Torchy's Tacos — Restaurant in Austin

Warning: Long Review. I love Torchy's. It's consistently excellent, but this location is not up to the Torchy's standard.

It's dirty. Tables are consistently covered in scraps, and there is grime all over the floor and windowpanes.

The separate, to-go pickup counter is still not being utilized. If you're picking up food, you're going to wait in line for a main register.

Speaking of the register line, this one of the slowest in town. I was there at 12:50 pm, Sunday, June 2nd to pick up a to-go order. The register line was out the door because only one of three registers was staffed - and the poor guy was clearly a trainee.

He had to ask his manager a question for how to input nearly every order he took. Consequently, I waited nearly 20 minutes to pick up my to-go order. Why would you think the weekend brunch rush is a good time to train a new cashier?

No music. It's kind of awkward... especially with all the frustrated customers.

The food is off. Protein portions are smaller, tortillas are not warm, cheese is not melted... all of this would be fine if the eggs were like other Torchy's locations. I'm used to that fluffy, almost omelette-like magic - but this place just serves regular scrambled eggs.

TL;DR This place has all the ingredients for success. Excellent interior design, smart layout, state of the art kitchen... but it falls short of the food and service from the Torchy's food truck in the trailer park.

We love Torchy's for the consistency. Most locations clearly follow the same set of best practices - and the food and service is excellent for it. The North Shore serves the Torchy's menu, but not the food.

To be clear, I don't fault the employees of this location. They're doing the best work they can. This location's problems are rooted in management.

Go to the locations at the Trailer Park, the Drag, or...

Horrible experience! First time dining at torchys, we were excited to finally taste the famous tacos. We ordered online to save time once we got to the restaurant. It was almost closing time so we wanted to be considerate of staff and get out fast. Big mistake!! We got there and the young man behind the counter ignored us completely as he leaned against the counter. The manager was busy refunding someone’s queso order and didn’t acknowledge us either. I waited a couple of minutes and still no one offered to take out order. I finally stated that we had an online order, they asked my name and stated it wasn’t ready. We checked back 3 times and still not ready. I asked if they could bring it to our table but apparently that was beyond their service because no one brought it out to us. We went back to check and sure enough our order had been sitting there. Sadly the food was about as good as the service. My fried chicken taco with green chile lettuce and pico de gallo had a smaller than chicken nugget piece of chicken, a few strands of shredded lettuce and a handful of shredded cheese. I took it back to the counter and explained that it didn’t have the ingredients as described to which the same young man stated “what do you want me to do, I didn’t make it. The kitchen is closed” the manager walked over and offered to make another one which I declined as the young man had stated the kitchen was closed and looking up at the people in the kitchen, I was doubtful the new taco would be any better. The manager refunded the taco without another word. And to top off our Torchy experience, when we tried to use the restroom the young man who hadn’t moved from leaning on the counter informed us it was closed and to just get out. Over $100 for bad service, horrible food, and tasteless drinks and we couldn’t even use the...

It was my first time visiting and Google Maps took me to the downtown location. It was about a 30min wait for two tacos from the time I placed my order. I got the Trailer Trash and the Baja Shrimp. I'm not going to say that it was worth the 30min wait, but it was darn close. That is the only reason they get a '4'. It would be a hands down '5' were it not for the wait. They weren't busy (maybe online orders) and there was only one person ahead of me and they had the same wait. So I'm not sure what took so long. But lets talk tacos.... The flavors for both tacos were astounding!! Fresh ingredients, seasoned to perfection, shrimp not overcooked. I enjoyed every bite. They tasted, in two words, like....MORE, PLEASE!! Despite the slow service, I shall return, and I'll try to have photos for the next review. This place is too good to miss out on. BTW...they are not your traditional taco by any means. Expand your horizons and try something new/different. I hear the one with 'MARMALADE' ain't half...