COMEDOR By La Taqueria Pinche Taco Shop — Restaurant in Vancouver

I've been a loyal fan of La Taqueria for some time, having visited the restaurant three times now. As someone who's lived in both Arizona and Colorado for over a decade and traveled extensively in Mexico, I consider myself to be quite well-versed in authentic Mexican cuisine. In Vancouver, where authentic taco spots are few and far between, La Taqueria has always stood out to me for its quality.

However, after my most recent experience, I will not be returning.

First off, La Taqueria's prices have always been on the higher side, but this last visit was a breaking point. I never imagined I'd pay $9.50 for a single taco, but it felt justified for a special celebration with my partner. That was, until we walked in and noticed a change. There was a sign at the entrance indicating that orders had to be placed at the counter. When I asked the cashier about this, they explained it was a permanent change made by management to "increase efficiency."

We ordered two drinks, chips and guac, and four tacos. The bill came to $85, and I was then prompted to tip 18%, 20%, or 25% for what was essentially self-service. While I empathize with staff who rely on tips, I was shocked at being asked to tip nearly 20% for no table service—other than food being brought to the table, there was no interaction. To make matters worse, the restaurant had hired a DJ for the evening, which made me wonder why they were investing in entertainment but cutting down on customer service.

I understand that times are tough for restaurants, but it seems like La Taqueria is focusing on maximizing profits while minimizing staffing and guest experience. It felt like a money grab—charging premium prices for a casual dining experience and still asking customers to tip heavily. For nearly $100, I expected much more than what felt like a glorified fast-food experience.

The food is excellent, and I won't deny that. But after this experience, I cannot justify coming back to La Taqueria, where the service model feels exploitative both to...

Everything was going fine until I asked for the bill and the server didn't show me my itemized receipt before handing me the machine to pay. Unsurprisingly the bill felt more expensive than I'd anticipated but I paid anyway and still, he didn't give any receipts before walking off. I left, but did some mental math and realized there was no way my bill should be as high as it was. I went back in and told the first server I saw I thought there might be a mistake with my bill. All of a sudden my server appeared and somehow knew exactly what had happened before even talking to me or the other server. He'd barely spoken to me before but now he was overly talkative. It just felt off, he clearly knew what he'd done. The other guy finally printed out my itemized receipt and confirmed a several things that didn't sit right:

He had charged me for an extra dish, this was eventually refunded

I'd had a happy hour margarita ($8) and my partner had a virgin margarita, which somehow they charged $9 for. He tried to explain that the margarita I'd had was on happy hour but the virgin margarita was not, and literally blamed inflation for the price. So the margarita WITH NO TEQUILA cost more than the actual margarita.

We had our toddler with us but were just going to share our food with him. The server told us he could make us cheese quesadillas for him that weren't on the menu. He almost made it seem like it was just a nice complimentary snack he was going to have made, so we agreed thinking it sounded nice. The bill confirmed he'd charged us for it as an entree.

I've been here a number of times over the years and always liked it, but this experience soured me. It just didn't feel right, and I left feeling like I'd been...

If you're seeing this review, you're probably wondering "gosh darn, why is it rated so poorly?", well let me tell you.

The food and drinks were great! Nachos? Spectacular! Margaritas? Superb! Tacos? Wait, where are my tacos?

Please tell me how our tacos took over 30 minutes to make. We were one of the only 2 parties in the restaurant at the time. We ordered our drinks, nachos, and tacos. The drinks and nachos arrived on time, but the tacos didn't show up until waaay after we finished our nachos.

We then asked the server for an update on our tacos and she came back to tell us it'd take another 10 minutes. Mind you, this is 30 minutes after we already placed our order.

She asked us if we would like another round of drinks while we waited, so we obliged.

The tacos came, they were great, we paid and left. Only later did I realize the drinks were not on the house (Our guest paid the table's bill for us, so I didn't find out until I inquired later).

I find it disrespectful that we experienced unusually regretful delays in our order and were not appropriately compensated. Without apologizing and owning up to this mistake, this makes it seem as if this incident is the norm here.

I love La Taqueria, and I've never been let down by their food for years. Until now that is. It's a shame that our happy hour experience was not as happy as it should've been.

I cannot in good faith recommend this location based on this experience. Hopefully no one else's tacos will be lost in the kitchen as ours were.

The real kick in the shin was seeing a new party show up, place their order, and watching them receive their tacos in a timely manner. Wish...