Lone Star Taqueria — Restaurant in Cottonwood Heights

THE FOOD: 5 STARS! It's a weekly addiction, seriously. I get the queso by the quart ($14) & a large bag of chips ($7) in addition to the meal I order, then I snack on the chips/queso throughout the week. The fish of the day is amazing, the portion size is large, & it's all made fresh to order.

That being said... DRIVE THROUGH/PARKING: The drive through line is ridiculously long & can take upwards of half an hour with only 5-7 cars ahead of you... often traffic backs up onto westbound Ft Union &/or the eastbound middle lane turning north into LST (lone star taqueria). Spaces to park to dine in/carry out are minimal, & it's an absolute nightmare trying to back out of a parking space & navigate around the vehicles in the drive-through line to exit the location, as cars are often (albeit legally) parked along the fence line along the north & against the business directly to the west. If you have a truck or SUV, don't even bother. Calling in for carry out order would be amazing... if it worked. We've tried many times, different days & times, to do this. Anything to avoid that hour commute/wait. It doesn't seem anything is ready (again, made to order, but when you are standing there is when the order is submitted).

I love the made to order, but with the volume they are servicing, they have GOT to start making batches of each meat, rather than, Heidi's ordered a fish, a shredded beef, & a chicken taco, I will start making each of those now! Dude. Just pull it out of a frying pan that's been on simmer & go. The volume means it will be fresh!

They do a great job sending employees out with a tablet to take orders when the drive through line gets long; however, that doesn't speed things up. I'd love for them to make 10 of each taco at a time (or whatever). Also, it's frustrating to not have prices for some of the things up front. The menu speaker is HORRIBLE & unclear.

I do love LST & will continue to eat there, but in my professional business opinion, they've got to address the economies of scale. There is so much potential for growth here! Would love to see it run...

We live a couple of miles away and have come here a lot since they opened. It hurts a bit to leave this review, but I appreciate honesty when trying out a new place, so here goes; on the “pro” side, the portions are on the big side, the price is reasonable, and the location to where we live is great. On the “con” side, the flavor is average, and the wait can be lengthy. Lone Star’s reputation is, in my opinion, inflated by the post-ski crowd. Its location is ideal for both cottonwood canyons, and before their reputation took off, Lone Star was amazing. However, they have sorely outgrown this location. The drive-through can stretch back to the Walgreens light, and finding parking to eat-in is almost nonexistent. Their kitchen is tiny, and the eat-in area is not much bigger. If you do decide to eat-in, be warned that the priority is on serving the drive-thru line. We ate in a couple of nights ago and waited for an hour for our food to be delivered. Mind you, there’s very little preparation that goes into making five tacos, yet we waited for an hour, and that is not uncommon. In that time, we counted on average 8-10 cars rolling through the drive three for each dining room order that went out. In terms of the food, the carnitas is not marinated or shredded. It is cubed and dry with very little flavor. The same is true for the carne asada. They are known for the jalapeño mayo that comes on their fish tacos which is very good. Overall, Lone Star is highly overrated. Salt lake has fantastic Mexican food throughout the valley, and Lone Star is unfortunately not one of them. Given the wait times, you can drive a little bit out of your way after skiing, get better tasting food, and net out pretty even in terms of time spent. What they should do is relocate to the old artic circle on Bengal for more space and better parking, bring back some taste to their food, and stop adding filler to their burritos. But seeing how packed this place always is, it’s unlikely...

This was our first time trying this taco place out. We did our research and saw they had a lot of reviews and were ranked one of the highest, and we were so excited to have a place so close to us that was going to have good tacos. When we first pulled up to the drive thru, we waited a few minutes before anyone said anything and we almost thought they were closed even though there were customers in the patio. When they finally answered, we could not understand the person taking the order because the speaker was so messed up. I just placed my order , which I had to repeat about 4 times and when she read it back to me it was incorrect and I had to decipher what she was saying from the terrible speaker. We finally went up to the window after a good 15 minute drive thru process and I was surprised to see a tip jar which I said ok that's fair if you want to give them a bit something extra. Then when I gave her my card they were asking for a tip as well on the pad. We took our food home, literally 5 min or less and after spending almost $40 to see 7 tacos and a churro. I will say the tacos were generously filled, but the filling was bland and dry. We tried to salvage with onions, cilantro and salsas, but even the salsa had no taste...the spicy was spicy though. We had 7 different types of tacos and sadly all were disappointing. There is little to no chance I...