LA Brea SoCal Tacos — Restaurant in Zurich

Executive summary: not excited about the place, food just ok, great drinks.

Longer review: We came for dinner on a Friday night, around 8 pm, and it was busy as hell. We had a reservation, so we entered to get the attention of a waiter and be seated. This took quite a while, as all the staff was super busy running from one table to another. Finally someone came to attend to us and seated us outside. The atmosphere was great, both inside (the decor, the space, the furniture) and outside (large wooden tables and benches or smaller tables and chairs) and the buzz all around us was super enjoyable. The same waitress that seated us came back to drop off the menus, she seemed to mind we didn't speak German as she kept not switching in any other language, which is fine just unexpected. The other waitress that came to get our order, on the other hand, was super smiley and friendly. The wait for food wasn't as long as we would have expected given how busy the place was, we got started of nachos, margaritas, tacos and a shrimp tostada.

The food: verdict is just OK.

My pork belly mole tacos were not as tasty, the tacos were right and crunchy, but the pork was not juicy and there was very little mole sauce to really taste it. Side of papas bravas was better, the green sauce was nice and spicy.

The shrimp tostada was bad, the tostada itself was super dry and tasteless, the shrimps were good but the condiments also very poor. The taste was not great. The side of Sweet corn cake was good, nothing special.

The drinks were very good, they bring my rating up! My order of Mezcal margarita was top, super super happy with it. Same goes for the ginger margarita, both very delicious!

We might come back to try out more tacos, a pity the menu only allows to mix 4 pre chosen tacos, instead of letting you mix 4 from the main menu. That would be nicer for first timers, to have a taste of your top choices and see which one you like best. Overall, not excited...

I have been there a total of 5 times now, which in itself is a recommendation.

Generally speaking, you won't have a bad experience. However, my main issue lies in inconsistency of the restaurant.

On expectedly busy days, there is plenty of service personal and they do a great job. Staff is friendly and very quick. On slow days or surprisingly busy days there are simply too few people. Drinks take long, food even longer. Waiters change tables as they scramble to get everyone.

On busy days, the kitchen is staffed well and works like a charm. Delivering incredible fresh food and their drinks are strong and tasty. They even do a great lemonade. On slow days, it seemed my food was cold by the time it got to me or it was stringy and tough. My drinks were missing all taste apart from the burn of alcohol. Lemonade was basically just water with a slice of lemon.

The atmosphere is home-y and definitely inspired, but the noise levels get almost unbearable for me. I reserved a quiet table when possible and it helped, but the noise is inescapable. As a neurodivergent person, I struggle with the lack of any ceiling sound treatment and the blaring loud repetitive music. I'd usually just go when it's not busy, but during those times the food and service is plain worse.

My recommendation to the owner: Get the room acoustically treated - it's not that expensive. This also goes for the other restaurants like YardBird. It gets uncomfortably loud.

Add at least one more staff in service and kitchen during quiet days. This way regular quality increases and surprises can be...

worth visiting for the bottomless tacos from 16:30–18:30 at chf 24 per person. just note a drink isn’t included. i had originally reserved for 8, but due to absences we were only 5. i tried calling to let them know, but couldn’t reach anyone, so i informed the first staff member when we arrived. she adjusted the booking without any issue and gave us a round table by the window, which was great and comfortable. she was warm, attentive, and understanding. she really stood out.

service from another staff member was less smooth. in the first round she forgot my little one’s drink, and in the second round they brought pork tacos even though we had clearly said no pork. the pork was later replaced with mushroom tacos, and the drink arrived after i asked again.

tacos were tasty, though we couldn’t choose our own in the first round and some options were unavailable in the second. from my past visits, the service and atmosphere felt different this time. they also used to have a mild green sauce for the tacos, which i really liked, but it’s no longer offered. the classic margarita was delicious, but for the small amount served, chf 18 felt pricey. overall, it was a decent experience. not quite what i remembered from before, but i enjoyed the company...