Taqueria — Restaurant in London

If I could give no stars I would. This is honestly the WORST dining experience my friends and I have ever had. I don’t usually write reviews but this is absolutely necessary.

Firstly, I want to start by saying I live close to Taqueria and have ordered from them using Deliveroo regularly over the past couple of years and was a HUGE fan (it’s worth mentioning here the quality of the steak and birria tacos have always been hit and miss but I put this down to the travel time of the food). So when my friends and I were looking for somewhere to go for our annual Christmas meal, we decided to go to Taqueria as we thought if the food is good delivered, it’s going to be amazing if we eat in as the food will be fresh and sent straight to our table. How wrong we were. 🙃

Our waiter was OK, we were a party of 3 so we asked if we could get the tacos in portions of 3 as we wanted to try multiple different ones. He said we could not do this but ‘used to be able to do it’ - seemingly embarrassed and annoyed as he said he gets asked this question often. This was annoying as it meant we had to either massively over-order so we can all try the different tacos, or we order less variations. So we went with 2 portions of steak taco, and 2 portions of milanesa chicken taco along with Calamari and guacamole and dips for start. We had no problems with the starters, they were good and so were our cocktails.

The tacos however, were horrendous. I don’t say this lightly. As someone that orders their food regularly, I know the quality it should be and what we were served was nothing like what I have previously experienced from them. The tacos looked like they had been sitting out for quite a while - the steak meat was grey and dry and extremely hard and chewy. The chicken was dry and cold and the grilled cheese on both tacos was burnt to a crisp - absolutely no cheese pull as it was pure crisp and cold. We all had one taco each (the actual tacos themselves were also falling apart) as we had a theatre show to catch but we asked our waiter to get the manager. The waiter told me the manager is not available but then walks away and appears with another man who he said was the manager.

The ‘manager’ who told me him name was Juan, was completely unprofessional and inappropriate. When we brought our dissatisfaction to his attention (by letting him know we are a big fan of Taqueria and know the quality we should be receiving and have not had), rather than offering a solution or attempting to resolve the matter, we were met with aggression and a patronising attitude. The manager refused to accommodate our request to change the dish or even offer a reasonable alternative, showing a complete lack of willingness to provide customer satisfaction. Instead of addressing our concerns, Juan dismissed us in a condescending manner and made us feel that our feedback was irrelevant. He also pointed out to me that there is CCTV recording our conversation which made absolutely no sense to me as we were not being aggressive or rude, just trying to come to a fair solution.

Despite the poor experience, we were still expected to pay the full bill, which we reluctantly did, as we had no other option. The only concession offered was the removal of the service charge, which, as you may be aware, is optional and should not have been treated as a gesture of goodwill. It was disappointing to leave feeling not only dissatisfied with the food and service but also disrespected by the way we were treated.

I feel that Juan’s refusal to take any accountability for the poor service, coupled with their aggressive and patronising behavior, was completely unacceptable. I hope you take this feedback seriously, as this experience has left a lasting negative impression on both myself...

I give three stars because I haven't actually tried their food, but a cousin who lives there did, and she said that while the flavor is acceptable, it's not spectacular, and they have food that doesn't stick to traditional Mexican recipes. Regarding the word "taquería", while I don't believe in the concept of cultural approval, but rather in people's ego and petulance, there is a conflict here. For thousands of years, people from around the world have shared their cultures and creations, resulting in the world we have today: paper, textiles, knowledge of electronic devices, earrings, makeup, glass. Everyone uses these things, and they don't come from a single place or society. When we can share the best of each culture, the world comes together, and a rich cultural diversity is created. However, when ambition and ignorance take over, claiming exclusivity over something a culture or society offers to others, that's called theft, malice, and selfishness. The word "taco" has its roots in the Nahuatl language, specifically from the word "tlahco", meaning "half" or "in the middle", and the word "taquería" is the place where tacos are sold. It's a word that all countries should be able to use freely for that purpose. If they maintain exclusivity over a word that a country offered graciously, they're not only being greedy but also vile.

Can they use a word from another society or language? Yes. Can they morally claim exclusivity over it? No. It's like if in our country we had a bakery called United Kingdom Bakery, and one of its citizens came to Mexico and wanted to open a bakery. How would they name it if the correct name to offer their products is BAKERY? Moreover, if the name includes "United Kingdom", tell me if they wouldn't lose their national identity if the government of the nation that welcomed them accused them of infringing on property rights...

I’ll start with this: food was not bad. Service was not great tho.

We booked for a table of two and got seated in an awkward table with not opposite seating but more like adjacent seating as there is not enough space, not major complaint. We were given the menu to have a look.

We ordered 2 starters (calamari and topopo with guac), 1 ceviche tostada, 3 tacos (soft shell crab, potato and sea bass as they strongly recommended it), as well as a Red Michaelada with Modelo and Mezcal Sour.

The food took its sweet time to arrive and we didn’t mind as my bf had been here and said the food was amazing. We got the drinks and starters in one go, and one of the servers started shovelling tacos in our face. I didn’t get to see and react to the food and only after taking pictures I realised that was none of what we ordered and we had to get another more helpful waitress to double check that wasn’t our order (was the table next to us).

We got our food then after another long wait and chowed it down as we were very hungry by then. Tacos were great!

We asked for a Tres Leche cake for dessert and that came very quickly but without utensils (by the guy who shoved it into our faces again)

We asked for the bill and waited for my bf to return from the bathroom and the bill was nowhere to be seen. We asked again and we got the cheque and no way to pay. By the third time we finally caught the server with the card terminal it was over half an hour after we finished our dessert.

Would not consider coming back if the service...