Tacos El Carnal — Restaurant in Miami

The always busy and somewhat famous "Taqueria El Carnal" Mexican / taco restaurant on Calle Ocho (sometimes called "Carnal 2"), has closed. If you want your fix for the authentic but reasonably priced tacos and Mexican foods that location on 8th street used to offer, you need to come here to their "Carnal 3" location on Flagler.

Fundamentally, this place isn't much different in some ways to their now closed location on 8th street. The menu is exactly the same (in fact, the menu still shows their old address), many of the staff are the same, and their food truck is parked in the lot in back, just like at their old place. They also still offer the 3 squeeze bottles of sauce for the table, etc.

What has changed is that this restaurant serves inside at their indoor tables only. As of this visit, there is no outdoor seating or tables along the sidewalk as was the case at their 8th street location. This place isn't huge inside, but there are a number of tables and chairs along with stools at the bar along the back for seating. They also have a small stage in the corner and on the night we were here, they had a DJ spinning and also offered karaoke.

Pricing is still reasonable - We had an order of guacamole and chips, 2 sopes, 3 beef tacos, a michelada, a Modelo and a Jarritos soda. Total for everything came to just a little more than $35 before gratuity. Note that, as was the case with their "Carnal 2" location, this place accepts cash only, though there is an ATM on site (it's actually sitting up on the stage next to the DJ).

While the food here is still tasty and authentic, and the food alone (along with their very late night hours of operation - open until 5 a.m. some nights) is enough to cause me to return here, there are a few critical points: On the night we were here, they had all the overhead fluorescent lights on at full. It was nearly 2 a.m. when we arrived and it was REALLY bright inside. Also, they had a DJ spinning and had karaoke. The music was so loud and screechy that we had to yell across the table to each other in order to talk as we ate, and at one point a woman who was seated up toward the small stage stood up, covered her ears while shaking her head and she moved back to the bar area. Turn the music down to an acceptable level and kill some of the bright overhead lights and this place would be so much better than it...

The food was very good. I ordered a variety of different Tacos to try out. I will speak on them as I felt they tasted. The tacos al pastor or my favorite by far, they were amazingly flavored and that sweet little bit of Pineapple made all the difference in this flavor. Next I'll speak on the carne asada tacos, they were not too bad but they were also not amazing. They seemed to be a little bit dry as far as the meat goes when I expected more of a juicy flavored meat. I also tried the fish taco and it was very good, they included a sliced avocado which made the creamy flavor that you're used to expecting from a fish taco pop all that much more. The chorizo tacos were also very good, I have had chorizo tacos and other restaurants and they are always extra greasy. The chorizo tacos here were very well cooked not overly greasy and had a nice spicy flavor. The chicken taco was very good as well and not a bad alternative for people that don't eat red meat. The last and final Taco was outside of what I would normally order, so I personally did not like it just because of the way that the texture was. The chicharron Taco is the one that I am referring to. And for the last two items of my review the horchata was amazing, it was very well made and didn't taste overly powdered like some other restaurants serve it. The guacamole style salsa that they gave me was delicious. The only downside of this restaurant is the fact that they are a cash-only establishment and they have very limited parking. Many people don't carry cash in this day and age, they do offer an ATM machine with a $2 fee, I would recommend you stop by your bank to avoid the $2 fee plus whatever fee your bank would normally charge. And if you have any questions regarding the cash app accepted sign that I took a picture of, that is if you wish to tip the server with cash app they would accept it. The cash up is not accepted as payment at...

I'm a native Spanish speaker, and so I placed my order in spanish: One strawberry margarita and one order of tostadas al pastor. Instead of telling me they were out of strawberry margarita's, I received a lemon margarita. Which I immediately let our waitress, whom we, (a party of two), only saw one time.. That was not my order and she said they were out of strawberry margaritas but would be happy to exchange it for something I would like if I didn't like it. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I didn't like it. I asked for the ~ $4.50 horchata "mexican juice" in lieu of the drink I did not order and received it. All the meanwhile, other employee's yelled in the background in Spanish, thinking I could not speak or understand Spanish, comments like: "Well, does she not like lemonade? Why did she order it then?" My partner and I ate our food and not a single person stopped by to offer another beer, drink, check in on dessert, or of we wanted our check, nothing. N o t a t h i n g. We had to ask two different people for our check and were told that the $8.50 lemon margarita would be taken off and replaced with the ~$4.50 horchata. That was not the case and when we asked about the charge being there, the manager said "No hay nada que puedo hacer.", which translates to, "There is nothing I can do." Which is a total contrast to what was ensured earlier. Everyone was avoidant, rude, and unprofessional, they lacked hospitality and tact. I didn't expect luxury service but the basics of restaurant business as a minimum and the charge that two people said would be taken off. Especially since there were no language barriers.

P.S as a former bar and restaurant manager who bartended every day, the basic margarita wasn't tasty. Even if I liked sour, I wouldn't have...