interesting than its breezy name initially suggests.
The kitchen covers the essentials—warm chips, house salsa, guacamole, carne asada, birria, and al pastor—but it rarely stays inside the usual lines for long.
Pork belly lands in the guacamole. Fried yuca gets piled with brisket. Crawfish jambalaya appears among the sides. Even dessert gets playful with Oreo churros.
Add a lively bar and a polished dining room that still feels relaxed enough for a casual weeknight meal, and you have a restaurant that can satisfy a straightforward taco craving while quietly encouraging everyone at the table to order something much stranger.
Beach Tacos and Tequila Brings a Polished Yet Laid-Back Energy to Toms River
At 1137 Fischer Boulevard, the restaurant sits firmly in everyday Toms River territory rather than beside a boardwalk or tucked into a waterfront resort. That location works in its favor.
Beach Tacos and Tequila feels built for Ocean County locals who want Shore energy without turning dinner into a full beach-day production. The name promises something casual, but the room reportedly received more thought than the average counter-service taco stop.
A brick accent wall, bold artwork, and a prominent bar give the interior personality without pushing it into fussy date-night territory. You could arrive in shorts after an afternoon near the water, but the space is polished enough that nobody would question a birthday dinner or an evening out with friends.
The opening itself came with some anticipation. Securing the liquor license reportedly delayed the launch, and the exterior signage played into the long wait by emphasizing that the restaurant was “finally” arriving.
Once the doors opened, the operation appeared surprisingly settled for a newcomer, with an active bar, coordinated service, and a kitchen capable of handling a broad menu. That matters because this is not a tiny taqueria working through five taco fillings and a cooler of bottled drinks.
The restaurant serves full appetizers, soups, salads, tostadas, burritos, bowls, enchiladas, quesadillas, sides, cocktails, and plated desserts. The room has to work equally well for someone grabbing tacos at lunch and a group settling in for drinks and several shared courses.
Beach Tacos and Tequila manages that balance by borrowing the easygoing attitude associated with the Shore while leaving the disposable plates and rushed atmosphere behind. It feels casual because it wants to, not because anyone skipped the finishing touches.
House Salsas and Chicharron Guacamole Make the First Round Count
The first bowl of chips can tell you whether a Mexican restaurant plans to coast on melted cheese or pay attention to the small stuff. Here, thin, crisp chips arrive with two house-made salsas that have enough personality to be treated as part of the meal rather than complimentary table decoration.
That distinction becomes even clearer once the guacamole choices appear. Traditional guacamole keeps things recognizable with tomatoes, onions, cilantro, lime, and serrano chile.
It is the dependable version for a table that simply wants a cool, bright dip before the heavier food arrives. The chicharron guacamole takes a considerably louder approach, folding the richness and crunch of pork belly into avocado before finishing it with cotija and cilantro.
It sounds excessive on paper, but the combination makes sense: creamy avocado needs salt and texture, and crisp pork delivers both at once.
There is also an ahi tuna variation with pickled chile, mango, and salsa macha, pushing the familiar dip toward something closer to a composed seafood starter.
Even the drunken-style Guacamole Borracho signals that the kitchen sees chips and dips as room for experimentation. The smartest approach is to order one classic option and one wildcard, especially with a group.
That gives the traditional salsa-and-guacamole crowd what it wants while making space for the restaurant’s more creative instincts.
From there, the table can move toward queso fundido, street corn, or nachos loaded with beans, pico de gallo, guacamole, and sour cream, with proteins such as skirt steak, shrimp, brisket, or birria available to turn the whole thing into a meal.
None of these dishes reinvent the idea of chips and dip, but the details show a kitchen unwilling to treat the opening round as filler. Before the tacos appear, the restaurant has already introduced its basic strategy: start with something everyone recognizes, then add one ingredient nobody saw coming.
Carne Asada Birria and Blackened Shrimp Turn Tacos Into the Main Event
Three tacos arrive per order, with corn or flour tortillas available, which immediately makes the taco menu feel more like dinner than a quick snack. The carne asada version is the most direct demonstration of what the kitchen does well.
Chargrilled skirt steak is paired with pickled onion, pico de gallo, and salsa verde, giving the meat enough acidity and freshness to keep each bite from becoming heavy. There is no need for a tower of unrelated toppings when properly cooked steak and a sharp sauce can carry the plate.
Birria goes in the opposite direction. Braised beef, cotija, and pickled red onion fill the tortillas, with consommé served alongside for dipping.
It is messy in the correct way, especially once the tortilla soaks up the broth and the cheese begins to mingle with the slow-cooked meat. Seafood opens another lane entirely.
Blackened shrimp and blackened catfish bring the Shore into the taco lineup, using spice, cabbage slaw, and creamy avocado to create something that feels lighter without becoming timid.
Catfish is an especially fun choice because it has more character than the mild white fish commonly dropped into seafood tacos.
Al pastor combines marinated pork with grilled pineapple, onion, and house salsa, while carnitas keeps things simple with shredded pork, salsa verde, onion, and cilantro.
The suadero tacos may be the sleeper pick: beer-braised brisket comes with onion, cilantro, horseradish crema, avocado, and fresh salsa, connecting Mexican flavors with the kind of beef-and-horseradish pairing more often associated with a deli sandwich or roast dinner.
There is enough variety here to build an entire meal around contrasting orders. Carne asada provides smoke and char, birria brings deep braised richness, and shrimp or catfish adds spice and freshness.
The taco list succeeds because the proteins are not interchangeable fillings buried beneath identical garnishes. Each one has its own supporting cast, allowing the restaurant to stretch the taco format without losing the pleasure of eating dinner with your hands.
