Nina’s Taqueria – Battle Creek
248 Capital Avenue SWI have one co-worker who must really hate working with me. No, not because I’m a jerk…but because whenever he and I work together, we end up on road trips.
Our most recent road trip was to Battle Creek. Now, for most of you Battle Creek isn’t much of a road trip, but you have to remember, I work in Grand Rapids…..so I drove from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids to Battle Creek back to Grand Rapids then home to Kalamazoo.
Once our task was finished in Battle Creek, C.W. said he was hungry. I asked if he liked tacos. Duh, who doesn’t like tacos.
For a long time now, I’ve been getting recommendations for a taqueria in Battle Creek. Almost everyone who has eaten there has swore to me it’s the best Mexican they’ve ever had.
Nina’s Taqueria actually has two locations. There’s one in Augusta, but the one we were closest to is on Capital Avenue across from Horrocks not too far from downtown Battle Creek.
C.W. and I walked in just before 8:00 on a Friday night. We sort of stood near the door until a waiter noticed us standing there and told us to take a seat anywhere.
The brightly colored dining room has the feel of a typical Mexican restaurant. The tables and chairs are solid wood and painted bright colors.
Our waiter brought over a couple menus as well as a basket of home made chips and some house made chunky salsa. The onion chunks were a little too big for the both of us so we both kind of picked around the onions to get to the delicious not quite hot salsa.
After checking out the large menu, I ordered a Coke while C.W. went with an Iced Tea.
For dinner, I ordered off the a La carte part of the menu and just did my typical four corn tortilla steak tacos. I asked for them without onions thinking they would be served Mexican style, but they were more American style with cheese, lettuce, tomato and sour cream. I asked to leave the tomato and lettuce off. The slightly warmed tortillas came with a delicious, tender steak steak topped with iceberg lettuce and a white cheese. The meat and tortilla were really good, but I’m so used to eating tacos with just cilantro, that this kind of through me a little bit. The lettuce and cheese were cold and dominated the flavor. I pulled some of the lettuce off because the meat was so good I just wanted the warm part of the tacos to come through.
C.W. ordered a beef Burrito Norteno without any beans. The waiter looked at him a little funny, but he came back with a large flour tortilla filled with a seasoned ground beef and topped with a cheese sauce, lettuce, and tomato. He also asked for them to leave the beans off the plate that came as a side. As we were walking out, I asked what he thought and he said we picked a good place for dinner.
Each of our bills was just a hair under $10. I paid for my portion with cash while he used his card. There is a cashier station near the lunch counter bar that overlooks the kitchen, but our waiter took them up for us.
Nina’s Taqueria was a solid Mexican dinner for us and it was incredibly fast. We were in and out in just under a half hour which worked out well because we still had some things to do before we headed home for the night. I enjoyed my dinner as did C.W., but the tacos with cheese and lettuce kind of threw me for loop.
Chips and Salsa
Four Corn Tortilla Steak Tacos
SW Michigan Dining 
Seriously, your images made me really hungry. Great semi review of Nina’s Taqueria. I should visit the place too, I think.