Taco Time

This is a nice Taco Time! It gets pretty busy during lunch hours. I like the food and the sit-​down area is on the nicer side for a fast food joint.
I’m a fan! Love the crisp burrito and tots!

I hate to ding you Taco Time, but I normally would give 4 stars. The food is overall better than the other Taco place, I think you know which one.
My favorite is the nachos, which are generous and overall not too bad. It’s not authentic Mexican, but I don’t go here for authentic Mexican. I lived in Mexico and worked there and authentic Mexican food uses grubs. Yes, that’s what the Aztecs and other Indians ate for protein. Fortunately, they’re not on the menu here. And I really like the salsa, as far as fast food salsa goes, it’s a keeper.
However, as much as I like the concept of using locally grown food, there is no guarantee by this company that the ingredients, especially the corn, is not GMO. I do not wish to eat GMO anything, and after calling your corporate office I found out that they do not monitor this.
This is why your company will be falling behind in the ratings. Chipotle at least got smart about offering non GMO and non rBST dairy ingredients and I think it’s time TT got wise to this trend. It’s not going away.
BTW the staff at this store has always been wonderful, I am not knocking them. I just hope corporate gets a clue about what I said.

I’ve only used the drive through here since I hit it after the climbing gym across the street but this place is like the rest of the taco time chains. Good, fresh food and friendly service. What more could you really ask for? The parking lot is a little tricky sometimes because of the location of the parking spots versus where the driveway entrances are, but usually it’s not a big problem.

Well I hate to do this, my family and I usually love Taco TIme, about the only fast food we treat ourselves to occasionally.
We used the drive thru, (March 27^th) I double checked the order before driving away, looked correct, counted everything. When we got home I noticed instead of a beef crisp burrito, we were given a churro… bummer. So my son and I split a beef soft burrito.
Around 2am I awoke to my son throwing up, and me not feeling so great either. So neither of us felt well the entire Saturday. My wife who didn’t have any of the burrito was fine.
So not only did they get the order wrong, they threw in a case of food poisoning. Thanks Taco Time.

So good! And being from the Midwest and surrounded by Taco Bells, Taco Time is wayyy better.

Beware lutefisk-​munching Ballardites who are used to the typical heat-​free fare offered at Taco Time. THE HABAÑERO CHICKEN BURRITO IS NOT FOOLING AROUND. This thing’s got me panting and sweating and being from Louisiana originally, I like my food very spicy.
Awesome!

Ii love Taco Time, generally. This particular Taco Time, however, is a nightmare. In the past couple of years I’ve probably been there 20 times, and 50% of the time they’ve gotten my order wrong. They especially love to put ranch on things that are ordered with no ranch. For example, a couple of weeks ago I went through the drive through and ordered food for a party of 4 (2 kids, 2 adults). One of the things i ordered was a soft taco with no ranch, and a burrito with no ranch. We got to the kids soccer game and started eating, and both had ranch. We had mexi fries for lunch. And, they forgot the crustos (which I paid for). I call the manager, he says he’ll buy lunch next time we come. Today we went again. I told them about last time, and they could see my name is some special binder (I call it the «We F’d Up Again» binder). Instead of buying our lunch, they comp’d a burrito meal. I didn’t care– i just wanted it to be right. We were VERY CLEAR– NO RANCH. We even had a whole discussion about substituting pico for the ranch. Got to the soccer game, opened up the food, and RANCH AGAIN. Mexi-​fries for lunch, Part Two! Unbelievable.
P. S., I also go to the TT on Elliot and they have never screwed up my meal. They should get the manager there to come do an intervention in Ballard.

I am really impressed. Taco Time has improved a lot since my last visit. Ada was my Drive thru cashier. Super cheery and happy to see me. She didn’t miss a beat with my order and even gave me a water since I had not ordered a drink with my order. Being that we are in a heat wave she was very sweet and included a water with my order. My beef soft taco was fresh, hearty and even had my extra tomatoes on it like I had requested. The crisp chicken burrito was hot, fresh and delicious. My whole order was excellent. I am thrilled to be able to update my Taco Time review on Unilocal.Keep it up Taco Time!

3.5 Stars. This is a good place to grab a soft drink (the self serve drink machine is unique and really cool… I really like the grape soda). I also love the sweet potato Mexi fries with extra salt. This is a convenient place to grab some snacks (like soft tacos or salads) To Go and take to eat at The Locks. For a fast food restaurant… it’s actually quite comfortable and clean here. The staff is also very nice.

Meh… I was hoping for better. This was a real disappointment after moving to Seattle recently and seeing these all over town. I had an overpriced mushy ground beef burrito, stale chips, watery salsa and it was all very BLAND BLAND BLAND!!!

I finally had the Taco Time experience. I’ve seen them around, but since I love actual tacqueria food, I never go out of my way to eat at corporate mexican restaurants. However, I knew Taco Time was a regional chain and not national… so at least they fall under the ‘local’ category of where I choose to spend my hard-​earned buckaroos.
The location of this place is what made me decide to take the Taco Time leap… it’s right next to the Ballard Locks park where I had been hanging out on a beautiful summer day in Seattle. It really was a good experience and I am actually a fan of the Taco Times now. It was definitely more expensive than Taco Bell and taco trucks, but you can taste that the ingredients are DEFINITELY fresher and better than Taco Bell. That made up for the extra cost by far… it really makes a difference when it comes to lettuce and tomatoes. I had a burrito here, but I’ve been to a different Taco Time since then, ordered tacos and was similarly impressed with how fressssssh the ingredients tasted considering it is a chain Mexican restaurant staffed by white high school kids.
The icing on the Taco Time cake for me here at this Shilshole location was that the kid who took my order came out to ask me how I liked everything, since I had told him at the register that it was my first taco time experience. That’s pretty awesome… it was like a family restaurant or something! If you are going to eat mexican food-​inspired fast-food…it is worth finding a Taco Time instead of going to Taco Bell.

