Taco Joe's Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Highland

Delicious, homemade Hispanic food in a tiny building that needs some love. When we moved to Highland, we spent the first few weeks painting our newly-bought house and prepping for the move from Fontana. This have us the perfect opportunity to Doordash some local spots. Taco Joe's was one of those places. We ordered some nachos, tacos and burritos and we're really interested with how tasty it was. We vowed to go and have a meal there once everything opened back up from Covid, so that's what we did today. The place is small. It's a little run down on the outside and had that local spot charm to it. Knowing the food is good, we were excited to try some of their other options. We walked in, we were greeted and seated quickly. The menu is quite large with a lot of different options and they serve breakfast all day! We ended up ordering the queso fundido, the albondigas soup, a potato taco (my wife's favorite from our previous experience), the ceviche tostadas and a shrimp suizo burrito. Yes, a lot of food. Waitress was nice but seemed to be in a hurry as it looked like all the staff helped out everywhere doing anything they could to help. We know the food is good, but let's talk superlatives. I always remember when a place does something in particular perfectly and this place recieved one today. They have THE BEST homemade tortilla chips I have ever tasted. They came straight from the fryer to our table and were thin and crispy and perfect! No lie, we went through 3 bowls and took whatever we didn't eat home. Their salsa is solid, but the chips; they are the best I've ever had. Hopefully, they are consistent and are like this all the time. Now, the albondigas soup I had might have been the best thing I had today, but I was pretty impressed with all of it. The soup was flavorful and had delicious meatballs and veggies, the queso came with seasoned chorizo and jalapenos and was excellent with their corn tortillas. The ceviche tostadas were super fresh and honestly, were a massive amount of food. My burrito was heavy, but very tasty with fresh shrimp in it. We had to take a lot home, but we really liked everything we had. The food is fresh, seems to be homemade and is reasonably priced. The service was good even though we didn't get something we ordered, we still had multiple different people ask us how our food was and if we needed anything throughout. We saw what looked like a homemade taco salad bowl come out and it looked so good. With a big menu and everything we've had so far be super good, we'll be back. For me, this place is right on the line of being a 5 star place. I can't put my finger on why I didn't immediately think 5 stars, but I feel like there is just a little more that could've done with the service and restaurant itself to give off a cleaner and friendlier vibe. Don't get me wrong though, the food is crazy good and I will be back. Maybe I'm just a bowl of albondigas away from adding that 5th star. Best homemade tortilla chip award goes...

I will never come back. Lost our service. I will never recommend anyone else to come to this establishment. I did a phone order for myself and my coworkers. I spent over $130. The order was made wrong. It happens. we had 2 tacos and salad missing from our order. I called and let them know what we were missing and a Very Rude Man on the phone tells me "I'm lying", that they gave us all our food. He's states " I watched the cameras and we bagged all your food up". I told him I'm not sure what he seen on the cameras BUT I am missing 2 orders, he continues to tell me I'm lying. I then drive to taco joes to get a refund or to receive my 2 missing items, when I arrive the man is visibly upset and loud. he was then told by his employee that they DID FORGET to include my 2 orders , I was missing a Salad and Taco order. He was yelling at me and scared me with his loud voice. I couldn't believe I had spent well over $100 and this man is accusing me of stealing or wanting "free food". Why would he tell me he watched the cameras? I've never been accused to stealing, especially in a restaurant were we spend lots of money- often. I'm not sure what type of people frequent this establishment but myself and co workers will NOT be coming back. We have spent thousands of dollars at taco joes ( no exaggeration) and it will not happen again.

Thank you to the female employee who did apologize and let me know that was unacceptable behavior...

Great food, service once again was horrible. Sophie, very rude.... didn’t really understand. I just asked if horchata had free refills, she said no, then, I replied, “Okay, can I PLEASE get easy ice.” I say easy ice all the time when I order my drinks anywhere I go.

When we received our drinks, my friend asked for a straw. She literally threw the straws on the table. I looked at my friend to see if I saw what she saw and she was just as shocked.

Even after we paid for the food, I felt so uncomfortable and disrespected that I truly didn’t give a tip because the service just ruined our mood.

I recommend my friend to try it. That’s the reason why we went. Sadly service wasn’t great but the food was tasteful. I believe Sophie is the hostess because she seated us, ordered our drinks, then took our payment for our food.

Will not go again due to the horrible service not once but twice.

Note, I think carefully before I speak to servers or hostess. They way I ask things are in a respectful way. There are many people that do not how they speak to a server or hostess. I don’t understand why she was so upset but it was very unnecessary and unprofessional. I know forsure I wasn’t rude at all to make her act like that. If she got offended over the ice thing than I don’t know.... it was just sad. Just her whole demeanor was so negative since then. It felt very unpleasant...