Taco Loco Taqueria

Once again let down! Even with new owners, and a face lift… All I can say is you can’t shine a turd! I ordered a veggie burrito… Pretty simple! Not only was it $ 9.24 it was terrible… Save yourself time and money, and go to taco bell!

This is the only place I’ve been to that had more flies in the restaurant than customers. The food wasn’t great, the service was WACK as in not good, horrible, dissatisfying, and not worth my time or money. There was only two other people in the restaurant and it took nearly 25 minutes for them to make me nachos. I nearly walked out of this place as I felt the flies were aggressively attacking me. If you sit inside there are flies, if you sit outside there are transients. Pick your poison. My recommendation, take your money elsewhere.

We stopped by here for an impromptu lunch. It seemed odd to me that the place was nearly empty. After having eaten there, I kinda get why this joint wasn’t exactly hopping. The food was at best, bland. Not good, not bad, just sort of blah.

You know, I want to like this place. I really do. It’s four blocks from my place, it’s Mexican food… it really could be perfection. But…
THEY HATE VEGETARIANS.
Request a cheese enchilada. Go on, try it. You’ll get chicken. You’ll send it back and be rewarded with another chicken enchilada. You’ll stupidly give Taco Loco another chance because you want so damn badly to love a conveniently located taqueria with a cute name… and they’ll bring you ANOTHER freaking chicken enchilada. You’ll try to take it back yourself and they’ll stare at you blankly. And then the waiter will add insult to injury by later apologizing to your friend, not you.
Booooo

I’ve been to this place on numerous occasions and every time it’s been eh, ok. I only go there cause its so conveniently located. If there were some other restaurants closer to me, I’d definitely go there. Don’t be fooled by their $ 3 house margaritas on Tuesdays (i think). There is practically no tequila in it and its all sweet and sour or simple syrup mix. Normally there are too many annoying people there anyway. For some authentic Mexican food on the cheap, try los jarritos on Broadway. SO MUCH BETTER!

So I have given this place a few tries over the years. The tacos are pretty yummy and the steak nachos are cheap. The biggest problem I have is the customer service. The man who has helped us, who I believe is the owner, always seems distracted and is unable to keep a straight thought. He asks us if we want Corona with our Corona and forgot a spoon for my soup after asking him on three occasions. I also saw him grab the behind of the waitress … let’s hope they are together. All in all the food is good to average but the customer service is bizarre.

mmmmmmmmm tacos…
but these tacos are LOCO!
i ordered the super taco which wasa crispy fried shell covered by a soft shell filled with carnitas and avo and salsa and cheese, oh the melted cheese
mmmm, ohhhhhh

My boyfriend and I took a long walk from our hotel in downtown to do some midtown shopping and were just about starving when we stumbled upon this little taqueria. Without a second thought, we decided to make this place our lunch spot destination.
Sure, it was a little odd that we couldn’t get Corona to drink (all they had available was Heineken!), but all in all the food was delicious. My chicken quesadilla was super cheesy, and they weren’t stingy on the guacamole or sour cream. Moreover, they were also very generous with their chips and didn’t charge us when we requested an extra basket. My boyfriend thought his carne asada burrito was more or less decent, and being as hungry as we were we really had no major complaints. Everything served was definitely fresh, and the homemade salsa was a big plus.

I’m suprised to see so many reviews that reflect my same experience. I stopped by this with 2 friends because I’ve always thought it looked inviting but couldn’t figure out why it was always pretty empty.
We sat at the bar. My assesment of the situation was that this doofus behind the bar was a new owner and his friend… who had no clue how to run a restaurant, and more concerned that their hair looked good and their t-​shirts were tight enough then the fact that there were dirty glasses piled all over the bar and every patron in the place appeared to be shocked and annoyed for a variety of reasons.
Like others’ reviews, we sat and watched drink orders get forgotten about, asked to be repeated and a ridiculous display of incompetency in running a credit card machine. There was also a sign clearly advertising margaritas as $ 3, but were then charged $ 6 or $ 7, they added tax (at the bar?), and then asked you to sign the slip right then and there. Bizarre.
As much as I really wanted to have found a new «spot» I’ll have to refuse to go back unless I hear of a total revamp of the current owner’s attitude and business practices.
Bummer

Hmm… what to say?
So we stopped here for some margaritas and appetizers on 2^nd Saturday. I was actually kinda looking forward to it.
First of all, one of the bartenders was a dunce.
I had ordered 2 margaritas and a Coors light. He had to ask me quite a few times to repeat my order. Then when I handed him my card to pay, he took it and proceeded to walk to the complete opposite end of the bar which frankly confused me as I was right in front of the cash register.
After walking around in circles trying to get my order together (didn’t realize it was SO complicated) he rings me up and I had noticed he grabbed a card out of a glass sitting on the back wall of the bar. I was like wait a minute as he starts to swipe the card. Sure enough, the card says Jennifer. Funny, because I’m M-​O-​N-​I-​C-​A! I told him he took my card and walked to that opposite end. Well, come to find out, he had given MY card to Jennifer and luckily Jennifer was still at the bar. Ugh. Give me a break!
On to the appetizers. We had the nachos and cheese quesadillas. They were mediocre at best.
Don’t think I’d come here again.

