Taco Del Mar

Taco Del Mar has always been a staple in my weekly diet since my high school years. This store is no different; I go at least once a week. They have great punch card and day-​specific deals. Food is the same as any TDM.
While this may be a much smaller TDM in terms of size, they make up for it in friendliness and customer service. What I mean by that is: the various workers I have dealt with are always kind and never seem to not want to be their. Some food stores have employees that clearly do not want to be working and take it out on the customer with laziness and lack of courtesy. I have also seen these same workers deal with rude and unruly customers with manners and respect, which I commend.
Oh, and the Guac is cheaper than Chipotle!

Not good Mexican. Tacos were soggy. Slow service. Restaurant felt old/​dirty. I would have to be convinced to go again.

Typical mexican take out place.
Nothing to write home about.

Arrived at 10:00 a.m. (when they are supposed to open) did not get in until 10:45. Once they did decide to unlock the doors, the main cashier didn’t offer to open the door and gave me a dirty look as if I was being a inconvenience to his day. He then made the food nonchalant, didn’t seem interested in anything I would ask him to do and requires me to repeat my self multiple times. Then after he what I guess you could call rolled my burrito, he ran my card twice and refused to give me my refund! I can keep my cool but almost blew up on this guy because of how bad of a job he did. Worst service I have ever had, I would never recommend to anyone I knew.

Pros:
— Typical fast-​casual feel:
* quick
* relatively cheap
Cons:
— Signature dishes aren’t particularly great
— Excessive amount of rice in dishes
Best fit:
— Mexican food for pick up on the go

I ordered catering for a large event at work. I talked with the manager who was friendly and delivered the order himself. I got a large variety of food for cheap. It was gone super fast. I was irritated by the surprise $ 30 delivery charge for them to go 2 blocks.
I’ve also gone in to this location once recently for lunch. It goes for the cheap, surfer look. Got a burrito as big as my forearm and it filled me up. Staff was fast but not friendly, but can’t expect much in a fast food joint.
This is fast food, along the lines of Taco Bell. Don’t expect much. It tastes all right and delivers for what they sell.
Food: 3.5
Service: 3
Ambiance: 3
Parking: 2

Decently tasting cheap food that fills. Since I live a couple blocks away, I go here when I’m feeling lazy about cooking or going out to eat.
I either get the chicken tacos or chicken burrito. It tastes alright, though sadly I can make way better tacos at home, I just get lazy sometimes.
I feel like their food lacks the savory, zest and freshness of other places.
What I find most annoying is their shredded chicken which is sooo juicy it makes eating quite messy, and that when they build a burrito/​taco they aren’t the most efficient at placing all the ingredients in a sensible manner.
But in the end I still go cause it’s cheap and filling and I’m that lazy sometimes: P

I moved to Seattle from Southern California and thus far I don’t think any of the burrito or taco shops touch a flame to the tacorias in San Diego or Los Angeles. That being said, Toco del Mar is a reasonable choice for lunch or dinner on the cheap. While I prefer Chipolte, I enjoy their Mondo burrito with the whole pinto bean. If you just got a new FitBit and are using it to monitor your caloric intake, you will appreciate that they post the nutrition information on their webpage.

Franchised chain restaurants are always at risk for poor quality control since some random individual owns the restaurant and runs it the way «they» see fit as opposed to all the other twin locations.
This is a location to avoid and I’ll explain why.
I have visited Taco Del Mar’s all over this great state of Washington and generally have a median and similar experience. I always throw the red flag when my experience is an anomaly and severely different.
I have visited this location twice and regretted each time. The first time I assumed all the employees had a bad day, maybe their boss beats them, who knows. I never judge a place by just one bad experience.
The second time I visited, I started with my usual, the mondo burrito. Normally the tortilla is crisped for a few seconds on the whatever that thingy is. This time, the tortilla got stuck and burned. The lady put it on the tin foil and started putting ingredients (that I hadn’t even asked for yet) into the burned tortilla… I was like «uhh.this is awkward…»
So I had her start over, which she was not pleased about.
Then, we come to the meat, when I am at other TDM’s the meat size and portion varies very little, and most of the time it’s a nice healthy portion that makes me feel good about the value of the mondo. This time, the lady put probably half a scoop of meat. It was so small, it would not have even been acceptable on the mondito. I figured maybe she was knew and she didn’t know she was dealing with such a veteran TDM’er. I politely asked her to put a little more meat on my burrito. She says, «NO. Well, unless you want me to charge you for double meat!»
Double meat? You haven’t even reached the single meat! Sheesh people!
Next, I’m like…“chips and queso? hell yeah!” so I go with that… instead of the normal queso cup that is at ALL TDM’s, this location like custom ordered in tiny tiny cups that you can’t even get your chip in.
I was like, «is this for a kids meal?»…the employees hate me because I was pointing out all their flaws.
I have come to the conclusion that these employees are trained to be as skimpy and cheap as possible, this includes cutting corners EVERYWHERE to include harassing you if you get more soda.
I would absolutely go eat somewhere else, TDM has other great locations and South Lake Union is full of great eats. Avoid this place like the plague.

