Tacofino Ocho — Restaurant in Vancouver

We recently had dinner at Tacofino Ocho with a couple of friends. We did not have a reservation but the wait was not long. We had dined there together several times, and were looking forward to the cocktails (love the Mezcal Negroni) and the food. The tacos are our collective go-to with Pork Carnitas, Asedero Cheese, Crispy Cod (my personal fave) and steak as our most frequent choices.

On this occasion the service was pretty bad. Our waiter would leave us alone for really long periods of time then finally swing by with a smile after we caught his attention. We would order something like another round of cocktails or a top up on the chips. Each and every time we would have to flag him down again then he would come over and say "Oh, you haven't gotten your drinks yet? Let me check on that." Each and every time he implied someone else was supposed to have brought them which literally never happened! And each of the 4 separate times this happened, we had another long wait. Dude - you are our waiter! You should know that we have not received our drinks, or chips, or churros. Clearly our order was not ready and waiting for pickup; had it even been placed?

But that was not the worst of it. We were seated at a regular height table on a slightly raised platform near the back wall. Two of the seats were facing the wall. Only one of the chairs had a barrier behind it. When my husband pushed back his chair to stand up he went right off the raised platform and fell on the floor. Other diners rushed to help him up. Let me be clear - he was dead sober at the time. He was offered only a vague apology from our mostly absent waiter.

I cannot believe that a setup like that isn't a code violation as it is clearly unsafe. And I was shocked when the restaurant offered nothing by way of an apology. A complimentary drink might have been nice, though perhaps reduced his safety even more.

Ironically - if you go to their website the last item on the main page is "Keeping Safe".

I won't be rushing back there...

As someone who comes here regularly—at least once a week—I’ve reached the point where I feel compelled to leave a review. The food remains excellent, no doubt. But the service has noticeably declined over time, and today was the final straw.

Menu adaptations are inconsistent and seem entirely dependent on the server’s willingness, which already makes things frustrating. But today, despite the restaurant not being busy, the service was unacceptably poor. My server was inattentive and overwhelmed—understandable, considering he was juggling what looked like four roles (server, runner, bartender, and host). But that just highlights a bigger issue: this place has become disorganized, not understaffed. I could clearly see at least three other servers, and the indoor seating area was nearly empty during lunch hours.

At one point, I had to get up and ask another server (a woman) for help while mine was busy hosting a group. Her response was unnecessarily rude—no apology, just a cold “you should be asking your server,” despite me explaining he was unavailable. I genuinely wasn’t sure if she would even bring what I asked for. When she did, she got my drink wrong, and her attitude only got worse when I politely corrected her. No acknowledgment, just clear irritation.

My food arrived with no cutlery, no sauces, and zero follow-up. Overall a very stressful experience. What should’ve been a relaxing lunch break made me so uncomfortable that I couldn't even finish my meal.

This wasn’t the first time I’ve had bad service here, but it was the first time I’ve ever felt justified in not tipping. I say this not just as a regular customer, but as someone who has worked in the industry and understands what good service looks like. Very...

Tacofino is known for its excellent tacos - it delivered on this front. On every other front I was quite disappointed. Though we were sat quickly (we were one of three tables being served at this time) the service was non-existant. Our server brought us water and spilled mine immediately but didn’t clean it up. 10 minutes later when she returned to take our food order (having forgotten about our drinks) I asked for a napkin to clean up the water. She was incredibly stand-off ish about this request, and when she returned with the napkins, pointedly cleaned up the water while making it clear it was a huge imposition. She then left the restaurant for the entire rest of our meal, and we had to go to the bar to get any napkins (we didn’t receive any with our tacos) and our bill. Our server returned to take payment where her entire disposition had shifted - it clearly felt that she was simply working us for a tip.

Additionally, we were handed a happy hour menu and ordered anticipating happy hour prices. Upon receiving our bill, we discovered we had not been charged at that rate as happy hour did not occur on Sunday. This had not been communicated to us previously and when we asked our server she said “Oh yeah, this happens all the time. People get really confused but it’s obviously listed as only Monday to Friday.”

I left without tipping. I never do this.

I am a big fan of Tacofino; I live on the island and visit the Victoria and Tofino locations frequently. It was really disappointing to see the brand represented this way. I know that everyone has a life outside of work but it was very off putting and obvious that our server didn’t want to be there, and this really coloured...