Say Taco Tequila Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Ocala

First Impressions | Sayulita Taqueria

After a photo shoot we went out to eat with friends and decided to try this place. It's been great weather to sit at their outdoor patio and I'm glad we did because it was really nice, the atmosphere was very calm and service was just as prompt.

For my drink order I had originally asked for the OG which is their classic margarita. I was excited when 1st got there because it looked delicious but then I took a sip of it and it was pure sour mix. I mean, like drinking straight lime juice kinda sour lol So when the server came back I let her know that's I didn't really like that drink and I actually asked for a different Margarita called the prickly pear. My friend ended up drinking the other one after the server brought more agave to sweeten it a bit. Anywho, the prickly pear one was delicious!

On to what we ordered for food. My husband and I ordered beef nachos, a Buffalo taco and a fresh catch taco to share. Our friends got steak nachos, a quesadilla and a shrimp taco to share also.

My taco was a decent piece of battered fish with A LOT of red slaw on top a small piece of of avocado on the side and two little 1/8 pieces of lime (literally tiny triangles). Aesthetically, it didn't look appealing so I didn't even really take a picture of it because all you can primarily see was a taco with a handful of red slaw sitting on top you couldn't even see the fish. I will say that the fish tasted fresh and so did the actual batter. But for a $4.50 "craft taco" I'm expecting both aesthetics and practicality when it comes to my dish in regards to looks and balance of whatever you have inside of the flour tortilla. It tasted good overall, though so I'll give that.

They ended up giving my husband the shrimp taco and our friend the Buffalo taco by mistake so I couldn't tell you what the Buffalo taco tasted like but according to our friend it was very good however my husband did say the shrimp taco was delicious and that is what I Posted today as our taco picture. Aesthetically much more appealing.

The beef nachos were really good I would say it definitely can have more ground beef it had more black beans than anything but it was over all tasty. Certainly not the best nachos I've ve eaten but it was good.

Our friends enjoyed their quesadilla and steak nachos. Steak should be our next go to lol not ground beef. (Pictured are the steak nachos)

I guess I should say that this was Sunday evening when we went around 6 o'clock. I don't think that the time should hinder a restaurant's kitchen to serve quality dishes consistently but if that has anything to do with it then, there's that fact.

Can I justify the prices of the tacos for their taste and looks? Absolutely not. I get much better tacos at La Hacienda for a fraction of the price and they don't only look better but they taste better. The nachos are a large portion enough for 2 or 3 people and the prices for the nachos are not crazy but I also feel that they are skimping out on the meat which is the main point of getting beef nachos. Had I just wanted cheese nachos I would have just ordered regular ol' nachos.

All in all I would say it was a pretty average experience. For my 1st impression I can't say that I am sold on their food but I am always willing to give a restaurant a...

I hate to trash a place so harshly in our beautiful downtown district but I could not be less happy with this change in ownership.

My opinion: Horrifying that they changed our favorite authentic taco shop with character, great service and great food into what it is today. We came here multiple days a week for lunch and sourced food from here for our businesses events once a month but will not be coming here again. I'm devastated. The service was bad, the food was bad, and the atmosphere is cold. It's like a taco themed sports bar instead of an actually good Mexican place downtown (the cantina is basically the same thing).

The actual facts of my experience: I went in to order lunch for myself and my employees. It's overwhelming, there's no flow, and I don't really know where to go. I just stand at the door (because there's no host stand or sign saying to seat yourself) for probably about 2-3 minutes before I see a single employee. When I do see someone, she runs past me (there are only 3 tables with people at them in the restaurant) and I was able to catch her to say "where can I order some food?" And she says "anywhere!" then runs to the back. I figure it's easier to leave and call the restaurant because she's out of sight now. The phone rang forever (before the new ownership, it never went past 2-3 rings), the lady quickly took my order then hung up before I could ask how long til I can pick up, how much it was, etc. Fast forward to picking up, I sat and the bar and waited for well over 5 minutes and just watched employee run to and from the back never stopping to look at the bar/the customers much less great anyone. I asked for a shot of tequila (bc this whole experience was stressing me out) and just rang up the well tequila and never even asked what kind I wanted. When I ordered José Cuervo, she couldn't even find the bottle behind the bar. I tried to make friendly conversation to make light of the situation but she would just talk over me. When I finally got a chance to bring the food back to my business, I realized that I never got a receipt, the food was cold, there was barely any meat in the quesadillas even on the ones where we asked for extra meat, and it was incredibly salty. Needless to say, unfortunately we won't be coming here again. I have ALWAYS openly bragged about Sayulita Taqueria to everyone I know but I will now try my best to steer people away...

I came here with my husband and my friend. We are from Orlando and had never eaten here. We tried to go to another restaurant first but when we walked in it was completely packed with people in a small area and we did not feel comfortable even staying in there long enough to order food because of covid. So we looked for other nearby restaurants and found this one and it looked good. We decided to call and place to go orders that we would pick up and then try to find a place outside and away from people to eat. When we got there we found that it wasn't crowded at all and on top of that they had a nice outdoor area to eat at. We were happy to learn this as we felt comfortable enough eating outside. However, we all needed to use the restroom and while in the restroom I could overhear the employees talking about our orders and them saying that we ordered to go but then decided to eat outside and the other employee said something like "of course they did" in an annoyed tone. I immediately felt awkward and like I had caused a problem. If I had known ahead of time that they had outdoor seating I would have just ordered normally but being from out of town and unfamiliar with places around here I just didn't know. I have been very nervous about spending too much time indoors in public because of the virus. Also since we had decided to eat there I planned to order a margarita but after hearing them talk about us I decided not to as I felt like they would be upset about having to deal with yet another order from us. I told my husband and friend about it when I got to the table and we ate quickly and left. The food was fine and the churros were really good but I probably won't be back here as I felt unwelcome and like a nuisance. I apologize to the staff for whatever inconvenience we caused, we really did not mean to cause a problem...