Food: Fine but not awesome. Sometimes at night, it feels like the food has been sitting a while. Much busier at lunch, but alas that’s this neighborhood.
Price: A lot of food for the money. You will definitely be very full for much less that $ 10.
Ambiance: Nothing special, but there are chairs and whatnot to eat inside.
Overall: Good when you want something cheap and satisfying.

Bland, boring — but fast –Mexican fast food. Luckily there are many, better, alternatives in Seattle these days.

Okay, I can’t in any good conscience give a 5 star review for fast-​ish food, but I have to say the service here is 5 stars, the value ratio is also 5 stars.
I found the staff there to be fantastic, the food to taste delicious and the whole experience to be easy-​peasy. I like Taco Del Mar anyway, but this somehow tasted just a little better than I’m used to and the service was genuinely nice as well as prompt and professional.
Overall, solid delicious lunch in the SLU Amazon-​town area.

Blah… boring food, inexpensive, tasteless. I had the chicken taco and a fish taco. Chicken taco was your regular shredded chicken (maybe from a can) on a flour tortilla with some pico and just not that great/​memorable. Fish taco was cold breaded fish that thery say they baked, I have had better from Trader Joe’s in the frozen food section at home. I guess if you are in a bind and need something fast and this is your absolutely only option, then go for it. I might go back and try a cheese quesadilla to see how it is — you can’t really mess up on that… or can you?

Food is good, staff is fast, value is excellent. Cheapest eats in SLU.
Alas, they will always assume you want guacamole and sour cream. Sometimes you need to repeat your order a couple of times due to them expecting you to order the same thing as the majority of customers. And the noise in the restaurant can get very loud. They over charged me $ 1 for guacamole and sour cream that I didn’t order nor have on my burrito. So watch your receipt carefully!

Downstairs is cramped but lots of seating upstairs helps. Seats are small and uncomfortable. Service is quick. Prices are good.
I had the taco salad with fish. It was meh. «Alaskan fish» is breaded fillets just like the ones I get frozen from Costco. I might go back here but prefer Blue Water.

This is my favorite Taco del Mar ever!!! It is always awesomely clean and the customer service is awesome. Also, the portion size seems more in line with what I used to get 10 yeas ago…(I’m a long time TDM fan and connoisseur) and the quality of the food is better than any that I have visited.
Also, they have brewed iced tea, which several around Seattle do not carry.
This place always has a steady stream of business and extra seating upstairs.

I had a chicken mondo burrito. It was bland, flavorless, dry… I’ve never been to a burrito place that didn’t have carne asada. Only shredded beef or ground beef. What a waste of 1000 calories. Skip it and find the closest taco truck.

A great lunch — filling, affordable and fresh. The staff are so nice at this location and it seems to offer the freshest, most tasty options.
The team who works at this location seem to like one another and appear genuinely pleased to see their customers.

If you were marooned on a desert island, this would be the one restaurant you’d want to be marooned with you. Can a person ever have too many fish tacos with fresh salsa? And one of their Mondo Burritos would nicely anchor you if a strong windstorm came up. And do they have vegan and vegetarian items? Si, señor!

Pretty decent burritos — I’ve eaten at a couple of Taco Del Mar’s and this is the only one that hasn’t made me sick.
And I love the chips con queso
They’re pretty quick — but the line can build up during lunch hour so watch out
It’s also pretty small — so plan it to go — stop by the park and have a picnic.