Taco City — Restaurant in Cocoa Beach

Taco City 2955 S Atlantic Ave., Cocoa Beach, FL 32931

4 Stars

Just reading my random name generator caused my senses to vellicate just a bit as I was staying beachside for this meal. Blinking benignly up at me was the name of a restaurant that had been in the same location for over 40 years. At this point, Taco City has to be a local landmark and they must be doing something right. They also have an express counter at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, though that doesn't necessarily mean anything as servicemen and women like anything that isn't an MRE. As I was not, nor have I ever been in the Air Force (thank you to those that have been in any branch of our Armed Forces), I hooked a Louie just shy of the Cape and pulled into “civie” Taco City. I was greeted warmly upon entering and taken almost immediately to a table. Glancing at the menu, I noticed that it was much more diversified than your average Tex-Mex cantina.

My server soon approached, introduced himself as Sequoia and asked if I was ready to order. I noticed that Sequoia was also the manager or at least the manager on duty. I found him to be very outgoing and sagacious while unreservedly answering all my questions. You didn't think I just went in and ordered blindly, did you? Do you? If not, I would suggest you start. The most important being, is this dish assembled or made? I asked Sequoia for an order of Chings or Chongs and Dos Hard Tacos (chicken).

I sat back and soaked up the fantastic atmosphere of the place and quicker'n a cat on a hot tin roof, Sequoia returned with my food. If it tasted half as good as the aromas running ahead, I knew I was in for some decent chow. Snapping the prerequisite pictures, I grabbed my tools of epicurean destruction and commenced to “reviewing.”

First up was my order of Chings or Chongs. This looked so interesting on the menu that I had to order it, and I was not disappointed. Consisting of shredded chicken fried in a large flour tortilla served along with freshly shredded iceberg, hand chopped tomatoes, Mexican cheese and black olives this dish was as delicious as it was unique. The chicken was tender, juicy and full-flavored.

Turning my attention toward the Hard Tacos was not as easy as one might think, but I had a job to do. Grabbing a taco in my mitt, I took a good-sized bite and was delighted. This was also pleasant on the palate. Everything was fresh and one taste tells you it was made, not assembled in the kitchen. Well done, kitchen miens.

Is Taco City going to win a James Beard award? Absolutely not. However, they aren't aiming for that either. What they are aiming for is what they provide and that is a fun, interesting menu with a great deal of heterogeneity in the crowded Tex-Mex field. This place is well run and the food is above average.

The Big Boy says, “If you're looking for some Tex-Mex grub with a jovial atmosphere and decent food, try Taco City. I'm guessin' they will be here another 40 years.” If you are in or have been in the Air Force and have eaten at their Express cafe, please let me know what you...

Let me begin this review by stating that I am not a very picky person. In fact, amongst the people I generally eat with, I am usually satisfied the easiest. Given this, you can imagine how horrible the food is here for someone like me to assign a one star rating. Additionally, I've lived in southern California for over 10 years, giving me an additional perspective with which to compare the quality of this food. I'll start with a reasonable description of the dish I ordered to go, the "Bandito."

Upon arriving home and peeling back the foil from the circular aluminum dish, I was dismayed at what was suppose to be a burrito. Instead, I was given a tortilla that was obviously just hastily slapped over some poorly cooked ground beef. The tortilla was saturated with grease and because it was obviously wrapped with very little attention to detail, the beef had spilled out.

A burrito usually, in my experience, contains lettuce, tomatoes and other ingredients and most importantly, has SOME type of flavor to it. Because I was hungry and I had already paid for the meal, I decided to at least try it. The ground beef had absolutely no flavor. It tasted as if the ground beef was simply cooked and thrown on to a piece of tortilla. I ended up eating about a quarter of it and giving the rest to the dog who graciously accepted and devoured it. Taco Bell produces higher quality food at lower cost.

To add insult to injury, the price of this "burrito" was over 8 dollars. Before concluding, let me re-emphasize that I am not a food critic or critical of much of the food I eat. I do however, have a minimum standard. Taco City failed to meet that standard. Bottom line - do not eat here. You are better served by spending your money at ANY other mexican restaurant in the area to include Taco Bell. I'd recommend El Tucan, La Fiesta, or Tijuana Flats all of which at the very least offer edible food. If however, you are looking for an expensive meal for your dog, Taco City is the place you're...

So I felt obligated to write a review on our experience here just a few minutes ago. So my family and I walked in and we stood at the door for a few minutes and we had eye contact with a few of the staff because we were confused if we should have a seat or wait to be seated. After being there for about five minutes a family walked in as I was showing my two-year-old the fish in the fish tank who was confused as we were and I said “I’m not sure but we just sat down after a few minutes when no one came up” however as soon as I said that the gentleman who we now know is Dan asked them if they would like chips and salsa and invited them to sit down anywhere they wanted to. At this point my husband and I made eye contact with one another and I said to him “are you OK with what just happened or would you like to go” he said “I would like to go and spend my money elsewhere”. So I decided to go up and ask for the manager who’s name we now know is Dan why is it that we were not acknowledged when we walked into the door and he simply said sorry and I said sir we want to take our business elsewhere and leave because we feel like you guys for whatever reason did not greet us the same way you just greeted the family who came in after us. His reply was OK and sorry once more. The reason why we’re posting to tell our experience is because it would have been nice after I told him that it hurt our feelings for him to apologize and say how can I fix this. So maybe the manager and staff should be retrained on how to solve a problem that just keep a military family that just PCS here from walking back into you restaurant again, because how he handled this or didn’t handle this, we took or money down to...