Rey de Oros Taqueria — Restaurant in Kansas City

My name is Amanda and I review nachos.

Order: Nachos with pollo (grilled), no jalapenos. Ordered to go.

Menu Description: Chips, jack & cheddar cheese, beans, jalapenos, cheese dip, your choice of meat, lettuce, tomato, cilantro, onion, sour cream, and jalapenos.

Choice of meat includes: Adovada (marinated pork), Asada (steak), Pollo (grilled or shredded chicken), Barbacoa (shredded beef), Lengua (beef tongue +$1.99), Pastor (pork and pineapple), Molida (ground beef), Cabeza (beef head), Tripitas (beef tripe +$1.99), Carnitas (shredded pork), Chorizo (pork sausage).

Style: Nacho pile.

Initial impressions: Large portion, a whole lotta lettuce (see photo).

Flavor: Chicken was tasty, grilled strips, all bite size narrow slices, presumably grilled after they were sliced. Cheese dip is savory and rich. The lettuce, tomato & cilantro lends requisite freshness for balance.

Spice: Zero spice by default. Add back in the jalapenos, or explore their extensive hot sauce buffet to heat it up.

Texture: Chips were light & crisp, yet somehow still managed to hold up to the toppings. Beans contribute a lot to texture, and there weren't enough of these.

How to achieve the perfect bite: In the dead-center, there is a perfect intermingling of cheese dip and pinto beans that deliciously saturated the chips. Combine a dry chip from the edge to create an edible scoop. Perfect flavor/texture combo.

Portion Size: Plenty to split in a group, but the best flavor is situated in the center of the nacho pile, so if you're having it as a meal I'd say it's best for 1, with leftover chips at the end.

tl;dr: Hold the lettuce, extra beans....

BEWARE: There are two restaurants within a block of each other that have very similar names. One of them is apparently quite good. That one is called Dos de Oros. THIS ONE is called Taqueria Dos de Oros.

Regarding this establishment, 5 star reviews are puzzling. I wonder how many of them are people who visited Dos de Oros and accidentally reviewed this place instead. Here is what our experience at THIS restaurant was like today.

Went here for early dinner (around 5:30 pm). The food is very, very bland. The portions are extremely small. I'm an average woman, and I would definitely have to order two full entrees to be full. (At most restaurants I can make two meals out of one entree.)

The woman who took our order was clearly in a very foul humor. The place was cramped and somewhat dirty... seems like it might not pass a health inspection. Our order of 3 simple taco entrees took OVER 30 MINUTES to be brought to us. There were 7 other people in the restaurant, for reference. Not 7 tables. 7 people.

The restroom is unisex and there is visible grime on the walls. All signage, ads for employment, flyers, etc on the walls are in Spanish... not Spanish and English... only Spanish. The only signage in English is the one saying to put your dishes in a certain place (and the menu, which obviously is just food and prices).

This place just isn't good on any level, as far as I could tell. If you've never been there, I pretty much guarantee you're going to be disappointed after reading the 5...

We had googled this place before going. It had 4.6 from nearly 1,600 entries , so we were excited. We arrived just before dinner rush.

You enter a cluttered, but acceptable, area to order. We ordered then move to find a table. Several were in need of a hot clean rag. It didn't appear busy so that was off putting.

We chose this restaurant because I wanted to try birria tacos, this place popped with good reviews... why not?

My taco dip stuff literally had a half inch layer of melted grease on top, before you hit broth and you couldn't mix it in. I was so sad. I cannot judge the flavor because it was my first time trying birria. My refried beans were brothy mushed beans, no salt, no aromatics, honestly it was like heart patient food. Rice was overcooked. The hibiscus tea was gross, I couldn't drink it and it wasn't cheap. Personally will not go back or recommend to anyone. None of us enjoyed our food, or the experience. Two of us felt guilty that it was so bad, we threw most of our food away.

I do not make light of saying "not nice" things about places because I know they work hard and I don't want to be mean to anybody. While we were dining they filled up with patrons. Nice crowd. Drive thru had decent business. We were baffled as to why?

Maybe we got the fill in grill person while the real guy was on break? My tea was in a cup that was pulled from a cooler, not freshly drawn. I don't know. It was just bad. The people seemed nice. Other people must...