I have gone in here several times and I always like what I get. The booths and tables are clean and the dining area is well lite. I sometimes wish they had a few outdoor tables, but that isn’t a big make or break.
What I think is great is the customer service. I went in and read over the menu only to request to have something off the menu. The gentleman was nice and said he could «make anything within reason.» I ordered a black bean, refried bean, and light cheese burrito. He charged me the regular bean burrito price and didn’t add extra for more beans being on it.
I got it and bite in quickly. I enjoyed how tasty there black beans are. The tortillas are a little bit different than the ones I get at the grocery, but not in a bad way. I was just surprised.
Overall if I need a quick bite when I am over in that side of Ballard and do not have a lot of time I would stop in again.

First trip to Taco time ever — Yuck.
Fish taco: decent fish, *covered* in white sauce so as to make in unpalatable.
Crispy burrito: um, they call these ‘taquitos’ now folks
Chicken salad: for six dollars, I got a better salad of the same size at Elysian earlier in the week… and it didn’t have a paste called «honey mustard dressing» on it
For $ 16 we got the above and a beverage, and I would have to say this will be my last trip to Taco Time ever. El Camion is cheaper and better. WAY better.

Got my friend to pick some soft and crunchy tacos for me from here.
I really liked it =) The sauces are pretty awesome, too!
I would order from them again.
I would say this is the better taco places to go to

I’m not a fast food person, but I was starving and this Taco Time is steps from my apartment. I’ve walked by a hundred times – they do have a problem with their drive-​thru being too short, I’ve had to walk into the street to get around cars waiting in line on the sidewalk. I saw that they have healthy and «natural» options, so I tried it.
The inside was clean and the guy at the counter was nice enough, telling me as I naively ordered a burrito that it would be over a pound, and guiding me to the «tacos» which are more like smaller burritos. I ordered the Natural Soft Taco to go. They have signs all over touting that all of their packaging is compostable, and calorie and nutrition listings for all the food items. They say that all their food is made fresh every morning, even the sauces. It came pretty quickly and I was outta there.
It was a simple small chicken burrito on a wheat tortilla. But being from California it tripped me out: ranch dressing, boiled chicken and beans, lettuce and cheddar cheese and no spices. The whitest taco I’ve ever had. They have Hispanic people up here, right? I forgot to get salsa so I ate it with Sri Racha. Strange experience. Not really terrible, just odd. I’ve never seen ranch dressing on a burrito before, and I wouldn’t recommend it.

I normally like this Taco Time, but the manager on duty was a real prick.
When taking my order he asked what I wanted, then looked away when I started to tell him. I think he was doing a «rainman» impression. After the order took 10 minutes +, I went up to the counter to ask «how much longer»? He rudely commented, I will bring your order to your table when it is ready. I mentioned that there were people that came in after us and drive through orders which were served before us. I still stood in the order area, when the order came up… he walked right passed me… gave me a weird look and took the food to the table… instead of handing it to me. I guess he ran out of meth. Hopefully next time we go, he has more.

Not all Taco Times are created equal (see my review of the Northgate one, BLECH). This one is more than acceptable. It’s too bad it is kind of out of the way, otherwise I’d send Alex here way more often. It is probably the only place where I don’t have to know what I want, I just say something like «Get me a bunch of things that sound like stuff I’d like» and I end up with a variety of items that taste good to me. (Unlike other places where I will go myself just to peruse the menu looking for something that sounds good and some of the most amazing sounding things are not even edible.)
The chicken soft taco is pretty awesome, especially compared to other Mexican fast food. I’m no size queen, but some places will give you a soft taco that is only about two bites of food, especially after everything falls out due to shitty construction. Taco Time gives you four times the taco, wrapped in foil, more like a burrito. And the deep fried burrito (more like a tacquito) is pretty damn good, too. I am super particular about fish tacos, but TT mahi mahi is very acceptable.
This TT features a full menu, which may have been part of my problem with the other location. I don’t know about it not being open that late, as it is out of the way enough that I have to be thinking about when I am sober (i.e. earlier in the day) so never an issue for me.

I don’t know what it is about Taco Time. It’s expensive and not that great. Just like non-​alcoholic beer: all the calories, none of the fun.
This location was one of the nicer ones I’ve visited. But there’s no reason for a Mexican fast food meal to cost $ 8.00. Taco Time is OK, but not $ 8.00 OK.
That said, I keep coming back every time in the NW. It’s a tradition.

I hit up this Taco Time for the first time with a friend last night. I always sort of forget this location is there because it blends into the trees… and the fact that Market St sort of splits into two roads at this particular point.
It was decent… the interior was smaller than I pictured, but it had plenty of tables. Employees were relatively friendly and the mexi-​nuggets were cooked to perfection. They were pretty quick in getting our to-​go orders out to us.
On the negative side, this location is really awkward and can make parking difficult. Also, the drive-​thru is REALLY poorly placed and during the busy lunch time the cars waiting in line pour over onto Market Street, making it a pain to get through. This is very annoying…

Beef soft taco, crisp beef burrito, and an order of mexi fries. If that meal isn’t enough to put you in to some sort of semi conscious state, then I don’t know what is. It hurts so good, though.
I’ve always loved Taco Time. Ever since the seventies, when I worked at the Ballard Pizza Hut, and we’d occasionally make trades with the one that used to be on Crown Hill. Can’t help it. Always been good for me, and oh yeah, don’t even compare to Taco Bell.