City Tacos — Restaurant in Encinitas

edit/update: been here multiple times now. i've gotta say they have some of the best tacos in sd county. i've tried every one of them now, and all are delicious. salsas are amazing. still got those sticky tables outside though. really wish they'd do something about that. 😕

quite impressed with this place. had never been here before, driven past it many times...figured it was finally time to try it. between the 3 of us we had a total of 11 tacos of 6 different types. every one of them was fantastic. bigger than i was expecting, and the prices are very reasonable. the salsas are DELICIOUS, employees are very nice, patio seating is great. honestly this would have been a 5 star review, except for two things....neither was a huge deal, just a little annoying. one: the tables were sticky. not terrible, but noticeably sticky. tried two different tables, both were the same. secondly, and much more annoying than the sticky tables, were the kids. way too many obnoxious children yelling and running all over the patio and walkway, bumping into tables and chairs while people were eating. their parents completely ignoring the chaos. two of them riding little electric motorcycles up and down the walkway, down the stairs, running into things, etc. someone from the restaurant really should have come out to put a stop to that. you could see quite a few people were visibly annoyed. other than that, the meal was...

What a great concept of a taco shop. Creative and unusual tacos but the execution was awful. One of our tacos came out with a giant hair hanging out of it. At first I thought it was stringy cheese because the guy who delivered it would have clearly seen it. It touched his hand even. When I took it back and said there was a hair, there was no apology or even a reaction at all. The new taco came out cold and flavorless. And it kinda felt like they probably scraped it off the floor at that point because of how they were treating us. We didn’t even take 2 bites of any of the food before we realized this is one of those places that your stomach is going to be torn up after you leave. We threw our food in the trash and walked out. No “thanks for coming” or “how was your meal” Should we have said something to the cashier? Sure.. but we could tell nothing would have come from it. Also the bathrooms were discussing, a sure sign that nothing in the kitchen would be clean either.

We went next door to Goodonya and enjoyed great service, delicious quality food and a pleasant...

You are located in one of the best places in America to eat tacos. You better choose wisely. A wise choice, from someone who learned the hard way, is to try a place other than City Taco. Try a hole in the wall, try a spot that’s been established for a while and has been praised by the community.

Maybe we got the wrong things- but between the 3 of us, we tried a good portion of their tacos. None of us were impressed. The chicken was noticeably the same kind of chicken I used to handle working at a fast food restaurant- the kind that comes frozen in a bag. The grilled shrimp taco was good, but not good enough to win an extra star. The guacamole was not fresh, the salsas weren’t flavorful.

The service was also not anything to rave about. I don’t expect hugs and kisses when I walk into a restaurant, but we stood at the front for a while without anyone saying anything, ordered without any kind of warm welcome. I don’t know. I would have given 3 stars if the service picked up the slack for the food but it didn’t.

Go here for okay tacos. Go somewhere else for...