La Tacopedia — Restaurant in Mata Redonda

A disappointing experience. It's amazing how such a great feeling restaurant can have such underwhelming food.

Everything was great except for the tacos, which were a massive letdown. Both the pastor and cochinita pibil were incredibly dry. It seemed that no amount of salsa and limes could help.

The pastor had good color but no flavor. It reminded me of the pastor from El Fogoncito in the Mall Multiplaza del Este. At least there you can put enough salsa on it to make it not so dry. The cochinita pibil had good flavor.

The sopa azteca was excellent, the cazuela de chorizo had deep subtle flavors, the service was good (at least for the first 30min).

The restaurant is understaffed as they had a full house and a line outside. The waitstaff was working hard but it took a long time to get our check and finally leave.

On a positive note, the ambiance was excellent -- one of the best restaurant environments we've been to in San Jose. It's just a shame we most likely...

No alcohol on the menu, I don't like ordering anything where the price isn't listed. The sodas and fruit drinks had a price listed but I had to ask what flavors were available. I ordered a melted cheese with chorizo to go with the complimentary chips... the cheese and chorizo tasted like they had an artificial flavor but the chips were perfectly toasted and the salsas had a wonderful flavor and were picante - a rarity in Costa Rica. I currently have back pain and my friend asked to change chairs. The waiters showed me 3 different chairs! They were very nice and friendly. I was there at 3pm when hardly anyone was at the restaurant, and at first I didn't think the was going to let me in. He was just verifying if i had a reservation (no... why; it's 3pm?🤣) but I was amazed thatv2 hours later the yabkes were full and THERE WAS A LINE OF PEOPLE WAITING TO ENTER. Seriously? It was a Wednesday... I've nevercseen this anywhere else in Costa...

The lunch special advertised outside the restaurant is $10 for 3 tacos, small soup and a drink. That would be a reasonable lunch. The catch is, that price was not available at lunchtime on a Thursday when the place was empty. The alternative choice was to order 5 tacos, small soup and a drink for a total of $23. So the 2 extra tacos cost $13, or $6.50. That is a very steep price for a small Mexican taco. To be fair the price posted does say only available Mon-Wed is the corner. In addition when ordering 5 tacos, all 5 tacos must be exactly the same, so this makes it hard to have a good savory time, sampling different flavors. Instead you get all 5 identical and it is boring. For the high pricing and lack of ability to order just 3 tacos at lunch instead of 5, and lack of choosing a mix of flavors giving a rating 2 stars out of 5 is fair. Buyer beware. The taste of the tacos was good, but typical. Not...