Queso blanco, which literally means white cheese in Spanish, can refer to many different kinds of cheeses whose only common trait is their white color. Queso is believed to originate in Mexico dating back to the 1890s. Queso is an appetizer; it’s similar to chips and salsa but cheesy. It’s a warm gooey cheesy dip that normally has some spices in it making it spicy. In a lot of restaurants you can order queso mild or spicy.  My goal is to find the queso around Ipswich.  It was a difficult yet yummy task!

In all the comparisons of queso that we will look at today they are the mild kinds, not the spicy. Today we will be reviewing queso from 6 different places:  Howling Wolf Taqueria, El Tapatio, Metzy’s Cantina, Agave, Burrito Spice and  Chipotle. These are six of the most common Mexican restaurants near us. Below is a basic table of all the information you may need to make your own decision of what restaurant has the best queso. However, I’ve already  compared and contrasted all six places to come up with what restaurant near us has the best queso. 

When ranking all six places I focused on four main things: price, taste, chip scoop ability and atmosphere / wait time. When comparing all of these, there was a very prominent winner: Howling Wolf Taqueria. When asked, Amelia Krause,  stated, “Having been to all these places multiple times, the Howling Wolf Taqueria just sticks out to me. The price is good, the taste is amazing and you can also get it spicier. The chips could use a little help because nothing compares to Chipotle but they’re still pretty good. There was almost no wait time to get the queso and the overall atmosphere was very nice.” All considered, price, taste, chip scoop-ability, atmosphere/ wait time, Howling Wolf is a fan favorite. However, when the numbers are crunched, it’s a tie between Howling Wolf Taqueria (35/40) and  El Tapatio (35/40). Howling Wolf Taqueria is located in Salem whereas El Tapatio is located in Rowley. El Tapatio is much closer, so when distance is taken into consideration, El Tapatio is the winner. 

In conclusion, this is how they were ranked: