Taco House

If you are a local… Taco House is our secret place… the place is clean. bathrooms very clean. The owner, John is serious about running the best place ever. Food is very good and what you order stays at a constant quality for freshness and well cooked. You have to try this place, don’t tell to many… Or we will be waiting longer to get in. Enjoy!
Also…when you see the same employees who work there for years tells you about the boss and the company.

Great place to grab a quick lunch. I usually never eat inside. The drive-​through is quick and convenient. They have delicious specials throughout the week. Not high quality food but really yummy when you have a craving for Americanized Mexican food! Highly recommend the dessert burritos! Yum!

I love the Taco House. It’s my «must visit» restaurant every time I visit Traverse City. It’s not the fanciest Mexican restaurant in town, it’s not a gourmet Mexican restaurant, they don’t have margaritas, and the menu offers your typical Mexican food fare, such as tacos, burritos, salads. What it IS, is a LOCAL restaurant that serves good food for a reasonable price. It’s not your typical national chain fast food with menu items that are seemingly assembly-​line produced. Each item is made to order, so don’t be in a hurry. The dining room is fast-​food-​y (they do have a nice fireplace) with about a dozen booths and tables, and it doesn’t have a cozy, warm ambiance, but then again neither do the big chains. If you’re looking for a local, reasonable place for Mexican, the Taco House is the place you should go. I wish they’d open one up in my town.

Is this authentic Mexican food? No. Does it matter in this case? Nope. It’s it’s own genre and it’s way too delicious. A TC institution not to miss. Recommend bean burritos, tostadas, and red meat burritos with cheese. YUM!

We heard Taco House was like the Mr. Taco restaurants from the Lansing area some years ago. My mom was super excited about visiting, hoping they had taco meat burritos, and Taco House didn’t disappoint! No, the food isn’t authentic Tex-​Mex, and yes, it leans toward the more bland side, but it’s exactly what we were hoping for! $ 1.35 for a taco supreme? That’s a steal. The food is definitely better than Taco Bell, and the staff was friendly. We will definitely be back when we’re next up north.

Brian S. has it right – expectations people! This is fast food and not authentically Mexican. The only people who will actually care about that have set up some pretty high expectations, which in turn, always sets up for disappointment. Look, this is freshly made food, it’s a local business, food is tasty and inexpensive. I’ve never had a problem with the staff either – they hustle their behinds back there – I’m sure they’re probably not in it to give warm fuzzies, but to deliver your food quickly. Also please remember, this is a wonderful employer of first jobs for high schoolers – they’re still learning, give ‘em a break! Love the taco meat burrito plate! Hard-​shell tacos are far superior to anything else around. No, it’s not hot and spicy Mexican food, but the flavors are good. If you don’t like the green meat, don’t order it. If you think you have to be drunk to eat here, go somewhere else (and quit writing reviews about being drunk). This is a quick and easy family fast food restaurant, an icon for many years – there’s a reason it’s got staying power!

Obviously not authentic Mexican food but who really cares. It is much better than Taco Bell and the food is prepared by smiling people who seem to actually like what they are doing. The food all tastes good and fresh and I like the atmosphere. This is a good place to have dinner and feel good about it.

I don’t understand the reviews. Read a lot of good reviews and decided to give it a try. Very pricey for chips with cheese on a paper plate and tortilla with ground meat with some kind of bland green sauce. I would venture to say, the worst Mexican wannabe restaurant I’ve ever eaten in. And the people at the counter looked at you like you were a bother to them… not cool.

Taco House is the place for people who love Taco Bell but don’t like to admit they want to eat there.
To experience Taco House, all you need to do is go to the grocery store. Pick up a package of white flour tortillas, can of re-​fried beans, ground beef and that cheap shredded lettuce, and you will have eaten at Taco House in your very own home.
The food is flavorless and plain. Menu has nothing to offer except beans and beef wrapped in different cheap wraps (tortilla, taco shell, etc). My food was literally served on a paper plate. I have never eaten on a paper plate at a restaurant.
Do yourself a favor, bite the bullet and just get Taco Bell instead of this place. Your food will at least have artificial flavor there.

A little step up from a taco bell… You get what you pay for. My husband got to know the toilet after a few tacos … my wet burrito was bland. hot sauce helped a little.

My wife who misses the now defunct Mr. Taco in Lansing heard that this place uses their old recipes. So we had to try it while visiting Traverse City. She was very impressed and so am I. They have a gluten free menu for people like me too! Everything was good. The red meat burrito was delicious and my taco salad was tasty. The salad would have been better if it didn’t use canned chicken, but the flavor was good. I’d go back for sure.

Always great food and friendly service… the chicken taco salads are amazing… reasonable prices for the proportions and quality as well… drive thru or dine in available as well.

If you’re a food snob, don’t eat here. It’s Traverse City, we have plenty of culinary masters cooking down on Front.
If you’re looking for fast-​food that fills you up and doesn’t make you feel sick later that day, Taco House is pretty awesome. The service is super fast, super cheap and the menu never changes so you always know you can stop in for your usual. Plus, it’s yummy. Never too spicy or over-​complicated and that’s what I love about Taco House. No, it’s not real Mexican, this is Northern Michigan. We’re white! We use microwaves for our burritos! Get over it!
And no, Taco Bell is not better. Taco Bell is way not better.

I feel like a downer as my last several reviews have been on the negative side. Nevertheless, I am a slave to the truth.
This place has a cult following. Literally. If the regulars were to walk in tomorrow and they were served a complimentary cup of mysterious red Kool Aid, they would all be dead. What is it with this place?
The food is bland. I feel your pain Myrna J., the «green meat» is sludgy and unappetizing to be nice. It has the consistency of stewed okra. The whole menu is bland and lacks any seasoning, Mexican or otherwise.
You would do yourself a justice to go to Taco Bell, if that is the dilemma you are facing.

Oh Taco House. You lure me in, wrapped in a brown paper bag to go.
Let’s call Taco house what it is: mexican made by white people. This isn’t a bad thing, just different. Tacos, wet burritos, tostadas, buy them up and enjoy them as the institution they are. Seriously, three bean tostadas for under $ 3? There is no better cheap dinner as far as I’m concerned.
Every Mexican-​ish restaurant doesn’t have to be authentic California mexican food. It just has to do a thing or two well, and Taco House does exactly that. It doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not. So enjoy.
Or go write another review talking about how this isn’t ‘authentic’ and how you can get better Mexican food in Mexico. If you thought this was going to be authentic and fresh from the border, you have bigger delusions to deal with.

This place is a glorified Taco Bell.
The service was fast and pleasant– but the food was… hardly Mexican. I may be spoiled with Californian Mexican food, but this was pretty meh.
Prices are fairly cheap a la carte.
I had a soft shell taco and an ‘apple burrito’ which is an apple empanada, essentially.
The ‘apple burrito’ WAS quite tasty.
I don’t think I’ll be returning any time soon, however.

Haters gonna hate, but Taco House is the shit.
I moved away from TC 10 years ago and I still make it a point to eat here when I come back to visit. It’s not authentic Mexcian food, it’s definitely not Taco Bell, but it is simple, good, food.
I love that you can get 3 tostadas for $ 2.79. Amazing. The wet burritos are great. There’s even a gluten free menu for my GF dad.
I love you Taco House!

I was reading the reviews on this fast food restaurant and couldn’t believe some of the expectations that some people seem to of had for a fast food place. I’ve been eating here for over 20 years and it is the best FAST FOOD place in town. Understand that this is fast food, your life will not be changed by eating this food. It is a much better alternative to taco bell, it is not a replacement for a great Mexican meal. You go in, get your sack of soft tacos and scarf them down. The food is fresh made and the owners usually preparing it, I think I’ve seen the same people working here for most of those 20 years, can you say that about a McDonald’s or a taco bell? But if you’re a foodie, this is fast food not a life altering experience. We have a saying int the fishing world «shut up and fish»
I think something close works for this «shut up and eat».
Enjoy!

It’s a locally-​owned alternative to Taco Bell.
I’d actually never been, but after 6 trips to Cherry Capital Airport to pickup/​dropoff my commuting travel boyfriend, he really wanted to try this place. I don’t know why, but he heard from a girl in the Dakotas it was really good. So there you have it…
And yes, it’s light years better than Taco Bell, but its still fast food, so do not come expecting anything beyond that. It is what it is, and it is… AOK!
Is it authentic Mexican? Probably not, I didn’t see any Mexican people working here and the food appears more «Amerimex» which I find totally fine and palatable and easy to consume. In this neck of the woods, its probably about as authentic as you might get… certainly.
They have a drive-​thru! And take credit cards! Stellar.
My taco salad strangely did not come with anything taco-​shellesque. Just like the guts of a taco in a plastic bin. Fine, but not exactly what I thought it might be. At $ 5 though, totally fine.
It’s probably amazing when you are drunk, I assume (hope) they are open late, and are near some nightlife, so maybe that’s some of their biz… otherwise, I’m sure for takeout Mexican I’d do it again and its reasonably priced and has a friendly staff.
Add it to the list for cheap eats!

Just want to throw it out there that we just had a visit back to the TC area and we still love Taco House. I was a little worried that we wouldn’t be able to enjoy it once we removed dairy and the like from our diet– but guess what? Those delicious mouth-​watering bean burritos can be ordered without cheese and taste just as fabulous as I remember.
We stopped so many times for burritos during our three day stay that some of the staff knew it was us by our order before we left.
Man, I’m craving some burritos now.