Tito Santana Taqueria — Restaurant in City of Beacon

I wanted to be a fan of this place. I gave it more than a fair few tries with takeout, or when friends suggested it, until I saw inside their kitchen. Go anywhere else for tacos, Tito Santana Taqueria is not the cheapest place for a meal in Beacon. Everything costs extra. It’s better than the stomachache you’ll get from food safety negligence. All other places in beacon that serve anything resembling Spanish or Mexican food is a better bet than this actually miles above. New owner doesn’t seem to care about the food, the quality is all over the place. He was at the counter was acting way too familiar with us and kinda fake. The other servers are also very different with service and attitude, looked like a lot of staff turnover recently. Most of them are nice and knowledgeable about the menu. This review really isn’t about the service though. Kitchen is disgusting, I accidentally walked in once and just glancing around it was a shitstorm. They were boiling their meat on the stove to reheat it! That explains why it’s all flavorless and chewy or over salted and lifeless. Extremely dirty hotbar too, floor was nasty. They have a fridge outside of their kitchen that was dirty. You can see all of the dirty dishes in the back when you go to the bathroom, full of old food and it looks and smells dirty, the floor in the back was caked in dirt a few times and the bathroom is a cesspool. I saw an employee open the hallway fridge and nothing inside had any sort of labeling or date, and it had a fish smell, and was visibly caked in old food, raw meat was on shelves above uncovered cooked food and it was dripping. Its a tourist spot because of the mural, but the walls are dirty and the floor has black grease in all the corners and the bottoms of the walls. My overall experience with the food at Tito Santana Taqueria comes to this: Tacos were soggy and gross, half of them were freezing cold while dining outside. All of the different chickens and the pork were dry and tasteless which is ironic since the tacos were floating in liquid. Brisket was chewy and smothered in too much barbecue sauce, the fish and the shrimp smelled extremely fishy which shouldn’t happen unless it’s old. Catfish was flavorless and slimy. Steak had a weird flavor and it was dry and thin. They changed the brand of vegan meat and didn’t tell my group which was a huge letdown. Chorizo was insanely salty. The rice in the bowls and burritos tastes like something that you’d throw in a microwave at home or in a college dorm. The toppings are lackluster, the white onion had been frozen at some point so the texture was weird, the guacamole is so inconsistent in taste and texture it’s scary. The only positive food experience was the cheese quesadilla, it was perfectly crispy and cheesy, and it’s sad because the chicken and the pork quesadillas had the same problem as the tacos. Chips were both over fried and uncooked, there were a bunch that were stuck together. The soups were okay. The salsa was okay. Crema is inconsistent, and I’ve gotten some where they’re obviously old and crusty. Salad greens were actually iceberg lettuce on one occasion. I got pico de gallo once that tasted like it was fermenting. Empanadas are fresh fried but don’t really taste it. A lot of the food made me feel bad afterwards, not in a “I just ate something unhealthy” way but in a “I just ate something that might have botulism” way. Definitely not fresh. They do have a nice selection of drinks and alcohol but are overpriced. Some of the drinks are available a few stores down for half the price. They used to have some desserts and salads in the case up front but no longer. Owner or whoever is responding to reviews is pulling the small business card but doesn’t seem to care about the food he is offering the community and the impression of the food Beacon has to offer it’s leaving on the...

Original review: Review reflects the service received, the employee I could see sweeping through the window gestured that they were closed, a full two hours early. I might be more forgiving if it wasn’t my first time visiting, I checked their social media and no update was posted there either. Unprofessional

EDIT 9/25/2020 To the arrogant and entitled owner, I have several questions: Do you even know what a Karen is? Do you operate a place of business, or is this a game to you? Do you honestly think that was a reasonable response to a mild criticism that spoke only in objective facts?

