Taqueria La Esquinita — Restaurant in Olympia

I had a pretty weird experience here.

Note, the barbacoa tacos are served 'wet' quesabirria style, which I had never had before. I am now interested and will definitely try to find them somewhere else to compare. They were probably the best item we received, but definitely not what we were expecting. If you don't like melted cheese, definitely skip them as they're heated up tacos instead of the street taco style that all of their other tacos are served as.

I'm pretty sure they charged me an off-menu charge on my bill or they charge more than the menu reflects-and haven't updated their prices on their menu, because I paid about ~$4 more than what the menu items should have cost. I guess that's OK though, that would've been the tip, so I just didn't add a tip.

The food, generally, was not that great. I ordered 2 chorizo tacos, 2 barbacoa tacos, and a carne asada burrito. The meats were all OK to subpar. The barbacoa was the most edible, but generally everything was pretty salty and bland. The burrito would have been OK as well, but the rice was either undercooked or old because it was hard.

I've had worse, but I've also had way better, so I'll probably just continue to try Mexican restaurants and hope to find 1 fancy restaurant that's worth the expense, and 1 cheap restaurant that I can get more regularly for a quick meal. This restaurant currently unfortunately does not fit either category. And, it's too expensive for...

Update: We tried the late night food truck. Ninety five percent, gloggy rice, and tortilla, with about five percent, diced, hammered protein. No veggies, cheese, or hot sauce that I specifically asked for. In fact, I ordered extra sauce on the side, and the petulant merchant passed it off as being on the burritos. Forty dollars for three burritos. Scam. I feel violated. Avoid this sham of a business. You're not drunk enough, I promise. Order Taco Bell instead.

I don't understand all of the positive reviews. Mexican food is difficult to get wrong and this was strike two. The first time, I was passing by in the afternoon and dropped in. The server was clueless and the food was overpriced, misrepresented, and subpar.

My second, and last experience, I was staying nearby, ordered dinner, and after adding condiments to my order, the price doubled, and the tortillas didn't amount to half of the rice and beans. The flavors were surprisingly bland. It's difficult to mess up Mexican food. Really difficult. This place...

Visited the restaurant of this business and were pretty impressed with just how good their food and service is aside from their food truck! We had quite a large group with us but they were able to seat us all together in their bigger dining area. Our waiters/waitresses were great and prompt (loved how organized they were with tending to us since we had 12 people in our group).

My husband and I both ordered horchatas (which are refillable at no charge, so awesome!) and the all you can eat taco bar that was $16.99. The horchata was just sweet enough and so smooth. The taco bar offered Spanish rice, beans, fresh tortillas, 4 different types of meat, and lots of options for toppings. The carne asada I chose for my tacos were so tender and full of flavor. I'm a sucker for Spanish rice so having that tasted so good. The refried beans for some reason had a hint of sweetness to them which I didn't really care for, but otherwise everything else was great.

I'd love to go back again...