Taqueria Picoso — Restaurant in Alexandria

Today was my first time visiting this place for ladies night out Thursdays. I went to the bar to order a margarita while my food was being made and the bartender who serviced me was Elio. I asked for a Classic Margarita at first but then Elio gave me the option of classic, strawberry, mango, or grapefruit flavored margarita which I then decided mango. I paid for my drink and went to go sit down. I took a sip of my drink and my drink was so spicy so I took my drink back to the bar and asked Elio if my drink was supposed to be spicy and he then said Yes it is a spicy mango margarita. I then told Elio if it was possible if I could have a classic margarita instead because I wasn’t aware that the mango would be spicy and I don’t like spicy things. He then told me No, that if I wanted another drink, I would have to order and pay for another drink. I then asked him well why didn’t you mention that the mango would be spicy and he said in a very rude and smart way “well you should have looked at the menu” at that point I then asked for a Manager and he told me that he was the manager and I asked him if I could speak to someone higher up than him which then he said No so I walked away and I went to the lady at the register and asked her who the manager was, and she told me it was Elio. I asked her if I can speak to someone higher than Elio and she gave me Isaac’s business card, which I then went to call Isaac. I explained the situation to Isaac and he was very nice and understanding. He asked me if the bartender remade my drink which I told him he did not. Isaac was very apologetic and invited me to come back next week where he could make a drink for me on the house.

My friend who speaks Spanish went to speak to Elio to get an understanding why he couldn’t make me another drink and also wanted to know why he didn’t mention that the drink was made with Jalapeño puree. He then told her in Spanish that I was RUDE when in fact I was NOT. A bystander who was at the bar when I had ordered my drink later came to my table and said “He was wrong and should have made you another drink. I am a regular here and that was one hundred percent his fault that he should have told you it was spicy.” She even offered to buy me a drink because she didn’t want my first experience there to be a bad one which I thanked her but nicely declined.

I personally don’t agree with the way the staff went about this situation and do feel racially profiled. I myself have worked at a restaurant so I know how important customer service is to businesses! What if I was allergic to the jalapeño that was in my drink? Then what? This whole situation could have been resolved by just taking my drink back and making me another drink or simply just refunding me. Now I have to give this place 1 star because I was treated unfairly....

My fiancé and I will never come back again.

To give a backstory we have been here numerous times, either at the bar or the dining area; and typically service has been pretty nice.

Though on 2/25 we stopped by and sat in the dining room area paying about 45 bucks worth of food; though being my partner is fasting she asked the cashier rep “ hey is this taco 100% vegan no dairy, and the rep say yes it has vegan cheese and you should be fine.

So us being excited we waited about 15-20 mins for our food, and to our dismay the vegan taco we requested had sour cream heavily layered on the outside. I asked the waiter “ we asked the rep is this vegan and he told us no dairy whatsoever is on this, but unfortunately she could not understand us fully so she got the cashier gentleman again.

We explained what happened to the rep who told us it’s 100% vegan, and he did not apologize. I asked him can this verbatim “please be remade since it has dairy being we asked you this for our fasting” he replied sorry we can not remake it because we lose production for our goods

I was dumbfounded by his reply like WTH we would have not purchased it if you told us the right thing to begin with. He said for his mistake we would have to pay again, or they can wipe it off with paper towel as if we were dogs .

I told him “ hey we are not trash and nor is that clean” and with a dumb smirk on his face he said oh I’m sorry that was an accident. Though being how nonchalant he mentioned I did mot trust him and it spoke a lot of the restaurant staff of what they are capable of with food.

He said he will go to the chef and see what’s possible, 8 mins later he comes back with an obvious removal barely with paper towel but still significantly on there, telling us that’s all we can do. So we lose because of there mistake which was foolish for how much we paid for our other items.

The whole time they were looking at us from the cook line in a shady way, and I debating on buying another one because I felt they would tamper with our food because of how they showed no care or consideration for what happens; the weird stares were uncomfortable and are food did not look as clean anymore

IMO whose to know what they do for others food . Stay away better options out there

They also just replied on 2/27 making some false story of this is not what happened, which makes it even worse lol

You reps clearly told us with a smirk they can wipe the cream with paper towel. Hire better staff and with better practices when you’re employees make mistakes with all respect we could have purchased 100 more but the incredible bad support we got , no one in there right mind would trust them to make our food...

Overall, good experience; I’d give a 4.3 or 4.4 if I could.

Location is pretty good— in a strip mall in the west end just a short hop off of 395. Not too much traffic and plenty of parking.

Ambiance/experience was good with one exception. The staff were very friendly. The inside has a bit of an industrial vibe with concrete floors and corrugated aluminum siding. The walls are decorated with some fun and traditional Mexican decor. There are tables inside, a few picnic table outside in their patio, and a small bar area over which are two televisions for watching the game. It is takeout style ordering (order from a counter), which lens to the laid back atmosphere and is convenient in the event that there are no seats— you can eat in your car! There’s a salsa bar with all the accoutrements for your choosing. The exception: to order food and drinks you have to order the food from one counter and then order the drinks from the bar (that is full with patrons) and the bar and the food counter do not share a tab so you end up opening two separate tabs— one at the food counter and one at the bar. This is far from a deal breaker but is an inconvenience.

It’s Food was good but leaves room for improvement for some things. We started with the home made guacamole and chips- made with fresh avocado and tomatoes and served with smaller but thicker chips (which I prefer to the typical wider but thinner restaurant style- you can scoop more guac!) next was the street food style elote- fresh sweet corn slathered with Mayo and cheese. We ordered two orders of the tamales (one of each kind) which had the consistency of a cornbread instead of a traditional tamale and could definitely use more filling. The biria tacos were good but the jus could use more seasoning. The beef tongue tacos (always a welcomed site) were good, it again could use...