Local restaurant with a menu of creative tacos? Y’all know we’re always down for that experience!

Recently, when meeting our friend Martha to catch up, she recommended we all try Farmhouse Tacos in Travelers Rest, a joint she learned about through her friend Rebekah who lived in the area for several years as a student at a nearby university.

We found that Farmhouse Tacos fits our tastes to a T. If you love to support local business while enjoying a fresh and flavorful meal like we do, then Farmhouse belongs on your to-do list for weekend dining-out adventures.

From the name, I hoped the Farmhouse would be in an old barn-like structure. It wasn’t, but it was a clean and bright rustic-modern space with plenty of seating and parking.

We started our meal with a Farmhouse Sampler, a $12 table-shareable appetizer that offers a choice of three from among pimento cheese, black bean salsa, corn and poblano salsa, pico de gallo, guacamole, queso and a layered bean dip. The plate comes with traditional salsa, so at our server’s advising, we chose three other options to sample, opting for the guac, queso and bean dip. Everything was fresh and flavorful, even though the bean dip was slightly difficult to eat, with a topping of lettuce and sour cream covering the beans in a small dish. But no worries, it was all tasty, and it had plenty of food on it for the price. We weren’t able to finish it and took home what we could.

For entrees, you can select from quesadillas, burrito bowls, specialty plates or any of the restaurant’s hand-crafted tacos. Among the specialty taco options:

• Crab Cake with Fried Green Tomatoes
• Chile-Rubbed Tuna
• IPA-Crispy Fish Taco
• Grass-Fed Ground Beef
• Blackberry Duck
• Fried Avocado
• Portobello Mushroom
• Calabash Shrimp

We tried a mixture of tuna, crab cake, fish, shrimp and chicken tacos among the three of us. If you order two tacos each, you can expect to spend $8 or $9 for each entrée. (And if you get something like the sampler app, you’ll have plenty of chips, salsa and other dips remaining as side items.)

The Farmhouse Buttermilk Fried Chicken Taco (pictured at top) was my favorite, with crispy chicken, a cool honey-jalapeno crema and micro greens. No doubt, that was one of the best specialty tacos I’ve had anywhere, not just in the South that we travel so much but in the entire country.

Since Farmhouse prides itself on using local ingredients, I became curious about the source of the crab cakes on the menu, so I asked our server. She checked with the kitchen and told us they didn’t come from Upstate South Carolina (as I expected since S.C. is not known for its crab) but that the crab cakes themselves were handmade in the kitchen. That was absolutely an OK answer as I was just curious! And as a sidenote, many of the craft beers on the specials board each day are from brewers in the Carolinas, so check that out if you enjoy those beverages.

We were too full after dinner for dessert, but one item in particular on the menu stood out. We’ve got to get back to Farmhouse Tacos to try their Campfire S’mores dessert for $5. You get the ingredients for s’mores, complete with a small controlled flame and sticks to roast your marshmallows right there at the table. The kids we saw making s’mores with their families looked like they were having so much fun!

The best #FoodieScore suggestions come from friends who know an area and its local restaurants. Thanks, Rebekah and Martha, for pointing us toward Farmhouse Tacos!

Farmhouse Tacos, 164 South Main St., Travelers Rest, S.C.