Your establishment had already closed a full two hours early when I walked up, not a few minutes, or even an hour. I'm working a 60 hour week and plan meals/errands based upon posted hours; you want to close early, fine, post to facebook or whatever. I checked! But rather than learn from it, you shame your customers (your reputation precedes you) and further highlight your flaws as an owner. Frankly it's baffling for anyone, let alone ownership, to attempt to troll their customers criticism with a one-liner strawman. Screwups happen, but you're just a jerk.

I worked in restaurants for over a decade, and frequently apologized for customers insecurities and genuine mistakes when appropriate. You need to take a look in the mirror and learn how to take criticism better. If nothing else, you owe it to your staff.

A personal pet peeve of mine was how you made fun of one customers criticism that her first experience was great but that the food got progressively worse. Priced like NYC food but with low quality presentation/taste, she threw out her meal at one point. You twisted her words to say, 'I guess when all you know is Taco Bell and dog food, it’s all you know.' Taco bell sucks, but her point was that you checked no boxes. At least Taco Bell is cheap, your food is apparently expensive AND terrible.

American tacos masquerading as authentic in order to riff on a trend that gained popularity across (most) of the country a couple decades ago is nothing new. I guess I can respect your moxie to try to attract hipsters who don't know any better - that's one thing, also capitalism - but on top of it all, being a bully with an affected bougie attitude towards people criticizing your food is laughable; I haven't eaten, but I already know that at best it'll be 'okay.' Authentic taqueria style doesn't exist in this area. The spots in Newburgh are only good in a relative sense, any food truck from the south could take you to the cleaners on your best day. Normally I try not to be mean, but thats just a fact. Usually fusion restaurants get by as a vehicle to serve drinks; maybe thats how you make ends meet.

Bad quality tortilla for a taco, the tortilla was hard to eat it was cold AF. 1 Response from the ownera year ago Thank you for your review. I’m sure you were dying to use the “AF” term. Our tortillas are locally sourced and is probably used in a majority of establishments that care about using an organic product. It’s the taste of freshness that you are tasting. Welcome to the real world. 😘

I liked how condescending you got there, you really hold your customers in contempt. Yes, I'll bet he was just dying for an excuse to use AF, isn't that the dream (huh?).... Locally sourced tortillas....WAIT, so you're saying it's too fresh for him to handle, but you DON'T ACTUALLY MAKE THEM IN HOUSE????.... interesting. Maybe you should overnight ship them from somewhere else, as noted MHV isn't exactly known for its sterling mexican cuisine.

I may edit this with more of your reviews, you're probably the only person who thinks (s)he's clever, so I hope you enjoy re-reading your...

Update: Ordered the same stuff got a good avocado but they forgot to substitute the rice with lettuce. But everything was good. Updated review: I ordered extra avocado, and they gave me a brown avocado. I only attached one photo, but the avocado was brown all the way throught so it wasn't just a bit of it reacting with air it was actually overripe and going bad.What the duck. Paid extra for that, and they literally scammed me out of the money. Horrible. I used to buy takeout here a lot, well, not anymore. Ruined my mood.

I really like the bowl with brisket a lot it's the best and a huge mix of flavors. I'm glad the cashier recommended me that bowl. The cashier was super nice, friendly, and patient, and she made sure to get my order correct and get the non spicy salsa. There's a lot of good in the bowl. The brisket tastes the best to any other supplement of meat, in my opinion. The beans are delicious. Everything else is very good mixed together the rice, guacamole, salsa, corn, Pico, cheese, and brisket. I also later ordered another bowl with Kale and Sweet potato and added a bunch of other things on top like avocados and lettuce and stake and it was a huge delicious bowl that I couldn't finish in one go but I was so glad to have left overs. 😋 I have also tried their nachos in the restaurant itself, and they were outstanding. Tacos were pretty good, too. But my favorite will always be the bowl. 🫶 The only concern would be the shrimp because it didn't taste well other than that everything is very good.Here's the picture of the bowl that I ordered. My little puppy Michael also likes the Brisket he is demanding some...