Soccer Taco — Restaurant in Knoxville

So, I was at this establishment last night with a large party. Brenda was our server. I asked for a strawberry and mango frozen margarita with a sugar rim (monster size) and a water. Ten minutes later, she tried to hand me a small, regular margarita on the rocks with salt. I kindly say,” no, I ordered XYZ”. She replies “our strawberry is out”. I said, “ok great to know now... I will just have a mango frozen monster margarita with sugar”. She then replies that the “frozen margaritas” are out. Meanwhile my friend two spots down is sipping a jumbo mango frozen margarita. So, whatever. I take a regular margarita and let it go. This is then followed by us asking three times for waters, 5 out of 11 people’s orders being COMPLETELY WRONG, nothing being bussed from the table, and her final 5 Star moment was when she gives my friend a $16 bill which is correct, and somehow ends up swiping her card for $44 bill. So, finally, we had enough. I tried to speak calmly with the manager and he ignored me. He then decided to blame her poor service on “only having four servers”. I replied, “is that the customers problem or a management issue?” I then said, “maybe she is new, or needs more training, or there is too much of a language barrier that she cannot give sufficient service.” (Mind you, I work in the service industry... as a bartender, manager, server, hostess, for years. And, I graduated with a hospitality management degree from UTK). He proceeded to start raising his voice and telling me to leave. Instead of talking to us and figuring out what the issue was. I will never give Market Square Soccer Taco a dime of my money after such a...

I ordered the fish tacos for dinner. I have never had fish tacos with the fish all chopped up. Usually its light and crispy and flavorful. Here , it was served with a mayonnaise sauce. No flavor at all. I asked for cilantro, salt and lime to help. I even left off the flavorless tortilla on the second one. For dessert I ordered the fried ice cream. This is the description on the menu: "Fried vanilla ice cream inside a cinnamon sugar dusted shell, topped with hot fudge and whipped cream." The reality is that the ice cream was not fried. It had some stale cereal stuck to it. Inedible. The shell did not have cinnamon and it was stale as well. The chocolate sauce was fine. They were out of whipped cream. ...at 6pm on a Friday night. Time to go shopping. It was served without a spoon. When requested I got a dinner "set up" with no spoon. Finally I was given a very large serving or soup spoon. Out of spoons as well? We sat on the patio which was nice, but were never visited by a manager which tells you the lack of care and management at this disappointing restaurant. Violinist right outside the patio played the same riff the entire time. Management really needs to control the food freshness, accuracy, availability of both food and service items.

My husband ordered the gold burrito. He said it was light and tasty. He enjoyed the flan for dessert. I have never seen such a small serving of flan in my life but he said it was fine which is why I'm giving two stars instead...

While my review of the Kingston Pike location is a 5 star, I was left less than impressed with the Market Square location in comparison. I placed my order over the phone and the guy who I talked to may not have understood, but I was having a hard time getting him to place my order for "3 hard shell beef tacos, with meat and cheese only". After about 10-15 mins on the phone trying to get my order placed he said it should be ready in about 10 or so minutes. I walked down there which took about 8 minutes and expected to wait a few more before receiving the food, however I waited another 20 mins. While the waiting for good food doesn't bother me, it does bother me to wait for a soggy mess and decently flavored food. While understandably they were busy, given the location, it does not excuse poor quality "foodmanship" I have given them a three on the basis of the lady behind the bar was friendly and apologetic for the wait, that at the time there was a large lunch crowd, and that the food was at least seasoned the way I know it from the other location. I will possibly try them again but I will be wary next time, call my order in an hour or so in advance, at some time other than peak lunch hour.

All in all not a bad place (not great either) to eat in, but be careful on the to-gos, and in my experience the Kingston Pike location is a much better overall experience and not but maybe 10-20 mins further...