On a recent visit to Pecos Bills in the Magic Kingdom I noticed a few versions of their Beef Nachos that looked quite different from table to table (because, yes… I do look at other guests food as I'm walking through the restaurant).

Back in the day, when Pecos Bill's was a little more Tex than Mex, you could get a "base burger" and then visit the toppings bar to customize your burger in a number of different ways. You can still do that today... but for some reason, it didn't dawn on me that you could also take your bowl of Beef Nachos to the toppings bar! That… is what accounted for the difference in what I was seeing from table to table.

As it turns out, you can pretty much take anything you purchase at Pecos Bill's to the toppings bar… although unless you like salsa on your cinnamon churros… just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Back to the Beef Nachos… basically what you get out of the kitchen, is a little sparse looking. There's some chips and some beef, and a few pieces of lettuce and a diced tomato or two. That's about it.

The toppings bar however, is chocked full of Tex-Mex goodness that you can pile on a mile high… or at least a few inches. There's roasted corn, guacamole, red and green salsa a couple kinds of shredded cheese, sour cream, sliced jalapeños, and black beans… basically everything you need to get some good (American-style) Tex-Mex happening. The only thing I'm missing here, is a Corona. Since we all know that Pecos Bill's is in a "dry" territory (sigh), I'm not likely to find one any time soon.

Yes, after a trip to the toppings bar, the $11.99 Beef Nachos (summer 2016) started looking like a real dish. I'm also happy to report, that these nachos would be right at home on any casual-service restaurant's appetizer menu. The chips (while not being particularly authentic) were solid and didn't turn into a soggy mess. The seasoned ground beef is where the real savory nature of the dish came from. It was probably "seasoned" with salt more than anything, but when mixed with all the toppings (and the sour cream in particular) everything seemed to balance out quite nicely.

At the end of the day, these really aren't supposed to be "authentic" South American nachos, as much as they are "fast food tailgate party" kind of nachos… and to that purpose, they really hit their mark. It's a totally shareable dish as well, which makes it a great in-between meal snack when there's two or three people in your group.

Because you can customize the dish by visiting the toppings bar… there shouldn't be anything on it, that you don't like. There are even little take-away cups at the topping station, so if you're splitting the nachos, everyone can get a little bit of what they want!