el Taco Bar — Restaurant in Closter

Porciones pequeñas, falta de sabor, servicio lento y malo, un restaurante que pretende ser mexicano pero que realmente es solo el equivalente a una versión de McDonald's. Mediocre en el mejor de los casos.

I was in a party of seven, and we all ordered separately. The service was lackluster. They messed up my steak and shrimp burrito, and when I showed them it was missing after a 20-minute wait—no exaggeration—they gave me a burrito with no protein, which was almost impossible to screw up because I had checked in with them several times, politely.

After I ate a third of the burrito, I realized there was no protein. When I pointed it out, they said they would make it again, offering no apology or acknowledgment of the error.

I'm very dissatisfied. They were also rude to my party. They have an automated kiosk for ordering food that suggests high tips, despite there being no table service. I think they were upset that they didn't receive generous tips upfront through the kiosk.

I'm not sure if they deliberately messed up my burrito, but if you're particular about your food, I’d recommend avoiding this place. I don't understand how they received such high ratings.

Here’s a clearer picture of the situation:

The right time to apologize when someone waits 20 minutes for food, and somehow you manage to screw up a simple order, is before you even hand them the order! You had several chances to provide good customer service: 1) As you handed me my burrito 20 mins after I ordered it (AFTER my party had finished their food), OR 2) when I showed you the protein was missing from the order that was already 20 minutes late. That is the correct time to apologize. Not after you get a negative public review!

I was unimpressed by the portion sizes, and your self-service sauces had two of four dispensers empty.

The clerk "helping" had a passive-aggressive attitude was making faces to other customers and my party noticed the conceptual intentionally exaggerated faces.

Not charging me a second time for my correct order isn't making "amends"; it's the MINIMUM you could have done.

And you were sure to yell out to the entire store when a Snapple was overlooked, even though we had spent about $180 at your restaurant. You made a point to squeeze every dollar out of my party when your service and food were subpar at best.

The "store" which is what it is, (calling it a restaurant is insulting to the industry) mentions me by name in the reply when my account is anonymous to try to intimidate the deletion of the negative review, they do that to every customer that leaves a negative review. They are trying to bully the negative review off the internet. Good luck with that. That's how their score is so high, they gas-light the negative review off by skating the razors edge line of doxing the customer.

TL;DR:

1. Staff has attitude.

2. Self-service sauce bar is half full.

3. Food is late AND incorrect.

4. Everything is self-service.

5. Kiosk asks for 20% tip.

6. You bus your own tables.

7. Exceptionally long time to get your food.

8. If they make a mistake, you get an apology on the internet, when you should get one in person.

9. They imply they compensate for mistakes, when they only give you what you paid for an hour late and a...

Hard pass on this . Unfortunately nothing we ordered was flavorful. We left so disappointed. Came here hoping it would be somewhat similar to Los Tacos in NYC and it failed on all levels. We came specifically for the birria tacos with consome . The beef was so bland. The consome helped a little. But man it was so underwhelming. We went in at opening (11:30am) and they had put out days old Pico de gallo. You’d expect there to be fresh pico during opening hours.

The worst of the worst was the chicken Taquitos, omg we literally couldn’t force ourselves to eat it. The chicken was not shredded it was in one giant piece throughout the Taquito and was so so dry, and flavorless . We had one taquito and couldn’t finish the rest. So so bad.

We also ordered the loaded nachos w steak. I could count the tiny dry pieces of steak and it was under seasoned , a sad attempt at nachos. The Mexican street corn was actually quite good, the best thing I ate their but I wouldn’t go back because everything was dry and flavorless.

I really had high hopes for this place and I after trying I will never recommend It unless they actually SEASON their meats and work on making the meat more tender.

After having Los tacos and visiting authentic Mexican taquerias in the west this is a 2/5 . I hope they use this feedback to improve. They have all the tools to...

I updated my review following a reply from the owners and a second visit to the venue.

On my first visit, there were no menus next to the cashier. I ordered the rajas burrito. It arrived with an overwhelming amount of rice. According to the menu it's supposed to have corn and cream, I could count the corn kernels on one hand and did not notice any cream. The whole experience was dry and bland.

Following a reply from the venue I visited again. This time there were menus readily available and the cashier was much more helpful. I ordered the Baja fish burrito and made sure to ask for rice and beans. Once again the burrito had a lot of bland white rice, mouthfuls of it. There was a token amount of fish, I had to unroll the burrito to find it. There was very little slaw. Every ingredient required more seasoning, there was no trace of the Chipotle seasoning promised in the menu.

I love burritos and did my best to give the place a chance, but I don't see myself returning...