bartaco — Restaurant in Madison

This was by far the best overall experience we have ever had in all of Madison, Wi from start to finish... Yes it was that great that I wanted to share this for everyone to read. This place has an amazing vibe to it right when you walk in the door. The staff were all super friendly and smiling! The place was clean and the food was absolutely amazing. Jerrand our waiter and Liz the manager were awesome to talk too, informative of menu selections and very helpful! They went above and beyond to make sure we were having a great time. This was our first time visiting here. My wife and I had looked it up on yelp and trip advisor looking for somewhere new to try for my special birthday lunch. Based on the reviews and photos I am so happy we stopped. You just gained new frequent customers. We will also be telling our friends and family about our wonderful experience. Here is the info about the food! They have a wonderful craft beer and mix drinks menu to choose from. As far as food goes we tried the grilled corn(elotes) which were awesome! We tried the street corn fritters appitizer which were my personal favorite. Then we split 6 street tacos so we could try several of the choices. They were all excellent, but my favorite was the glazed pork belly cooked to perfection. My wife really liked the roasted duck and the carne asada! All of them were seasoned perfectly and cooked fresh to order. Then because everything was so good and fresh we decided we had to try a dessert. Everything was so good we could'nt leave without knowing. We choose the tres leches and the key lime pie.... oh my word this place is fire!!!! Tres Leches was the best. Liz and Jerrand thanks for an awesome birthday lunch.... Hats off to the entire wait staff and kitchen staff... Keep doing what your doing, everyone is about to start noticing you even more if this how this place is ran on a day to day! 100% Amazing.... Coming from a family that is in the industry, knows about customer service, customer relations, a family that considers themselves foodies, and knows a thing or two about what it takes.... You guys...

My fella and I had been talking about eating at Bartaco for months, but we always end up at Dumpling Haus when we are in that area. 07/08/19 we decided to finally try it.......should have just gone to the Dumpling Haus.

The menu is very vague with very little if any description of what the items consists of. We ordered 7 tacos total, 1 shrimp, 2 duck, 1 portabella mushroom and 4 carnitas. 3 of the tacos I asked for no onion. We also ordered the empanadas and street corn. Everything came at the same time, with all 7 tacos covered in onions. The tacos are served family style, it was difficult to tell what was what and when they were delivered, they were basically tossed on the table, the runner mumbled something and walked away. Our server came to follow up to see if we got everything. When we told him that all of the tacos were covered in onion he immediately offered to take them back and make new ones. Given the fact that they were served family style and my fella was starving from fasting all day no, no you are not taking them all, he needs to eat.

The manager stopped at the table to apologize and in about 7 minutes I had 3 new tacos without onions. The empanadas were the best part of the meal. The tacos were flavorless and unappealing. The carnitas were so salty they were barely edible. At this point, we just wanted to leave. Our server came and dropped off the bill. I sent him with my card and what he brought back was not our bill to the tune of $95 more than what ours was. My card was ran for the $121 charge vs the $31 charge that was ours. The manager stopped back and said he would fix it, came back and advised me I would not see any of this on my bank account. I checked my account before leaving and the $121 charge was there, checked again today, still there. I'm aware of how this works, that it takes time to credit back, but the fact remains I was told it would not reflect on my account and it shouldn't have been ran to begin with.

Needless to say, we should've gone to Dumpling Haus. Next time we will. We will not...

Just recently heard of, and sub-sequentially had to try this place. One look at the menu and I was all in! Great variety. Variety is the spice of life after all. We got a whole bunch of stuff to try with a family get-together so we could sample several items. The ceviche was very fresh and bright and then there is the bang. This stuff packs some heat but the fish is firm and fresh and despite the burn it is addictive. The street corn, Asian slaw and cucumber salad was all OK. The real stars are the tacos. There was not a bad one in the bunch. We got a large variety and some favorites were the fried avocado, the roasted duck, portabella and my personal favorite, the fried oyster. So good. I want more!! The other tacos were good including the ribeye, falafel, and carnitas of course. As for the tuna tatako, that was confusing as you had to order a 4 or 8 taco "kit" if I'm not mistaken. These were served with lettuce wraps instead of tortillas. Fresh take. Fish was fine, but the portion was off in my opinion. We ordered the 4 taco kit, but only got 4 small slices of fish and 2 lettuce wraps...? Anyway, the packaging was very well designed. Everything was well packaged and arrived in great shape. Can't wait to go back when it's a bit warmer. Looks like a great little funky joint to hang out at. You know you...