Condado Tacos — Restaurant in Carmel

We used to really like this place and it was a part of our regular 4 restaurants that we would patronize, but I fear that will probably no longer be the case.

First, my wife and I eat a pescatarian diet. We loved their portobello mushroom option, which we would order via their Dutch Dragon taco offering as well as substitute for the chicken on their Skywalker nachos that we would order on each visit. Sadly, they stopped offering the mushrooms over a year ago. We have tried their other meat-free options, such as the veggie chorizo (way-over-the-top too salty) and the tofu (too sweet for my wife) without success. We also tried the shrimp, but found it to be a poor value between the upcharge and on the nachos and how few they applied.

Second, like things everywhere these days, their prices have gone up and the portion sizes have gone down. We used to order 1 taco each and split the nachos and be stuffed. To be honest, the nachos were enough to fill us both. Now, the nachos might be a meal for 1 person.

Finally, we asked for extra black-beans on the Skywalker nachos on our most recent visit in place of the chicken only to find out when we got the bill that we were charged a couple of bucks for the black beans even though we didn't order the chicken or any other meat.

Bottom line, we no longer crave the menu items that they offer and find the value of our dining experience to be greatly decreased from what we used to appreciate. We had been interested to try this restaurant since reading about their opening in Broad Ripple, but never made it. They somewhat recently opened in Carmel (just west of Meijer), so it was more convenient to make the trek for a quick Saturday lunch.

We parked in a lot on the east side of the building, but the front of the restaurant is on the west side on Old Meridian. This is only significant because we had to walk through the restaurant from where we parked to the other side as they have a hostess stand to seat customers. Our hostess promptly seated, although they seemed busy and she warned that service could take a bit due to available workers. In spite of her warning, we would have never known as our service was prompt, frequent, and friendly as it seemed that the servers sort of tag-teamed our area.

Many of their tacos come with interesting combinations of soft and hard taco shells with other various flavors. They had some margarita / taco meal special going, but we weren't looking to drink at that time. I tried the Jackpot [$4 - bbq jackfruit, kale, onions, queso fresco, and avocado ranch] and Dutch Dragon [$4 - portobellos, tomatoes, slaw, jalapeño, corn salsa, and salsa verde]. The tacos are not overly small in spite of the flavor combinations (as I've found at other restaurants), so the 2 tacos were filling enough for my lunch and both tasted great. I really liked the mushroom flavor in the Dutch Dragon, but was shocked how much I liked the combination of items in the Jackpot. Would definitely consider ordering either taco again. My son ordered 3 tacos since he's a teenage boy: the Korean BBQ Pork [$4 - one of their house favorites], The Heater (steak) [$5.25 - which he liked very much], and Sweet Heat (brisket) [$5 - his favorite]. My wife tried Build Your Own Nachos [$8.50], which came out on a baking tray, to try something different from their menu and enjoyed it as well. Learned in talking with our server that the Thai Chili Tofu is one of his favorites, so we're curious to try that as a protein next time.

Overall, convenient location, excellent service, and tasty food at reasonable prices. Definitely interested to return and sample more...

I still feel really hurt and upset by the poor treatment my mother, 3.5 year old daughter, and I received. I am only giving 1 star because I cannot give 0 😔

I am not a Karen. I am not high strung or picky and usually let myself assume that any poor treatment is because of someone having a bad day. My reviews are honest, and I tend not to post negative reviews.

Long story short: Didn't even get to try the food. Apparently, we inconvenienced the staff member that we were "helped" by and ended up having to leave. Went to Verde down the road.

On 07/05/2023 @ about 12:15 p.m., my mother, my 3.5 year old daughter, and I arrived at Condado for lunch. I picked this place based on the Google reviews.

We entered the restaurant and there was no one at the welocome station. Then a woman wearing (super tall, blonde, wearing denim shorts with a tattoo on her ankle) walked up to us with the cell phone in her ear and started grabbing menus. When I asked if we would be able to get an outside table, she (still on the cell phone) gestured as she walked to the outside patio. We follow her and walk past several shaded tables with a group of three sitting at one.

Mind you, it was a gorgeous day, but there was no cloud coverage, and the temperature was 95 °F in the shade and 104 °F in the sun. So, any seats in the sun would be very hot to sit on. So I asked her if she might have anything that was in the shaded area, and she barks back, saying, and I quote, "Yeah, that's why I am opening the umbrella." I was taken aback by the way she responded, as she went to a different table and opened an umbrella and then moved the seats and table under it. Regardless, the seats would be crazy hot, having been in the sun and without any shade all morning. So tell her that those will be too hot to sit in right away and ask if she doesn't have anything else.

What should have happened:

"Sorry, we don't have anything available outside at the moment, but you are welcome to sit indoors if you like?"

What instead happened:

"No, that's a different servers area, so there isn't anything else."

And her tone. Wow! As if she was saying take it or leave it.

So I said to her, "OK, thank you. We will just go. Have a nice day."

Like, why was she so rude? Was she having a bad day? Was she the server and wanted the table? It was as if we were inconveniencing her. The restaurant was not crazy packed, so it wasn't as if she was flustered and the only one available.

I felt so bad. My daughter started crying because she wanted tacos, and my mom thought it was because we were hispanic. And that made me feel worse because we have never been treated poorly at any restaurant we have been to in Carmel. Since moving to Carmel in 2020, we have had nothing but great experiences.

I got back on Google maps and found the closest place with tacos, which was Verde. The reviews were great, and it was only 0.4 miles away. When we got there, we were greater with a smile, and our server, Jonathan, was amazing. The food hit the spot!

So to that woman who treated us poorly, you did us a favor because had you not, we would not have even...

I really want to give them a good review because their food is really good, but I have to say that the customer service has been outright terrible for me both times. The first time it looked like the hostess was annoyed at me requesting a different table in a different area of the restaurant because I did not wish to sit by the door near the cold. She walked away completely ignoring my request and after asking another girl that approached us, she kind of just told us to sit wherever we want but this seemed not to sit well with the other hostess. There were plenty of tables available in the area where we wanted to sit but somehow they did not want us to sit there, mind you were were only a party of two and I was actually requesting a smaller table. We had to pick up our own menus and kind of move ourselves, at wish point the hostess gave us an ugly look and rolled her eyes proceeding to walk away and chit chat about us?? With the other attendants. The girl look pretty young so I didn’t give it much thought, the waitress was attentive and I have no complaints about her. Because the food is so good I decided to give it another shot today, I was planning on coming in but just decided to order over the phone, after calling, a girl answer the phone and I asked to place an order, she immediately told me to either go online or place the order in person. My husband was actually on the way there but I wanted to place the order in advance so that he didn’t have to wait for the food. She did not give me the option to place my order over the phone, as I had requested, she was outright blowing me off as soon as she answered the phone. I specifically then asked her, can’t you take my order over the phone? And she then said with a broken voice “yeah” we just don’t like to do that because the order will be done really quick and then it’s gonna get cold” like seriously?? So placing the order over online is not gonna make the order be done quick too?And I guess they prefer people to wait for the food when carrying out rather than the food being ready? The whole thing did not make sense, then told her I’m not worried about that and my husband was on the way. I could tell she was annoyed also that she had to take my order. Overall, again, food is great, I haven’t been to another location but the customer service at least for me, in this location, sucked both times, I don’t know if they are hurting for people and hiring people with no experience or lazy, or they just lack supervision and/or proper training of customer service. I didn’t feel welcome at all either time and it’s really leaving a bad experience overall in my mind. Who knows if I...