Smackdown: Cheesy tots

Chili tots at Golden West Café

Damage: $7.99

Details: Situated in Hampden, the Golden West Café has served traditional new Mexican cuisine at its current location since 2003. What tots have to do with new Mexican cuisine is beyond us, but we're sure glad Golden West decided to put them on the menu. The reason we're happy is because the chili tots were the best tot dish we sampled during our tot tour of B-more. Spicy with the kick of green chiles, creamy with the gooeyness of Jack cheese and rounded out with a salsa fresca, the chili tots were a perfectly balanced dish. The dish was also differentiated from the rest by Golden West's use of a shorter, more discus-shaped tot. The only problem with this dish was that it was a bit wet from the tomatoes and onions, but the tots were there to soak up the soupy goodness.

Decision: Golden West gets our vote for "top tots in Baltimore."