White Duck Taco Shop - Asheville, NC — Restaurant in Asheville

Quick Review: Really good and massively sized "creative" tacos. Flavor is powerful, portions large, and service is quick and friendly. The location is great and always plenty of seating and parking even when very busy.

LONGER REVIEW BELOW

Group Size(s): 2 - 6

How many times we've been: 10+ times

What we ordered: We've had every taco on the menu several times.

What we spent: ~$30 for 5 tacos, a beer, and tip.

What we liked: Food: The Bangkok shrimp is simply our favorite taco in town and we get it every time and can't recommend it enough. Surprisingly the Crispy Chicken BLT is also favorite (despite not sounding appealing to us at first). The Fish, Banh Mi, and Spicy Buffalo are also highly recommended. Service: Despite being one of the most popular spots we eat at in Asheville, the wait in line is usually 15 mins or less and the wait for the food can be lightning quick and at worst is only 10 minutes. The staff is friendly and quick to help despite how busy they are which I commend.

What we didn't like: Food: Despite other people recommending it, the Bulgolgi taco does nothing for us. They don't really have a "classic" taco like carne asada or even American style ground beef, so we've had friends who were discouraged by that as the "creative" and "weird" toppings can be off-putting to some and might require leaving your comfort zone. Service/Location: Nothing negative to say here. Despite how busy and seemingly packed the location can be, the service is always quick and we always find parking and a nice spot to sit (inside and outside).

Comparisons to similar places in the area: It has to be said that all of our praise for White Duck ONLY applies to the River Arts location, as we've had very lack luster and disappointing experiences at their downtown location and I would not recommend going their if you want a good White Duck Taco experience. As for other businesses in the area, White Duck stands alone for "creative" taco's but if you wanted something closer to traditional but with more "standard" options, Taco Billy is fantastic. We've yet to find a good street taco place but there are many taco trucks around Asheville knocking them out of the park.

Our rating system: 5 stars = Great to amazing food and experience. Shout from the roofs to tell people about. Return often and eagerly or find excuses to book a table for a more expensive place. 4 stars = Good to great food and experience. Write home about. Eager to return. 3 stars = Ok to good food and experience. Will offer suggestion if asked but likely would rather go elsewhere. 2 stars = Underwhelming to ok food and experience. Not worth a return and might tell people to skip. 1 star = Bad to underwhelming food and experience. Regret going and tell...

I walked into White Duck on a balmy summer evening, expecting to have my raging appetite sated by a platter of mediocre tacos served alongside a perfunctory basket of flavorless corn chips, destined to be dunked in complementary cilantro ketchup; unless, of course, I paid premium prices for melted white cheese gravy, dripping with lactic intrigue.

My expectations were shattered almost instantaneously, when I attempted to prematurely reserve a seat in the dining room, a seat which most assuredly would have been taken by any number of the peasants waiting obtusely in line before me.

Although the kitchen did display a small sign warning diners of a proverbial “attack duck”, I must admit I didn’t take the threat seriously. I proceeded to an idyllic booth, my handbag flapping authoritatively against my hip as I honed in on my chosen seat.

I plopped down into the cracked vinyl booth, struggling to suppress my gloating smile as I gazed upon the vacuous countenances of my fellow patrons. My eyes roved across a sign declaring that table-saving was not allowed, but I knew that my place was secure; no one would dare remove me from my booth.

Much to my dismay, the restaurant employees, seemingly offended by my perceived impudence, called in their security guards.

An attack duck arrived, hissing with all the anarchist rage of a teenage girl confronted with an overly-conservative stepfather.

The attack duck went for my throat, and I narrowly escaped its violent advances, leaping over the booth and lamenting the loss of my newly-arrived tacos. In a desperate act of self-defense, I flung my duck lager into its face, disabling my enemy in a splash of fermented wheat juice.

Unfortunately, although this was the end of the attack duck, I was then forced to defeat all 7 of the attack duck’s evil ex-duck-friends.

Exhausted and starving, I sat back down to eat my tacos at last. Alas, my reprieve was short-lived. My tussle with the Duck of Death had caused my sombrero to tilt in a goofy fashion, and I screeched like a chimpanzee during my battles with the evil exes. The fabled river-boar, scenting my struggle, arrived on the scene, and I was forced to shelter inside an anti-river-boar circle while I ate my hard-earned lunch.

All in all, this place isn’t all it’s quacked up to be, but the...

I've driven by this place several times and finally checked it out. My hispanic wife advised ahead of time that they looked like tacos made by people who don't know what a taco is, but I said lets keep an open mind. Unfortunately, she was more than right.

For starters, their tortillas are garbage. I don't say that lightly. Absolute garbage. You know how you can't have a good sandwich if the bread isn't decent? Same with tacos. If you have garbage tortillas, it doesn't matter what kind of fusion you put into them. They're going to taste terrible. Either use a flour tortilla, or use a corn tortilla. But don't take a corn tortilla (which should be yellow, like corn), then load it with so much maseca and lime that it turns white and bitter and completely dry. They tasted like a wet napkin. Honestly, if you like these tortillas, I feel bad for you because it means you've never had a good one before.

We got a range of their offerings. Five different between us. As far as what was in them, some were decent. I liked the mole duck and the bulgogi. The jerk chicken was flavorless and super dry. The steak taco was decent if you use chips instead of the tortilla. The chips and queso were good, although that's hard to mess up. House margaritas were pretty solid as well.

I would come again if it was a nice day out, I wanted to sit outside and drink some margs and eat some chips. But if the word taco is in the name of your restaurant, I'd hope you do tacos well, and white duck does not. For $5 a taco, you're better off going to Taco Bell and not being...