The Taco Stand — Restaurant in Oceanside

The Taco Stand is now open in South Oceanside, just off of S. Coast Highway and these are my first thoughts for my first experience here.

The Taco Stand is a well-known Mexican taco chain that is very popular in Southern California and even has branches as far as Miami Florida.

They have a very simplistic menu that primarily consists of tacos, burritos, and a few options of fries. They also have churros for dessert.

The Taco Stand is known for their housemade tortillas and chips. They also have a variety of 6 different salsas available at their toppings bar.

They have a small array of seating outside and some additional seating inside. Interior seating feels a little bit cramped.

But it's good that the small tables can seat 4 and each table has cupholders that hang off the side of the table-legs (saving you space for food).

Seeing as they just opened, I will try to be lenient with the service category. But even so, there was a point in time where there was a table that had been abandoned with a food tray on it. and I watched this table remain empty for an hour; the whole time there were other customers looking for seating.

I ended up throwing the food tray away and clearing it so that others could use it.

That observation being made, please note that there is no table service here. You go up to the counter and place your order and they will call your name over the speakers when your food is ready.

Their bathrooms were spotless clean and that's a great thing.

Another thing to note is that they DO NOT have an alcohol license, and thus, there only serve mineral water, bottled sodas, and have a drink fountain.

I ordered a grilled mahi-mahi fish and a spicy shrimp taco. Both came with their soft-shells that are made in-house and both were delicious. I'm glad that they didn't smother the proteins with a lot of toppings & the flavors were on-point.

I also asked another patron who is eating and they were enjoying their al Pastor taco as well.

Now comes the part that many may have a problem with and that is the pricing. For those people who are looking for a taco Tuesday deal, please know that there are no specials here. The average taco will run you $4 and a fish taco gets to be around $5 with tax and tip.

These are not discount tacos !! Between my two seafood tacos and a bottled soda, my order came up to $13 and then I added a tip, making my total around $15.

The size of the taco is reasonable, but the true testament will be the size of their burritos.

For what it is worth, this is a higher-quality Mexican taco chain. I have had comparable tacos at nearby smaller, local establishments. But this is a good spot if you're not in a rush and still don't really need to sit down &...

This Taco Stand stands out from all the others with the same name, but not in a good way. The location I'm used to going to in Encinitas will have a line wrapped around the block and still provide a higher quality meal in less time than my one experience at the new location in Oceanside demonstrated.

The service staff is friendly enough but seems to be completely disorganized and inefficient. My order for 6 tacos and an order of nachos was quoted to take between 15 and 20 minutes as it was a Sunday evening, and they were not by any means swamped. Somehow, however, I'm leaving with my bag of food 56 minutes later. When I got home to finally eat with my family, the tacos that were wrapped in a sort of tin foil (which should retain heat for longer) were all cold.

After 56 minutes of waiting, I somehow only got cold tacos and luke warm nachos. The food itself is probably no different than their other locations, so arguably should be good, but it's hard to tell when eaten cold. I ended up having to reheat all my food, but eventually gave up on and threw away the nachos as they became a soggy mess.

A manager who knows what he's doing needs to come in and observe the glaring inefficiencies. I see people on the register suddenly in the back with the dish washers, and the guy wrapping tacos up now on the grill... all the while, the Salsa Bar is not getting refilled or serviced at all. It seems like madness with no one doing their specific job, but rather everyone doing anything and everything, causing a less than streamlined process that results in a 15-20 minute food order taking an hour, accompanied by cold food.

I would definitely like to see them become more organized and figure their throughput dilemma out, as there seems to be no excuse for one location perfroming so well while this one lags behind, other than they have the wrong people working there. I look forward to seeing if they've figured out what works and what doesn't in a few months, as I see I'm not the only person in the reviews to have this experience. If not, however, I'll...

Visited the taco stand a few weeks ago, first off when I walked in, had that small town taco shop feel, familiar and great atmosphere. Went up to the cashier, friendly service and good value for my food, I ordered the fish tacos and carnitas. As I was waiting I saw behind the counter the whole operation, I saw tortillas being freshly made (literally a guy taking a corn tortilla ball, smashing it in a device and going straight too the grill. That’s fresh as it gets), and people at certain stations moving food like a conveyer line, the flow was fast, efficient and everyone had a smile and seemed focused on the task at hand. There was a man with some tattoos on his arm that jumped in to each different station, he seemed to be the manager or at least someone who everyone followed. He seemed to make sure each person was supported and kept up the flow smoothly. Definitely had great leadership for the team. When I got my food, the fish tacos came first, the tacos were hot, crispy fish pieces, the tortillas were hot and soft. Wonderful flavor, fish was not over cooked or dry, great crunch and moisture.(I find it difficult too find a place that can make fish tacos like that), plate came with two and when I finished my first one the carnitas came, same style on the tortillas hot and fresh, the carnitas came piping hot, had a bit of a full table, but before I had my second fish taco I tried the carnitas, was blown away on flavor and tenderness of the pork. Could only finish two tacos as these were huge, got a to-go box and left before it got busy. Huge applause to the new south o-side taco stand. Will...