I want to like Taco Loco. I used to like Taco Loco. This place was once a bustling restaurant serving vibrant, inexpensive Cal-​Mex grub. I don’t know if it was a change in ownership or what, but they have slipped in a big way. Staff are indifferent, almost uninterested. The food itself is so lackluster that, as others have noted, a chain like Unamas or Chipotle is actually a better bet. The unkempt bathrooms are, uh, authentic Mexican. One can only wonder what has become of this place, the Mexican restaurant that time forgot.

ill give you the setup so you know where i was mentally when i found my way here:
The women abandoned us, or so they thought. Dave and i ran free, like two dogs that were released from leash and yard. we hit many spots, leered at many young women, and then we decided that we wanted coffee. when we finally satisfied our coffee needs we decided on food. unfortunately it was Sunday and Sunday after five affordable non-​fast food was scarce like clean water in an apocalyptic wasteland. plus we were on foot. we couldn’t beat the clock. at 6 there’d be nothing left.
we proceeded back to the place where i had parked my SUV and had agreed it was Mexican we wanted, i like Mexican food because i never feel like i’m limited due to my vegetarian diet. my first thought was Jimboys, he was in agreement, but we were far too hungry to make it all the way down there and then have to deal with parking and besides that, we could afford to eat as if we were kings finally, without the proverbial ball & chain pocket-​leech.
also, seeing as the kingly places we knew of were closed due to what we could only see as laziness, we started to give up and the lights of Jimboys were calling us from 16^th as it was easy, and every woman knows, like it or not, no man can resist easy for too long.
but finally we were saved by this Taco Loco, i saw it as i was driving and remembered it. i have been here many times and to my ultimate satisfaction they were open after 6 on a Sunday. they had food and were fairly empty so the food came quickly. it was actually very good, i remembered it being good, and i think i stopped going before because the price increased from what i was used to. now that i’m not poor it was moderately priced. like, you should at least have a job. the seating is somewhere between cafeteria, barn, and restaurant. its like a Jimboys that shops at Macy’s. we each ate for $ 8, we only drank water having been dehydrated by our walking and coffee-​drinking though they offered many drinks both liquor and non-​alcoholic.
i was honestly very happy with the experience.

This place looks good and seems like a Mexican restaurant but I’m always a bit disappointed.
They charge for the chips and salsa I’ve never been impressed with the staff. One day there was a bartender on his cell phone yelling at someone.

I wish I liked this place, too.
It’s so close by, but the food is just… disappointing.
The margaritas are so-​so, although they have good deals for happy hour, and the bartenders are generally really nice, but the last time we ate here we all felt sick… and some of us noticed that the meat just didn’t smell… good.
Ugh.
So, we haven’t been back. Every time I walk by, it’s empty. Not a good sign.

I stopped in here for the first time a couple of days ago. The food was good, the prices were reasonable, and the staff was friendly and attentive. The under-​the-​counter-​only home-​made habanero sauce was delicious and hot enough to make my testicles tingle.
The place would be a 4 or 5-​star place, but it smelled like piss in there. Bad.
I stopped in earlier today to kill a few minutes at the bar. It still smelled like urine.
The food, prices and service = +5 stars.
The stagnant stench of stark human debasement and degeneracy = at least –2 or 3 points. Seriously nasty. Ug.

I really want to like this place but everytime I come here I am disappointed. The menu has plenty of options but the execution is lacking. None of the meats jumped out at me as awesome.
The drinks though are pretty good and if they had chips/​salsa that were half way decent I would probably come here more just to drink.

When you walk into a Midtown restaurant on a Tuesday, at the peak of the business lunch hour, and there are only 3 other customers, that’s not a good thing. I haven’t eaten here for years, and now I remember why. I do love the look of the place. It’s very clean, very Mexican, and not overly cheesy like Chevy’s or El Torito. I just wish I loved the food. I have yet to find good Mexican food in this area (although Jimboy’s does make a mean taco). I ordered the super chicken quesadilla (they can’t screw up a quesadilla, right!!!) and munched on the complimentary chips and salsa. Thank God for the salsa bar! It brought life to my dry, bland almost queso-​less quesadilla. The little fried tortilla strips they garnished with on top were even stale tasting. My friend Matt ordered the enchilada combo plate (rice/​beans/​soda), and all he could say was, «they could be a little more generous on the rice». He’s so nice. Thanks for paying, mi amigo. I probably would’ve given this place a lower rating if I had to shell out the $ 7.95 myself.
One star for the food, one star for the décor.

Comfortable character.
Nice location, it’s spacious and has a big bar. The food tasted good, the chicken taco’s were solid. Oddly enough, they seem to pick the ingredients at random. I wasn’t expecting beans on my carne asada taco or rice in my fish taco. It tasted good though. The staff seemed really friendly, and it seems to be family owned and operated.

Despite the two-​star rating, I would really love to recommend this place more. Really. The food is always good, the price is reasonable, The service is nice, and the interior is always clean. However, in the handful of times I’ve gone on my own, or went with a friend (who at the time had a crush on the alcohol-​drink server) they never managed to get our orders right once, requiring riding back over to correct it, or just dealing with it. I guess the kitchen staff are like the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld, in that you order what you think you want, but THEY decide what you’ll get.
With this in mind I cannot give it more than two stars.

I used to like to go here. I’d walk there from work and get a taco plate and a corona with a lime slice and sit by myself and enjoy a little serene time in a busy place where I could people watch quietly.
It’s pretty empty all the time because let’s just face it, there’s much better food out there.
But if you want to try it, I’m not going to stop you. It’s not BAD, it’s just not GREAT.