Guapo’s Taqueria & Charcoal Chicken — Restaurant in Herndon

Update (2025): Still no courtesy response from the restaurant. It’s clear they genuinely don’t care about customer feedback.

I don't usually write negative reviews, but today I decided not to remain silent about an uncomfortable situation. I have been a customer of Guapos Herndon for approximately 13 years. During this time, I have spent hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on lunches and meals. Due to the great flavor that characterizes Guapos and the pleasant staff, I have brought most of my colleagues and friends to eat there on many occasions. I have gotten to know many of the employees, mostly waitresses, and have even become good friends with some of them. In recent years, many of these employees have stopped working at the company, each of them telling me that the main reason they left was the unprofessional behavior of the manager, Kathia, creating a toxic work environment.

In the summer of 2021, I saw Kathia yelling at one of the waitresses in the kitchen. When the waitress brought my food, visibly nervous, I mentioned to her that if she wanted, I could tell Kathia that her behavior was quite unprofessional, especially since there were many customers in the restaurant. I suggested that if she needed to reprimand someone, she should do it privately. The waitress asked me not to say anything for fear of retaliation. On my next visit to Guapos, I found out that the waitress had resigned.

As I mentioned, I am not one to leave negative reviews, and since I had never had any issues with Kathia, I never said anything because everyone has their good and bad days. Unfortunately, today, June 10, 2024, I personally experienced Kathia's unprofessionalism. I went for lunch, and as usual, I showed my military/government ID card. Kathia rudely told me that "that little card" didn't work for her. I asked why it bothered her, since the discount barely amounts to three dollars, and she began to argue with me in a very rude manner. I mentioned that I have been coming for over 13 years, and she said that it didn't matter. I find it in bad taste for someone who claims to be a manager to argue with a loyal customer of so many years. I proudly serve my nation, and it is disrespectful for her to belittle me when I show my credentials, as I have done for years. I hope that the owners of Guapos not only review the video of how Kathia interacted with me but also provide her with the proper training to be a restaurant manager.

Another example of the lack of training was during the summer of 2023, when an older lady tripped on the carpet and fell to the ground. Kathia froze, stood still, and didn't know how to react to the situation. It was the former assistant manager who attended to the lady. I am sure that many of Guapos' employees will see this review as a relief since they do not dare to speak up. As I mentioned, I hope the owners provide the training that Kathia so...

This 5 star rating is long overdue. Every time I've gone to a Guapos, it's always a good experience and food great. This time at this location was a great experience with great food hands down. I've visited before, one in Woodbridge, VA and another in Manassas, VA. The business as a whole is consistent. I ordered combo #3 which included beans, Spanish rice, beef crunchy taco, chicken enchilada and 1/4 chicken grilled. My friend ordered #6 I believe. It was the beef, chicken and cheese enchilada plate. Ok so back to me, I asked for white meat for my chicken choice because it's easy to mess up white meat and have it dry. Boy was I wrong but right to put them to the test. Chicken was not dry. In fact, super juicy and flavorful! Steaming right on the plate so you can tell it was freshly freshly hot 😋. Normally I don't care too much about rice or beans to review but man were they a great complement to the rest of the dish. Not mushy and vegetables in the rice was appreciated as well. Now for that beef taco 🌮. This next statement is going to be a big allegation here but that beef taco was EASILY top 5 best crunchy taco I've ever had in my life! What makes it the best?? Well, I'm glad you asked. See, I worked at a Mexican restaurant before in Texas and I know beef tacos. This shell was fresh, not stale. Lettuce and cheese mix was also fresher and the beef itself, again hot to the temperature. The juice of the beef didn't over power the shell as sometimes folk do beef tacos but don't drain enough of the grease leaving the taco greasy and crunchy shell mushy and soft. At Guapos, this is not the case! Perfection to the level of allowed grease and idk about you but I like a little moisture to my beef so it worked just fine. Once you add a little of the green sauce (not slasa verde) it's another little green sauce they give you and man I wish I knew the name of it. I'll ask when I go back 🤭. But this sauce has a spicy kick and let me tell you, drop that on your taco or chicken, you wouldn't want to leave this place. Now sadly, I didn't care too much for the chicken enchilada. 😢 That to me was not as good as the other things on the plate. It's packed with cheese on the top and green sauce, (this time, probably salsa verde) of course on a corn tortilla. Still good but the chicken itself was a little tough to chew, slightly dry. Crazy right! You would think if the white meat 1/4 chicken was good then the chicken enchilada would pass said same test but no. Even still, 5 stars to you guys because it's been multiple tries for me and enjoyed each one. Also, my friend and I ordered at 3:11pm ish and food was at our table by 3:15. No lie! I even said, Wow, rapido!! To the server ☺. She even came picked our plates up when we were done like 30 min later as my friend and I sat and talked. Look man, clearly I can just keep going on and on about this place. Please try them!!!!...

Guapos! I feel like at this point it’s a landmark in Herndon for how long it’s been there. I used to go more frequently up until 5 years ago when I had a bad experience with the food. I remember Guapos being packed every weekend and long waits for food. A few weeks ago rove closer to the restaurant to realized they had remodeled everything and had some new additions to their menu. I decided to give it a chance this time with my husband to see if things had got better. We went on a Sunday night and the place seemed somewhat busy but no where near as busy as I remembered it being. We decided to order ceviche, street tacos, chips and guac, and birria tacos. My husband had the ceviche and street tacos and said it tasted pretty good. I had the birria tacos… they were okay. I’ve had some better ones and you would think for the price they were they would have something special to them. They were really oily but again they didn’t taste horrible. I think the worse of it was the chips and guac. How can something so simple be messed up so easily. The chips tasted super old and stale. The oil they fried them in was probably days old. The guac had huge pieces of onions in it and had no seasonings such as lime or salt! I tried giving them another try after years of not returning and hoping the new menu would keep me coming back but unfortunately it never changed the quality of food. There are so many other local taco places. Maybe their chicken here is the way to go and maybe in the future I’ll have to...