Taco Boy Biltmore Park — Restaurant in Asheville

Zero stars should be an option… and the management is the worst I’ve ever seen. I’ve been in the industry my whole life and I’ve never left a place feeling so insulted and frustrated. To start this is not the first time I’ve gotten terrible food from here. They have absolutely zero quality control or management that cares. I got a carne asada taco and the meat was sour and old. I’ve been a chef for 16 years I know when steak is past its selling point. I sent the taco back with the server and she apologized and nodded her head in a understanding way ask if I wanted anything else and I said multiple times not to worry about it I ate enough. 5 mins later the “manager” comes over and asks if everything is okay and if he can get me anything to replace the taco and I said again multiple times “nah I’m good no worries I ate enough” in which he responded by trying to dissect what I had eaten. Super weird respond no? I tell him yet again that I’m totally good and I don’t need anything just don’t want the taco. 10 mins later the manager walks over with another taco….. Super insulting when I’ve said 6 or 7 times that I don’t want another one. So then he tells me that the “chef” prepared it another way and wants me to try it. Which is a super condescending way of trying to argue that the steak isn’t bad. I politely smiled and said thanks. I did not take a bite obviously because I don’t care how it was prepared and once you’ve had bad food your appetite is gone. Not 5 mins later he comes back AGAIN and asked why I hadn’t tasted it…. So I said AGAIN “I’m full” and his response was “don’t you want to just put a little piece in your mouth?” …….you’re kidding right??? How insulting can you be? Places like this don’t belong in this Market. If your food isn’t good you better have good service….All this distracted me from the fact that my gf didn’t get her...

Popped in here and were told there were no seats available but we could sit at the bar- which was fine although it appeared the normal restaurant seats were half filled at most- my guess was they didn't have staff on hand to handle all that space, which is understandable (and the right call not to seat us if it's going to overload the staff).

That said, after sitting at the bar it took a good 15 minutes between the two bartenders to get a drink order in, and after recieving our drinks we weren't asked if we'd like to place a food order even though we requested menus. So we sat with our drinks for another 20 minutes trying to flag the staff and put in a food order but to no avail. We did, however, manage to secure a small bowl of fried garbanzo beans which were cold and chewy- definitely seemed off. Finally managed to get their attention so closed our tab and left.

Figured we'd give them another shot, and on our next visit we fared better- seated immediately and our server was quite friendly, this time bringing us a fresh, hot bowl of the fried garbanzo beans which were much much better. We both ordered house margaritas, which were a cut above the standard mix although 90% ice. For food, we ordered a bean burrito- which was decent enough and the crab and shrimp enchiladas. When prompted to choose a sauce the server suggested the molé, which I thought was kind of an odd choice and was right- it overwhelmed the seafood. Enchilada itself was ok, I counted maybe 2-3 shrimp and a light helping of crab, both cloaked in far too much molé.

All things considered I'm not sure we'll be returning- there's just too much good Mexican around this area at a fraction of the pricing. Sure Taco Boy has slick, modern branding and invested nicely in their aesthetic, but for my money the value's...

I wanted to like this place. We arrived at around noon on a Sunday. Wasn't busy at all. We were greeted upon entry and seated immediately. This should have been my first clue. Cute decor and good size location. Server brings over a half filled glass bottle of water and a small bowl of chickpeas. The chickpeas were little flavor bombs...the highlight of my visit. Really, the best/most flavorful thing I ate there. I ordered 3 tacos: birria taco, shrimp taco and buttermilk fried chicken taco. First, these are very small tacos. These are like mini tacos lol. And for $17 I expect more. The blue corn tortillas were also dry and on one of mine the tortilla was cut (not ripped) which made it impossible to even pick up. The Birria taco was so dry. They gave you a tiny bit of the sauce on the side. The small side container was only filled about 1/4 of the way so even with that tiny amout of sauce it was still dry. The buttermilk fried chicken taco...tiny amount of chicken and definitely not flavorful or crispy chicken at all. I think I had three small cubes of chicken on the taco. I will say that the shrimp taco was the most flavorful of the 3. I could actually taste seasoning on the shrimp. Bottom line: service was fine, they serve very small tacos, muttled flavors, and just very average/bland. For the price and hype I expected so much more from this place. I will not return to Taco Boy. Advice: go about 2 miles down the road to White Duck Taco. The prices, flavor and portions are so much better. White Duck Tacos are super fresh and generous portions for less than $5 per taco. I can order one BLT chicken taco from there and be full - comes with a huge piece of crunchy, flavorful piece of chicken and fresh ingredients. You'll...