The Taco Shack — Restaurant in New Smyrna Beach

There are many truly awesome places to eat in New Smyrna Beach, unfortunately, this is not one of them. I cannot argue the food is good but it takes more than just good food to make a restaurant special.

My husband and I stopped for lunch and arrived several minutes after their advertised opening time. They had yet to open and as we stood in the hot sun waiting I could see how painful it was for my husband to stand there, he is just recovering from total knee replacement. I told him to go sit down and I would put our order in. He went to sit in the furthest out seat in the shade. No sooner did he go to sit down then the owner came out yelling at him that they weren't open, had yet to clean the tables and he needed to move to a table further back. Really? Really? Couple things wrong with this picture, it was already past the posted opening time, my husband, who was so obviously in pain, being so publicly humiliated, and what, to me, will always make the food hard to swallow here, the total lack of empathy for another human being.

So yeah, the food is good but it takes more than that to make a restaurant special. And to the owners wife who said "God bless you" as we turned to leave, you might want to look up the definition of the word hypocrite.

After writing this I read quite a few reviews, both on Yelp, Tripadvisor and other sites that made note of the unpleasantness of the owners. This extends to the abuse of children (for spilling water, no less), and elderly, one person going so far as to suggest the need for anger management, so I guess we got off easy. No food is worth exposing yourself to the potential physical harm or...

A surprise awaits you! It looks like a quirky little place. An order window and an outside covered eating area (with fans). It's like a semi enclosed wood porch. There are booths, picnic tables and benches and a few chairs. It is handicap accessible. The food is brought to you after you order first at the window and take a seat. The food is really good!!!! They have kid's meals too. My son had the hotdog and fries. The dog was wrapped in a tortilla and fried quickly. Kid's meals come with a drink (we chose Capri Sun) and a dessert (looked like little butter or shortbread cookies) and his had crinkle fries. My daughter had the chicken nuggets and fries meal. They gobbled them up quickly. I had puffy(pvffy) tacos. They are deep fried crunchy shells. They're $2.50 each or 3/$6.50. I had 2 beef and a pork. They come with lettuce and tomato. They have sauce bottles. The mild had a bite and left my lips tingly. My sister said the hot (and she loves hot) had her lips and tongue tingling. The puffy tacos were great. We also tried the chips and salsa. Great chips and fresh salsa. My son and daughter kept snitching them from me, but there are plenty there. Drinks are bottled or canned (I had diet coke) and tea is in a refillable glass. They do have beer and wine. My sister tried the empanadas and ended up buying some to take home for her husband. I love this new discovery and plan on making it a stop whenever I'm in the area....

The best tacos in NSB area hands down. I know this isn't traditional mexican food, but there isn't a single mexican restaurant in NSB that comes close to the quality of food at Taco Shack.

I do not like the fish taco with the pineapple slaw - it needs salt and sweetness from the pineapple and for me, there is zero flavor even with all the "stuff" on it.

The empanadas with the cilantro sour cream are delicious. We also enjoy the shrimp tacos "mexican" style with just cilantro and onions. The beans and rice are great - red or black - however, when I want to put a sauce such as the cilantro sour cream on every thing, it means that the seasoning could be stepped up a little - little salt, little garlic, little pepper - IMHO.

I think everyone knows this is a good restaurant - so if you are on the fence about going here, just go.

This is 5 stars because of the competition from the local mexican restaurants is so poor. However, if in another town it would be a 4 out of 5 because of the lack of seasoning in some of the dishes.

The staff is awesome and super nice. The wait is overly long no matter the number of customers, and the parking lot is rubbish like every other place in NSB for...