Cartel Taco Bar — Restaurant in Arlington

I don't know if they were having an off night in the kitchen or if this was normal for a Friday, but the saving grace last night was their bar. The two gents slinging sauce were professional and knowledgeable and the beers were consistent and delicious.

Unfortunately, the food wasn't. I'm not really sure if I even got the food that I ordered...baked beans in a beef fajita taco and.......mushrooms with texmex rice and corn in a barbacoa taco...? Never do this again, please. I'm serious, there's outside the box and then there's decisions that could ruin your place in the market. Lastly, 3 different types of sauce on every taco coming out of the kitchen makes it hard to tell what was what, so maybe the food runners were getting lost in the sauce? I don't know. Another reason I'm not sure I got what I ordered is because they gave me an order of fried green beans that the runner couldn't account for- which was actually good!

The atmosphere of the the dining area felt off as it was clear the kitchen wasn't keeping up with orders. Some folks were getting food before others, while they waited and sent runners away with the wrong food. The live music definitely seemed to keep things upbeat in general and the performer was good! Not too much voice for such a small venue and she seemed to have much more depth and range. Too bad we couldn't hear her in full power because you could tell she had her voice throttled.

In conclusion, $5 a taco for really weird, kind of disgusting tacos was definitely over priced. Their ingredients you would find in some more contemporary tacos were great and pretty fresh, so I think if they get some things out of their tacos and stick the flow of the kitchen, they'll get 5 stars all day long. Room for improvement with...

Sometimes I find it difficult to locate a different place to eat, but then sometimes, it's as easy as making a left turn instead the usual right. That's how I found this cool little taco bar in downtown Arlington, the Cartel Taco Bar. I knew I had to try this place because their logo is the same as I've used for profile my picture. I don't believe in coincidences. Never being here before, I was a bit overwhelmed by the menu and asked the cashier to just hook this first timer up. She rang up three different tacos. I had seen a sign out front about Churros so I needed one of them too. I always try to have appetizer in the mix and when I saw the Fire Stix, I called it good. The Fire Stix came out and OMG! Cheesesticks leveled up. Pepper Jack cheese rolled, breaded, and fried. A new taste experience for me. The tacos arrived next. A Shrimp, a Ground Beef, and a Birria. The shrimp went down first, followed by the beef. The Birria was saved for last. The shrimp was tasty and a little heavy on the rice, the beef was, well, beef. The Birria along with the consume was seasoned just right and prepared my pallet for the Churro. The Churro came accompanied by a container of chocolate sauce. It was difficult, but I managed to save some Fire Stix and half of the Churro for lunch tomorrow. While I at the table eating and FBing, I received a couple of comments about their Chicharones that forced me to place an order to-go. I was told that they are still crackling and popping when served. I took a video that proves them correct. An interesting little taco bar that I will definitely be revisiting. 👍👍

506 E Division St...

If you are going to open a taco joint in North Texas, you need to serve an outstanding product. Unfortunately, that's not what you get at Cartel.

I tried the shrimp cartel to start and it was pretty good. Shrimp breaded and fried, then covered with a small amount of red sauce. It also had homemade chips and verde sauce. The shrimp needed more red sauce (which was delicious), and the chips were kind of stale.

For my entree, I had three tacos: pulled pork, barbacoa, and sauteed shrimp. Like the appetizer, the shrimp was tasty, but the black bean salsa overpowered the shrimp. The barbacoa was bland, the ghost pepper cheese was not hot, and the mushrooms and cherry tomatoes just didn't work together. Finally, I tried the "pulled pork" taco. I put that in quotes because the pork had the taste and consistency of greasy sawdust. It was absolutely awful! Pulled pork is NOT hard to prepare, but Cartel Tacos managed to screw this up royally. It was just flavorless mush in a tortilla, even with the addition of the Kentucky bourbon beans (which have no business being on a taco anyway). To make all of this experience even worse, the tacos were expensive.

Considering you can't go more than a mile in Texas without running in to a taco joint, I don't see any way that Cartel Tacos will stay in business given the product and especially the prices. Even Freebirds a block or two away has better tacos and for reasonable prices. I highly recommend going elsewhere if you want...