Tacofino Yaletown — Restaurant in Vancouver

I find this location strange because it says burrito bar on the menu yet they don’t seem to be very good at making burritos. The tacos on the other hand are great meaning the short of this review is that the tacos are worthy of 5 stars but the burritos almost dragged this review down to a 3 or lower.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far in order:

Crispy Squid burrito: I tried this first off since they didn’t have the fish burrito, sadly the squid was tough and cold. Add to this an uncomplimentary mixture of flavours and intense saltiness and you have an overall less than pleasant experience. On top of this the tortilla was loosely wrapped and the oddly inflexible plasticized paper it’s wrapped in made it difficult to eat.

Fish taco: This is what they’re known for and for good reason, very tasty with crispy fish, cabbage, pico de gallo and crema. As good as I remember from the truck.

Soft and crunchy carnitas taco: Oh man, this thing is amazing. It’s a soft taco with cheese melted on it to wrap it around a crunchy taco like a cheesy gordita crunch from Taco Bell but made with actually good ingredients. The pork inside is crispy on the outside and tender inside. This is the taco to get here.

White bean taco: Creamy white beans in a soft shell are very rich and satisfying with a deep slow cooked flavor.

Blue Corn Crispy Chicken Wrap: Blue corn tortilla chips are crushed to make a breading for chicken which is then deep-fried and wrapped in a tortilla with lettuce and ranch dressing. The tortilla breading adds a strong crunch and roasty corn flavor although it could have used a little more ranch for me as I couldn’t taste it at all. This wasn’t quite as good as the tacos but I rather enjoyed it and it’s a little more substantial than two tacos.

Evening Tater Tots: These are more like tot-chos, homemade tater tots with pico de gallo and nacho cheese cause. They were a little light on the cheese sauce, seemed more like cheese sauce was laid down on the dish, then tots and pico were piled up on top of it with some crema drizzled over it. The tots themselves are quite good although they are missing that tater tot flavour and tasted a lot like tot-shaped hashbrowns since they were made with shredded potatoes. They were still quite delicious even though I was left wanting more nacho cheese sauce.

Cauliflower Burrito: Similar problems as with the crispy squid. The mixture of the beans & rice with the Southeast Asian influenced pickles was mostly unpleasant. They acidic and overly sweet with semi-crunchy cauliflower with the Mexican spiced beans, it did not work for me.

In summary, I love the fish burrito from the truck by the art gallery so Tacofino had built up enough good will for me to try it past that first really bad experience with the crispy squid burrito. It also helps that this location is quite close to my workplace. The tacos have been somewhere between really tasty and excellent so I’ll keep coming back for them but I feel ready to give up on their burritos. The odd fusion flavours they're putting into the burritos might taste delicious to the chef but not to me. So no thanks on the burritos, I'll have another soft and crunchy carnitas...

Been to Tacofino dozens of times with the Yaletown location being my most frequent. Generally really like it and have had several positive experiences.

Unfortunately tonight was not the same. I have an egg allergy so I always ask for burritos "without mayo". I believe I ordered with Margo (not 100% sure if this was her name). I repeated twice that I wanted "no mayo" on the burrito. She was generally pretty abrasive in taking my order but that's not a crime so no fault there.

Where there is fault is that I immediately had an allergic reaction when I started to eat the burrito.

I told the guy working the front at the time (Margo had stepped out) and he was really excellent in dealing with it and right away talked to the kitchen about making me a new one. We checked the order input and it was not the kitchens fault at all, "no mayo" was not entered in the first place.

He apologized profusely, the kitchen apologized profusely. Mistakes happen, and neither he or the kitchen were to blame at all.

The one person who was at fault (Margo) was made aware of the situation, and at no point apologized, or even made an effort to check on my well being.

I ended up not finishing my remade burrito because I had to get home to take some allergy medication. Symptoms kept getting worse. Overall really ruined the rest of my night.

I will likely be back to Tacofino at some point, one bad experience doesn't erase dozens of good ones. But if I go in again and see Margo working the till I will be heading somewhere else. She clearly doesn't care.

3 stars is based on prior experiences and that the male server and kitchen staff were clearly concerned and handled the situation exactly how they should have. 5 for them....

This review reflects my experience with the restaurant staff at the Yaletown location, moreso than the food.

I went in yesterday evening and picked up the vegan chickun burritos for take out. The burritos were pretty good, but one of the staff working there was very rude.

The lady that helped me retrieve my order at first was nice. I asked for hot sauce and she was able to gave me me a couple of the red hot sauces, but forgot to ask for the mild (green) sauce to go. I went up to the counter by the kitchen where they have the stacks of small take out containers of hot sauces to take away and I asked a second staff member if I could have a couple of mild ones. She was very rude and belligerent in her tone of voice, telling me that I “need to pay for them at the front, $0.50 per container”. If I would have dined in, I wouldn’t have been charged for using the condiments so why should I be charged for it for having it for my take out? Any other restaurant would have been gladly able to give them out. The first staff that helped me initially had no problem giving me the red hot sauce at all, so I don’t understand the inconsistency. I did not end up purchasing the green hot sauce containers because spending extra on the tiniest sliver of sauce was ridiculous and I had already prepaid for my takeout. The second staff member that I encountered was very impolite, and left me feeling very annoyed as I left the restaurant.

Not sure if I’ll want to get take out from this location again, let alone dine in with such rude staff, especially having them be so cheap and frugal when it comes to patrons using...