Mexican Kisses, Cubanito, and Fire Chicken Wings Go Far Beyond Typical Starters
Imagine the server placing a plate of cheese-filled chiles on the table, except each pepper also contains rock shrimp, wears a wrapping of bacon, and sits over mango slaw. Those are the Mexican Kisses, and the name barely prepares you for how much is happening in one appetizer.
Smoke and salt come from the bacon, sweetness and acidity arrive through the slaw, and the shrimp-and-cheese center turns the pepper into something far more substantial than a standard jalapeño popper. The Cubanito is equally difficult to categorize.
Fried yuca replaces the expected tortilla chips or French fries, creating a sturdy base for pulled brisket, salsa verde, and horseradish crema.
It lands somewhere between loaded fries, nachos, and a brisket platter, with the yuca providing a crisp exterior and dense, starchy middle that can stand up to the toppings.
Then there are the Fire-Chicken Wings, which receive an ancho chile dry rub before being paired with mango-habanero and house-made Buffalo sauces. Serving potato chips alongside them is a small but clever touch, especially once those chips begin catching the extra sauce.
The appetizer list also includes more familiar anchors. Beef or chicken empanadas offer a safer shareable, while queso fundido comes with warm flour tortillas and can be boosted with chorizo.
Tostadas expand the selection further, including versions topped with morita-marinated steak, tomato-chipotle chicken tinga, Yucatán-style pork, blackened shrimp, or seared ahi tuna. The menu’s sense of humor never overrides its sense of structure.
Bacon-wrapped shrimp-stuffed peppers may sound like social-media stunt food, but the mango slaw adds the brightness the dish needs. Brisket over fried yuca could become relentlessly rich, but salsa verde and horseradish crema cut through it.
The combinations are unusual, yet they are not random. Each plate still pays attention to contrast, which is why ordering several starters can become the most entertaining part of the meal rather than an overly complicated detour before the tacos.
Shrimp Enchiladas, Crawfish Jambalaya, and Brussels Sprouts Reveal the Menu’s Unexpected Range
Local context makes the seafood dishes feel especially appropriate. Toms River sits close enough to Barnegat Bay and the Atlantic that shrimp, fish, and shellfish never seem out of place, but Beach Tacos and Tequila uses them in combinations that move well beyond the expected fried-fish taco.
The shrimp enchiladas pair sweet corn and manchego with a creamy guajillo sauce, citrus salad, and cotija. That arrangement has the richness people want from enchiladas, but the citrus and corn keep the plate from becoming a blanket of cheese and sauce.
Chicken enchiladas poblanas take a darker, earthier path with queso fresco, mole, crema, onion, and sesame. Vegetarians are not limited to removing meat from an existing dish, either.
Enchiladas de Huerto combine corn, mushrooms, peppers, onions, and chayote with crema, queso fresco, pickled onions, and chipotle-tomato sauce, giving the vegetables the same layered treatment as the meat-based plates. The biggest surprises, however, may be hiding in the sides.
Crawfish jambalaya introduces Louisiana flavor to a menu already moving among Mexican, coastal, and American bar-food influences. Brussels sprouts are tossed with cranberries, balsamic vinegar, and fish sauce, an odd-sounding trio that covers sweetness, tang, salt, and deep savory flavor.
Maduros receive a plum glaze, while off-the-cob esquites bring chipotle, cotija, and Tajín. Mexico City-style elotes stay closer to tradition with chipotle aioli, queso fresco, chile, and lime.
Even the salads resist becoming obligatory bowls of lettuce. One combines baby kale with mango, mandarin, golden raisins, manchego, pepitas, and citrus dressing, while another brings black beans, cucumber, tomato, corn, avocado, tortilla chips, and creamy cilantro dressing into the mix.
Taken together, these dishes explain why the restaurant is difficult to summarize as just another taco place.
The kitchen is comfortable borrowing an ingredient or technique from somewhere else whenever it improves the plate, producing a menu that feels connected by bold flavor rather than confined to one narrow definition of Mexican food.
Craft Cocktails and Oreo Churros Keep the Surprises Coming Until the Last Bite
By the time dinner reaches the bar-and-dessert stage, playing it safe would feel strangely out of character. Margaritas naturally hold an important place in the drink program, but the cocktail list reportedly extends beyond the usual lime, salt, and tequila formula.
The BT New Old Fashioned has earned particular attention, giving whiskey drinkers an option that does not feel like a reluctant concession on a margarita-heavy menu. That broader approach helps the bar function as more than a holding area for people waiting on a table.
Multiple bartenders work the counter during busy periods, and the polished setup gives diners a reason to stay for another round rather than finishing the last taco and immediately asking for the check. Dessert keeps the same playful energy.
Oreo churros take a familiar cinnamon-sugar favorite and push it toward cookies-and-cream territory, creating the kind of finale that sounds excessive until the plate arrives and everyone reaches for one. A chocolate lava cake offers a more conventional alternative, but even that feels slightly unexpected after a meal built around guajillo sauce, pork belly guacamole, and crawfish jambalaya.
What ties the final course to everything before it is the restaurant’s refusal to leave an obvious category alone. A cocktail cannot merely be a standard mixed drink.
A churro cannot simply be a churro. Even an Old Fashioned receives the house treatment.
Still, the meal does not end as a collection of gimmicks. The strongest dishes work because the kitchen understands when to balance richness with acid, sweetness with chile, and familiar comfort with one strange detail.
Oreo churros are simply the last example—a recognizable favorite dressed up just enough to leave the table laughing about how far dinner traveled from the tacos everyone originally planned to order.