Naco Taco — Restaurant in Cambridge

DINNER REVIEW

4 stars for food and patio, 2 stars for service

I had been to the Naco Taco food truck on Newbury street and was impressed with the portion sizes of the tacos and the amazing street corn so I had been wanting to try the restaurant because of the great patio (reminds me of Big Star Taco's patio in Chicago).

A friend and I arrive at 7:30 and wait 20 minutes to get seated on the patio (it's a beautiful, open patio with hanging lights above). Our first bout of poor service was when we were sitting next to the hostess stand and finally, she came up to us and said "are you X?" and we said yes and she said "I texted you 5 minutes ago. You need to come when we text you. Next time I am going to give up your table." My friend had assumed that since we were sitting right next to her, that she would just tell us the table was ready but that was a wrong assumption. It felt like she was scolding us. Didn't appreciate that but I tried to brush it off.

Unfortunately, our waiter wasn't any better. He didn't smile and awkwardly tried to rush us through our orders.

Fortunately, the food is great. We had the chips and salsa and Street corn off the cob to share. The salsa was definitely on the thinner side and had a unique flavor which was a nice change of pace from a chunky salsa (though I still think I prefer chunky). For myself, I ordered the Cabeza Ahogada torta and the fried shrimp taco. I would have been fine eating just the torta but I had to get a taco at a place called "Naco Taco".

The torta is not for the faint of heart. It comes soaking in this delicious broth and it's covered in pig's head, bacon, and avocado. It got to the point where I just ended up eating it with a fork and knife because the bread had soaked up so much broth. I should have paid more attention when ordering because I couldn't really eat it like a sandwich.

The fried shrimp taco was delicious as well with a spicy cole slaw.

I don't think I'll be back to the Naco Taco restaurant because of the service and there are other restaurants with great patios but I would definitely go back to the food truck if I was...

I'll start with the highlights. The apps were yummy. You'll see a ton of reviews saying how good the street corn with bacon and lobster is and they couldn't be more right!!!! It is so delicious and the perfect size for 2. This was the best thing we ate. Guac was good, but not spectacular. Lacking the acidic bite among other things but still solid. Then comes the tacos. We had shrimp, pibil, asada, chicken, fish, lamb tacos. In a nutshell MEDIOCRE!!! All the meats were underseasoned. Texture was great but that is only half the battle. Additionally, they had flavour profiles not specified in the menu. Like the chicken taco tasted of liquid smoke (which for me was overpowering and unnecessary). The beef taco was in some sauce. I did a triple take at the menu like what kind of asada is this?!?! The lamb taco was probably the most "as advertised" but was awkward as a taco and doesn't leave you wanting more. The shrimp taco was the best of all but they were heavy handed with the Mayo base they used for the sauce. All in all come for the street corn skip the taco.

Oh also ordered a spicy margarita....which came sans spice sigh it was good but lacking the heat.

Service was also lack luster however, the host was the most energetic and accomodating person I...

We were visiting Boston. We walked around and ended up in Cambridge and came across Naco Taco. A Mexican restaurant that looked very vibrant and flavorful from the outside. However, this is an embarrassment and disgrace to call it authentic Mexican food. I ordered the taco bowl with my protein option carne Al Pastor. We placed the order and not even five minutes later the waiter arrived with our food. The beans were lukewarm. The meat was less than lukewarm It was dry and rough. The meat texture was like they scraped the bottom of the pan, definitely not fresh. The rice was completely cold. It was all cluster together. Again, it was definitely not fresh rice. The salsa verde tasted more like a pesto sauce, to really tasty. Portions were really small too. Food taste was blend and tasteless. The Mexican flavors were just not there. This was just an overpriced $16 Taco bowl. We paid with debit card but asked the waitress to give us change. He gave us two $10 bills. We then asked to break $10. He claimed he didn’t have change that he would have to ask the bar people. That was what really pissed me off. In other words, the waiter forced us to leave a $10 tip. I was going to say something but my husband said: “That’s...