Cilantro Tacos (Tioga) — Restaurant in Newberry

Took a break for lunch and had tacos with My Fellow Entrepreneurs at Cilantro Tacos. My friend Joe recommended it as it was near his office and he eats there regularly. I admit that I was a little bit worried before going there. Eating Mexican food in Florida?? I was concerned that there might be too much Cuba in Florida and not enough Mexico. I was pleasantly surprised! The tacos are very good here, and I would definitely eat here again. The seasoning of the meat was a little more Americanized and less Mexican in style but It was delicious. I sampled four different tacos there, and they were all really good. All the meat, seasoned very well was very tender, and very juicy. I tried the chicken taco, the Al Pastor taco, the Barbacoa taco, and a Carnitas taco. Tacos had very generous amount of meat And typical toppings, diced onion, and cilantro. Slightly sweet and slightly spicy roasted tomatillo salsa was an excellent compliment to the tacos. They also have a large bottle of Valentina for those of you who love it as a taco sauce. Another really nice surprise was the Aguas frescas. They were fresh and homemade and very tasty. I had a mix of mango and strawberry and loved it.

Some of my favorite items are: Al Pastor taco ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Half & half mix-mango & strawberry agua fresca ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Chicken taco ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Barbacoa taco ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Carnitas taco ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My guide on how I use the 5 star system: ⭐️ = Not good ⭐️⭐️ = Not terrible, but would not get again ⭐️⭐️⭐️ = Solid, but I’d try something else before this again ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ = Really liked it! You should try this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ = Loved it! Must try I’ll make adjustments to my ratings after subsequent visits. If you see a .3 or .7 it means: .3 = Wasn’t as good the 2nd or last time I tried it .7 = This was better the 2nd or last...

Alachua Location --- I've heard people rave about how awesome the food is here. For context, my original order was chips & queso blanco, a carnitas California burrito with everything but the jalapenos or raw onions, and an order of the elote corn. Since this was my first time here, I basically wanted to sample a few different things and take stuff home if left over.

I ordered online, and they had a whole hour to prepare my food. In fact, I arrived at 12:06pm instead of noon, so that was even a few more minutes. The girl at the side of the counter was very nice, and had an appropriate sense of urgency, but my order hadn't even been started. As they began working on it, she informed me that they're actually out of elote and did I want something else. Given how slammed they were, and since there was already so much food ordered by me, I said no thanks and got the refund instantly. She let me know it would be five more minutes.

The food came out, and at 12:23 I pulled in near work to eat. The first thing I did was open my queso. The containers they use seal up with the heat, so I carefully pried around bit by bit... then it exploded. It's cardboard with the waxy lining. I was wearing a good third of it, so I can at least attest to the fact it was hot. The burrito was a mushy mixture and spicier than anticipated, but I guess it was fine.

A star off for the wait, a star off for being out of an item (but a star on for prompt refund and good service), and a star off for dangerous exploding queso containers and mushy food.

It was overall okay, but I won't be a...

I like the food here, but the last two times, I have had experiences like Kiara wrote in her review. I always ask for no sour cream and no rice on my burrito and a month or so ago, it was smothered in sour cream. When I walked up to show the cashier, no apology, no recognition that he even remembered me saying no sour cream, but he said they'd make me a new one. I went again last Wednesday and asked for no sour cream and no rice for a to-go order a little before closing. Got home and it had lots of rice.

The burritos are also kind of cold or barely warm when I get them (even eating there in the restaurant). I used to order veggie burritos with lettuce all the time where we used to live and they were always hot, even with the lettuce added. My daughter told me she would order the same thing and saw that they would continue to keep the tortilla on the griddle while adding the beans, cheese and lettuce, then would wrap it up and just that extra time on the griddle kept it nice and hot. So I mentioned this to the cashier that last time when they added the sourcream, asking if they could keep the tortilla cooking so it would be hot and he told me they already did that. He wouldn't even suggest it to the cooks. And again, my burritos have been barely warm or cold.

I really do love the food here if they leave out what I can't eat and if I take it home and heat it up in the microwave, but unless you can give better attention to what people don't want and serve them hot, it's pretty frustating to pay for something that could be so...