Velvet Taco — Restaurant in Charlotte

I always like to see a new business make it, especially a taco shop almost in our backyard, but the newest branch of the Velvet Taco chain needs attention to succeed IMO. We haven't been to other Velvet Taco locations. We dropped in for lunch yesterday and ordered a margarita, chips and queso blanco, a cauliflower taco, a Green Chile Pork taco and a Brisket taco. The queso was a little on the watery side but decent and had a great presentation with the swirls of sauces and cilantro garnish. Margarita claims to be fresh-squeezed but honestly tasted more like a bottled mix (maybe too much sugar?) Bigger problems: I can't remember ever declining to finish a taco, but we didn't finish any of the three, and we went there hungry. Sodium levels were sky-high: one shouldn't taste salt as the predominant flavor, but in all three tacos, salt hit the palate first, mid and last. Again maybe overwhelmed by salt, but I didn't really get much flavor of the brisket or pork; the former definitely had no smoke taste or smoke ring. The construction was poor: all three were overstuffed and dripping grease; the pork taco was over half rice - I'm not complaining about a lack of meat as the meat quantity was fine but the ratio was way off. It may just be first-week jitters, but the floor by the drink station seemed to be slick with grease, to the point of hazardous. As far as service while there, it was OK: honestly not better than at most Taco Bells. We're not inclined to try this place...

Came here for the first time to celebrate a friend’s birthday. I will not be going back. Tacos and queso were ok but the chips were soggy. My biggest issue though is watching how the staff used their gloved hands. I asked a staff member for replacement chips since the chips were so soggy. Prior to me getting her attention she had been using her cell phone with her gloves on. Then she used those same gloves to scoop up a serving of chips using her hands. When I questioned this she denied having been on her phone and then gave another tray of chips using utensils. Then another staff member kept coming up to the microphone to announce orders and she would grab the mic with her gloved hand and then go back to meal prep. A third staff kept placing her ungloved hand on top of her gloved hand, effectively contaminating her glove. As an RN I was so disturbed to see the lack of attention to sanitation and food prep guidelines. I try not to write bad reviews but there was little that was redemptive about this experience after seeing those things and it was hard to enjoy the meal.

Update: 12/5- I have emailed Velvet Taco twice as they requested after seeing my review but they have...

My husband and I often visit this branch despite living 40 minutes away. We still make it a point to come once a week to have our favorite tacos that Gary so sweetly serves us. Unfortunately, today was different. I was greeted(NOT) by a person named Vishan, who laughed at me when I ordered a Modelo, claiming the way I said it was funny and started preaching to me about how I was wrong. She even belittled me by refusing to serve my beer and asked Gary to do it instead. I couldn’t believe my ears and eyes at how she was straight-up being rude and rolling her eyes at me. She was in no way apologetic about her behavior and didn’t think it was rude at all to laugh at someone’s accent. FYI, the way I pronounced it was accurate, and she had it wrong. Although I wasn’t there to teach her the right way to speak English, use good grammar, or expand her vocabulary, I am a well-schooled English and arts major who works for one of the biggest book publishing companies. So, the joke’s on her. But her behavior was completely unacceptable! I was there to have a good time. We even brought our neighbors along for them to try out the tacos here. After the incident, we felt...